The Lounge"...Where the parking lot of the Igloo meets the concourse of the Nassau County Coliseum and the bathroom line of the Skyreach..." - Wickedbsfan
That's very weird, because I've never had any problem. Must be traveling at the wrong time of day or something (even though I've gone through security at 8 AM / 2 PM / etc without any problem)
What makes the airport such an unpleasant place? Stores everywhere. Fast food joints. Sports bars, ESPN playing (in USA). No complaints here.
I enjoy the fast food as much as I can, considering there's a huge board labelled "Departures/Arrivals" right behind and a quarter of them are cancelled or delayed.
I am not relaxed until I watch the plane leave the ground. I am generally a very positive person, but I arrive at the airport with the expectation that they will **** up every step of the process, and it comes from experience.
The worst I've had were relatively mild. One was my first flight ever when I was about 6 to Dallas. Ears popped badly, which meant I was in pain for about an hour or so until we landed, which I remember being pretty unbearable at that age. That trip seemed to instill a fear of flying I had when I was younger... which influenced my second negative experience, which was my first experience with a pretty long flight (Switzerland back to Toronto, about 11 hours?) when I was 12 years old, afraid of flying, alone, and trying to deal with my stress as the landing was delayed. Very minor issues haha, but it was pretty traumatizing at the time...
The amount of business travel my dad's been on rival anyone and he says the worst he experienced was flying to Brazil and going through turbulence so bad that a woman who didn't have her seat belt on was thrown up our of her seat, hit her head, and died. So, apparently that was a fairly traumatic flight...
Quote:
Originally Posted by duckaroosky
My only issue is why do they start with the front rows and load people in from front to back? I understand 1st class going first but it'd move faster to go back to front for everyone else because you're not waiting for the guy in row 5 to get the **** our of the way after putting his oversized "carry-on" in the overhead bin.
What makes the airport such an unpleasant place? Stores everywhere. Fast food joints. Sports bars, ESPN playing (in USA). No complaints here.
It's a fair point, but to me it's why I hate traveling in general. All you're doing is waiting. It's hard to suppress that feeling that you are somewhere you ideally would not want to be.
That's very weird, because I've never had any problem. Must be traveling at the wrong time of day or something (even though I've gone through security at 8 AM / 2 PM / etc without any problem)
It comes down to personal experience. Obviously there have been days when nothing has gone wrong, but I can't bring myself to do ridiculous things like "enjoy" the airport because I am always afraid of what comes next.
Not in Ottawa. I work at the airport and both the restaurants you don't have to go through security for (Tim Horton's and Harvey's) have the same prices you would get anywhere else. I get the breakfast sandwich all the time for only $2.
They all have contracts with this company, can't remember name. Wingo or something. Have to pay for wireless. Now, the one in Panama City, you don't have to pay, but I never was able to connect successfully. The MWAA, the conglomerate dealing with DC area airports, had an ad when I was riding the Dulles shuttle about free wireless at Reagan and Dulles, so that's good. But other than that, yeah, airports charge for wireless
Is this something recent in the US? I remember a few years ago several airports had free wifi.
I remember one trip a few buddies of mine and I had a long wait so we busted out our laptops and played some age of empires-like game against each other while we waited. Pretty nerdy but it was a fun way to pass the time.
Got stung by a hornet in Portugal when I was like 12, got on the plane with the sting still stuck in my leg. I think we all know what happened next. I could literally see my pulse in my leg, it was horrible.
On one of my first flights (Columbus to San Diego) we had one of those sudden three to five second drops, and I grabbed the armrests and screamed like a little b*tch. People were turning around in their seats looking at me, my wife was facepalming, little kids were giggling, etc.
I think the longest I've had to wait to go through security was at LAX at about 7 AM and only then were we slowed down because one of the lanes had to be closed because a woman went into diabetic shock right at the metal detectors.
