Air Travel by Jay

Perhaps I am putting too much negative spin on traveling by air, but flying to a distant place is only fun when the aircraft is doing what it is designed to do, "flying". Airport time is the least enjoyable aspect of travel and the most tiring.

There is a lot of dread associated with traveling to a foreign country, especially one with a significantly different culture such as Vietnam. We worry in all of our trips about missed connections,  diverted or delayed flights, fellow travelers with bad behavior (we've seen our share of this), long layovers, other disappointments that come up in every travel experience. We have learned from our extensive travel experience to "go with it" and "adjust" to the circumstances. The unique challenges that come up can be anticipated and managed thorough research, study and preparations and it is very evident when we have missed an important point. It can also be quite frustrating to watch the unprepared and inexperienced traveler finding their way through the embarkation and disembarkation process, particularly when they are so oblivious to the two to three hundred people that are waiting in line behind them.

We had an oft-repeated experience on this trip that was truly frustrating in the extreme. When the "pre-boarding" announcement was made we watched in horror as the queue formed and "excuses" for pre-boarding jammed up the system while we waited in the "Sky Priority" line and watched a good one hundred people board, or I should say, fill the jet way and aisles. I don't mean to be insensitive but on another trip we watched a guy pull a sling out of his attaché, put his arm in it and board with impunity.

The other boarding frustration that we witness too frequently is the patent disregard for number, configuration and size of "carry-on" luggage. We watch people trying to jam oversized luggage in the overhead bin, much to the detriment of other people trying to get to their seats and there is always one person that decides this would be a good time to extract something from the suitcase while further delaying the boarding.