Last July, I posted Forget Your Destination-Commercial Flying is the Real Trip. That post covers a few wild travel experiences🙃. Here is a short (less crazy) sequel:
Compromised passengers don’t always look sick: My friend is a well-dressed, mid-life physician who smiles often. His life uniform is a nice button down shirt, tucked into khaki pants and leather loafers. His appearance doesn’t scream “I’m nauseous!” but he is…flying regularly between Boston and New York for chemotherapy.
A couple good kicks to his seat can earn him an in-flight bathroom vomit.
How does a Mom let a child kick a seat for two hours, even after a health-compromised man politely requests a cease-fire 45 minutes into the flight?
Some folks have serious back problems…gastro issues…are perhaps recovering from a recent surgery…but still need to travel by air.
Lots of travelers have invisible but very real physical challenges and pain. Merely getting into a seat when you are healthy – after ticketing, luggage, and the always fun TSA lines – is an enormous, singular achievement.
Why do travelers behave like the plane is their living room? People forget they are not in their game space at home. Hitting the seat in front when scoring points in a game on an iPad – punching the seat in front when you lose the game…?
Poor Manners: I observed the behavior of a nicely-groomed 40-something man a few rows ahead of me during the final disembarking from the plane. As you can imagine, everyone was tired and anxious to rise from their two foot tiny seat where they were confined for three hours.
I suspect this guy a few rows up would act like a decent human on any given Tuesday at his local supermarket. The kind of person that holds the door for the elderly, picks up the rolling orange for the Mom with three kids…you get the idea.
As the plane connected to the terminal, he rose first, pulling his gigantic backpack from under the seat, swinging it up on his shoulder – nearly leveling the grandpa sitting in the aisle seat across from his. If grandpa didn’t see it coming and duck, it’s not an exaggeration that the crew would have absolutely needed their first-aid kit to bandage his wounds.
Grandpa was upset, as were the surrounding passengers who witnessed the carelessness. As people began shuffling out of the plane, the man remained firm, not permitting his row (including a grandma and grandpa) to step in front of him to join the exit aisle (standard etiquette when you disembark a plane). He knew the people around him were disgruntled and an apology wasn’t forthcoming. He stood stoic, silently declaring himself more important.
Like anything in life, air travel can bring out the worst or the best in people. I’m choosing the glass half-full expectation that the next round of flights (later tonight) will bring pleasant observations to write about. One can only hope.
Tales from a Mid-Lifer 
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