Air travel observations of a former flight attendant

by Jamie Rhein on

“A gate agent stood on the counter and shouted: ‘Don’t ask us for help! We cannot help you!'” is one of the lines in Ann Hood’s recent and enlightening Op-Ed piece “Up, Up and Go Away” in the New York Times. Hood, now a novelist–her latest novel is Knitting Circle, was a flight attendant back in the day where there were meal choices and the idea that flying was special.

Hood’s essay of comparing and contrasting air travel then and now was prompted by a recent trip she took to Rhode Island where the plane didn’t get her there. It wasn’t exactly the airlines’ fault that she and a few other passengers rented a van in Charlotte, N.C. after they arrived at the airport from Miami for a connecting flight. Upon arrival at the Charlotte airport, they found out there wasn’t going to be a plane to Rhode Island for quite some time. Bad weather had created the snafu. People were facing days of waiting.

Along with looking back on how flying used to be in the good old days, Hood makes an interesting connection between the state of air travel then and now. In the 1970s, when she worked for TWA., there was a fuel crisis and flight attendants had mandatory unpaid furloughs. From what she writes, it seems as though courtesy towards passengers never wavered despite the economy.

From what I gather, Hood thinks that airlines are creating problems by not ensuring that passengers are treated well. In her mind, what good is it if passengers get off of an airplane feeling disgruntled? I have to say that I’ve generally been lucky when it comes to courtesy, although I did have Hood’s experience where the ticket counter folks were nonchalant in their treatment of stranded passengers. I haven’t flown that airlines since then.

There’s nothing worse when travel is not going well when the people who are supposed to help things run smoothly say, “We cannot help.”

At that point I wonder, who will? In Hood’s case, when you’re stranded at an airport, you help yourself.

(The photo by gas_station_sushi is of a TWA airplane in the 1960s.)

Want cheap fun? Hang out in an airport. What’s your pleasure?

by Jamie Rhein on

When I was a child I fell in love with art departments. My dad was an art education professor who would take me to work with him, set me up in an art room with loads of supplies, and leave me to create. The smells were heaven.

For Ethan Gilsdorf, airports first struck his fancy as a kid. He has George Carlin, one of my favorite comedians, to thank for that. Gilsdorf recalls hearing Carlin’s line, “You know, there’s a spy in the airport: Your job: find him” as the one that enticed him to see airports as places worthy of spending some time.

Gilsdorf wrote about his airport love in an essay in the New York Times. For him, layovers, are sheer pleasure. He also sees that airports are a haven for transition from one place into the unknown. When you land at an airport, there is familiarity of the scene where you can go to the toilet, get something to eat and find something to buy before you step out into the unknown. Here are some of the things Gilsdorf loves about his airport visits:

  • sitting in an airport bar watching a ball game
  • browsing magazine stands
  • people watching, even in the baggage claim area. The family reunions get him every time
  • looking at the airports version of art
  • airport architecture
  • listening to conversations

Here is something I love. Moving sidewalks. I never get tired of them.

Plugged In or Tuned Out in Amish Country

by Jamie Rhein on

Once, when I was about ten years old, my grandparents came to visit my family in State College, Pennsylvania where we lived. Afterwards, they brought my brother and me back to their house in Dayton, Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati. They were excited to take us on a side trip through Amish country on the way.

Since the oldest settlement of Amish in the United States is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a drive through there guarantees coming across horse drawn buggies, white farmhouses with laundry flapping on clotheslines, and fruit and vegetable stands that also sell homemade pies and jams. I was happy to drive through Amish country, but after awhile was more interested in reading my book than keeping my eye for another buggy much to my grandmother’s displeasure.

Now that I’m traveling with my own 14 year-old, I can somewhat relate to how my grandmother felt.

This My Turn Essay by Lisa Segleman in this week’s Newsweek magazine addresses the road trip with kids issue, something that I’ve also written about in earlier posts. In Segelman’s account, everyone in her family was plugged into their own electronic devices, thus did very little to interact with each other while they traveled from New Jersey to Florida. I understood her feelings about not having anyone to interact with since everyone was busy interacting with their gadgets, but also wondered why no one said, “Unplug.”

On the other hand, perhaps part of the pleasure of a road trip is the coziness of being in a vehicle with family members without arguements. Still, whenever we go on trips with my daughter, we do tell her to take off the earphones from time to time to visit with us. And sometimes, she hands me her headphones so I can listen to her favorite songs. The only time I do this is on a road trip and I always feel great when I’m plugged in.

Colin Thomas snapped this picture of Bethany and posted it on Flickr. His comment said, she said, “You’re so annoying.” Yep, sounds about right. I don’t think Bethany is an adolescent though, but the sentiments are the same.