#10

Best Thing - Getting airside, the point of no return, which is always exciting no matter where you’re going.

Worst Thing - Security… well, I used to work in an airport, so I could tell some stories here! But they only apply to members of staff, so I’ll say… security.

#11

Best thing - Landing (I am terrified of flying), pre-flight booze no matter what time of the day it is being totally acceptable.

Worst thing - Taking off, when the plane tilts, generally everything about being in the air. Also being treated like cattle.

I flew with Lufthansa yesterday morning and for someone so used to Ryanair it was such a pleasant experience. No constant announcements! Free breakfast and drinks! The offer of a pillow for a 1 hour flight! I wish I could afford it all the time.

#12

See also: people who have carry-on items that only just fit into the overhead storage so that they spend an age trying to get them into/out of the storage whilst holding everyone else up

#13

Best thing: you’ll (probably) land somewhere you want to be. Often better than the alternatives.

Worst thing: the entire process of actually flying. Getting to the airport in time, checking in, security, generally being around a large group of people who are inexplicably FUCKING AWFUL at using an airport in every respect, being confined in a flying death tube with no escape and limited toilet facilities, passport control, baggage collection, getting from the airport to where you actually want to be. Then doing the whole fucking thing in reverse again soon.

4 Likes
#14

Best thing about flying: getting somewhere miles away in such a short period of time; getting to watch films and TV that is too rubbish to bother with normally.

Worst thing: when you hit turbulence and the plane shakes like hell; remembering all those descriptions of the dead from that Malaysia Air plane that was taken out by surface to air missile and thinking about how you’ll have a long way to fall in utter terror and maybe you’ll survive the impact long enough to die painfully on the ground.

#15

Does anyone else do that thing when they return from holiday where they mentally put themselves in the shoes of overseas visitors, and try and experience the UK from the point of view of a tourist?

I always get a little down thinking that the first impression of Britain is the grey, the rain, the residual smell of pre-smoking ban Gatwick airport, the cheap carpets and low ceilings, the temporary signs and hoardings around the train station, the delays to connections and lack of information combined with staff who only speak English.

Urgh.

Wed-nes-day morning thread
#16

that last bit is what would worry me too at times, I just hope I would pass out is the low air pressure very quickly…

#17

Sure, but lots of foreign airports are equally shit.

3 Likes
#18

This

Don’t think I’ve ever got out of an airport and thought “that was a good experience”

4 Likes
#19

Best:

  • having a few hours with no internet/phone signal and no one can expect you to do anything work-related
  • going somewhere nice
  • flying on a non-budget airline is a proper treat, especially when you get little personal TVs and food/booze brought to your seat

Worst:

  • security: the last three times I’ve flown I’ve had full-body patdowns plus my passport chip didn’t work in the electronic gate (starting to wonder whether it’s because I’m a bit foreign)
  • how long it all takes, especially without a car on either end
#20

I was thinking that when we came back from the USA last week. It was 29C and sunny when we left Fort Myers; it was 8C and raining when we arrived at Heathrow. Also, the Heathrow Express in grey daylight :confused:

#21

I watched Up in the Air the other day (George Clooney as a travelling business man thing), and it’s amazing how kind of glamorous is makes air travel still seem, but I realised the only way it works as portrayed is if you’re travelling alone, someone else has organised it all, it’s on someone else’s dime, and you get access to all the lounges and stuff.

2 Likes
#22

Sort of, it’s more that having been away somewhere nice, I get reminded that people have a different and nicer approach to things elsewhere and London seems very depressing.

#23

It’s not really London, but the buildings outside it that you have to go through to get there.

#24

Did fork out for a lounge once (on accounts of having a six hour layover in Abu Dhabi) and it was the tits, unlimited buffet etc, an all-too brief glimpse into the world of the 1%

#25

Heathrow Express? Practically a golden carriage compared to the Piccadilly Line. I once landed back at Heathrow after a red eye from the US, and got squashed into a 6.30am Piccadilly Line train with about 200 American school children. Now THAT is bleak.

#26

Nah. Loads of airports are not unpleasant places to pass through.

#27

I smell a subthread brewing…

1 Like
#28

Loads of worst entries

Watching the scales at check-in to see if you are over the allowance
All the waiting around
People talking up all the overhead space with their stupid big bags
Delays

Best bit is probably landing at your destination.

#29

Oh. You’ve just reminded me of the American Airlines safety video. I quite liked the main flight attendant, I’ll admit.

Oh and yes, the train itself is definitely worth an extra tenner each way. It felt quite glamorous and modern when travelling there in the night-time, but coming back into London on a rainy Tuesday was pretty bleak.