I agree that there are worse places to have to wait somewhere than the airport. People watching is always a good way to pass time. I also think people's opinions on having to wait somewhere depends on if they're one of those people that in general doesn't mind getting somewhere early. I'd rather be somewhere early than feel rushed. My sister is one of those people that, depending on the airport of course, if it says they're boarding at 1 pm, she's fine getting to the airport between 12:30-12:45. I'd rather not feel rushed going through the airport so for the same flight, I'd prefer to be there between 12-12:15.
Got examined by a drug-sniffing dog being handled by a dude holding a semi-automatic weapon.
Flying into certain parts of Peru can be... interesting.
Also was flying back to the States from Prague, and we had a layover in Germany (which we honestly thought was supposed to last 2.5 hours - we were wrong). The flight from Prague got in late and it turned out we had roughly 25 minutes to make it to the opposite side of the airport, get through international customs and board. Amazingly the airport somehow knew that there were people from the Prague flight due to board the flight to Chicago, and they actually sought all of us out while we were waiting in line for customs and rushed us through. My friend and I were the last people on the plane before they shut the door. And, of course, our luggage didn't make it.
It's the type of story that makes you smile. Real customer service actually exists in some places
About security lines, I haven't flown a ton but I've flown enough, and my last two flights leaving Montreal the security line was under 5 minutes. Last two flights back was about 10-15 minutes but there were a **** ton of people.
It's actually the line to get your boarding pass and all that **** that takes a while if you aren't early at least in my last experiences. Others were way too long ago so I don't fully remember
When I was 12 or so I was flying from Portland or Boston to DC. I wasn't plane sick but I had some sort of illness. Drank a ton of orange juice...bad idea. It ALL came out, puked on my poor brother, myself, and then filled two barf bags. Somehow, he didn't puke or punch me. I probably would have done both if the roles were reversed.
I had a hockey jersey on for some reason, so I could easily just take that off. That poor ******* just had a t-shirt and no carry on bag. Puked many times after that on the car ride home. My wonderful step father made me wash and wax the car as soon as we got home after I had to puke outside the window. Good times.
We had a flight from Miami (thru Atlanta) to Phoenix on Air Tran. Well our plane was delayed due to weather somewhere else (and all other flights to or near Phoenix were full) so we had to stay the night in the Atlanta airport. Airport was freezing and so many people were stuck there they ran out of blankets. Every few hours there was a flight that we could "possibly" get on, but because so many people were trying to do the same thing it never worked out.
After being in the Atlanta airport for 24 hours we finally decided to just leave and get a hotel and catch a flight the following day. One of the airport workers recommended we check out Underground Atlanta. Umm, no. We were the only white people there, and my hair was bleach blonde at the time. It was that feeling where you walk in, the music stops, and everyone just turns and stares at you. Lol. Felt like an outdoor flea market basically. Ended up crashing at a hotel, then having to pay for a flight to Vegas, staying there a night (which was obviously no problem), and ultimately making it back home three days later. Air Tran reimbursed us for nothing (because it was a weather issue). Long story short, I wouldn't recommend flying Air Tran.
When I was 12 or so I was flying from Portland or Boston to DC. I wasn't plane sick but I had some sort of illness. Drank a ton of orange juice...bad idea. It ALL came out, puked on my poor brother, myself, and then filled two barf bags. Somehow, he didn't puke or punch me. I probably would have done both if the roles were reversed.
I had a hockey jersey on for some reason, so I could easily just take that off. That poor ******* just had a t-shirt and no carry on bag. Puked many times after that on the car ride home. My wonderful step father made me wash and wax the car as soon as we got home after I had to puke outside the window. Good times.
Not in Ottawa. I work at the airport and both the restaurants you don't have to go through security for (Tim Horton's and Harvey's) have the same prices you would get anywhere else. I get the breakfast sandwich all the time for only $2.
i think a medium coffee was 2$
not overpriced, but its like 1.25$ in normal cases.
