The Travel Detective

Excess Baggage: Lack of Common Sense In Air Travel

Peter Greenberg Worldwide
Every time I fly, I’m reminded of the lack of common sense in air travel.  Here are two on my list this week.

#1
 
I don’t care how wonderful your flight is. When you land, what do you always hear? “Sorry folks, no gate’s available.” It’s not about the gate. It’s about the airline’s obsession with the jetways. I have two words for you that go back to the 1950’s: portable stairs. At every airport, there are penalty boxes behind every gate where planes can park. Park the planes, push up portable stairs, get the passengers off the plane, get the luggage off the plane, no misconnected passengers, and you even get a little exercise in the process.

 

#2

In the winter months, when the temperature drops, planes need to get de-iced. I get it. You get it.  We all want to be safe. So it’s not a question of whether they will de-ice the plane. It’s a question of where to do it. And most airlines do it at the gate. So you sit there while they splash all the chemicals on.  Then you push back from the gate. Then you stand in another line of planes that are waiting to take off. By the time you get to the front of that line, enough ice has accumulated. And so, you have to go back to the gate and get the plane de-iced again. This is ludicrous. Let’s have a car wash system. Put the de-icing system at the end of each runway, and have the planes go through there before takeoff. It saves time, energy, chemicals and stress.  

 

By Peter Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com

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