(and when you have to wait 5 hours. you drink a bunch of coffee)
I've landed and connected at philadelphia international airport dozens of times. And four times now they have managed to lose a checked bag. Twice with computer parts i couldnt carry on because i was told i had to check it, once with a computer monitor and once with my suits. I got the monitor back when i got loud about it at the lost and found office. Miraculously it went from status unknown to found after i threatened to call my lawyer.
American airlines in philly are shady mother****ers
I've had similar happen in Atlanta with a $12,000 horn when I was flying down there for an audition. I actually had to get my lawyer on the phone (thankfully it was a buddy of mine who had just graduated from Law School) to go off on them for them to "find it". And the asshats made sure to put a nice chunk into the case on their way to the desk with it.
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Originally Posted by Epsilon
Coming back from Europe and landing in Philadelphia International Airport is the worst experience I have ever endured. All the flights funnel into one massive customs/immigration clearance area and if you have the misfortune of not being a US citizen, you can expect the lines to move at the speed of continental drift. It was so bad that after about an hour all the US citizen lines had cleared out and every international line was still at least 20 people deep. They opened up the US counters to foreigners and it was an all-out sprint to get into the lines for them. I barely made my connecting flight to Portland after absolutely sprinting through the airport. Not to mention you had to go through another security checkpoint, after which I didn't even bother to stop and put my belt back on. I made it to my gate one minute before they shut the doors to the plane.
I, too, have had to do the EpsilonSprint™. For me it was in Toronto. Similar story the whole way through, just with different nationalities.
Was heading to a tournament in Chicago and the plane got delayed for 8 hours because of weather in ChiTown. On the way back home the plane was delayed for 10 hours because of the weather. O'Hare is a pretty awesome airport, me and my buddies just played hacky sack, ate lunch and dinner, and chilled. Good times
Was down in Disney for spring break like 4 years ago. The year we had the bad ice storm up here in the northeast. My sister and her family were flying into another airport and they were the last flight out of the airport. Our flight had been canceled earlier in the day so luckily we never had to get on the bus and go to the airport. Only problem was that we had obviously already checked out of our hotel, we were staying at Saratoga Springs. Parents have a Disney timeshare. You have to use points to stay there per night or play like $600. It was too many points to stay there so for the next three nights we hoped around and stayed at three different Disney hotels since we couldnt get booked on a flight for 3 days. I guess it was a good place to get stuck and wasnt too much of hassle besides the fact that we had to waste our points and move to a different hotel every night
We were getting to land at the airport in Myrtle Beach and to enter the landing zone you have to fly over the Atlantic ocean. I had the window seat in the smallest commercial airliner out there. As we were flying over the ocean the plane hits turbulence and the ****er drops 100 feet or so. The entire time I'm looking at the ocean thinking we're gonna crash. Thank god we didn't. The situation scared me so bad that I can't fly anymore along with the fact that I'm claustrophobic.
__________________ "I don't know what the stronger emotion would be, the joy of winning or the pain of losing"-Sidney Crosby.
Flying from Hawaii back to Vancouver 18 years ago or so, on the now-defunct Canadian Airlines.
On take-off, when the landing gear was being retracted, there was a loud thud that shook the plane.
When we got close to Vancouver, the pilot comes on the loudspeaker and says one of the wheels of the landing gear is malfunctioning, and we would have to undergo emergency procedures. Mass hysteria ensues, everyone crying. My dad was designated emergency exit helper for the emergency landing.
Plane circled Vancouver for about 1-2 hours to shed all of its fuel so there would be less to ignite. Time to land, everyone goes into brace-for-impact position.
Very abrupt brake/landing, but the landing gear was ok in the end, whatever back-up/failsafe they had ended up holding the landing gear in place.
Needless to say, everyone was scared ****less, and I've had a bit of a fear of flying ever since. Though not strong enough to ever prevent me from flying, I've probably taken more than 10 flights in the last year.
This is funny.
