Sunday, July 09, 2017

Sunday Five - Air Travel


We recently returned from a trip to Rhode Island, Americas tiniest state.  Getting there was uneventful, coming home was an adventure in modern air travel.  Hence this weeks five questions about air travel. 

1:  Do you normally get Pre-Check or not? 
2: Do you ever encounter a security person at the airport with a sense of humor? 
3: Have you ever been spontaneously upgraded to first class? 
4: Have you ever had a flight diverted to another airport because of weather? 
5: When you easy 50 minute flight, turns into nearly 4 hours on the plane, what do you say to the flight crew when leaving the plane? 

My answers
1: I signed up and paid the fee for Global Entry so I qualify for TSA Pre-Check - the expedited airport security and for the automated express lane at customs and immigration.  
2: As I was shoving my carry on into the ex-ray machine in Providence the security officer asked me if I had anything metal in my my pockets, or water bottles or soft-drinks in my carry on, I said, no; then she asked if I had an small animals, you know like kittens, or squires or hamster in my carry on?  I said, no, I don't think I have ever been asked that before.  She said, I wanted to see if you were paying attention and you wouldn't believe what people leave in their bags.  
3: Jay and I were sitting at the gate talking and the airline agent walked over and asked if we were sitting near one another - we checked, we were across the aisle from one another.  She said "I need to move a few people around, if you don't mind I will move you to better seats." She came back a couple minutes later with seats in row two of first class.  
4:  Yup, glad we were in first class, we flew 250 south west of DC and sat at an airport for two hours.   
5: Thank you, see you again on my next trip!  I have been surprised at the number of times I have had the same cabin crew, they remember if you are not nice to them.  

7 comments:

  1. I cannot answer any of these as I have not flown since 1991; I ain't missing anything. personally, I would have taken the train to RI.

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    Replies
    1. PS - you DID have a wicked hamster with you (wink).

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  2. 1 and 2. Rarely
    3. Used to happen years ago but not anymore. Too many controls, I suppose.
    4. Never
    5. If the flight crew handled the delay well, then I thank them and wish them well. Amazingly, I've never had a delay as long as that while on the plane.

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  3. 1: A couple of times; the last was when my flight was delayed and I missed a connection in San Francisco, I was given a pre-check for all subsequent flights that trip and I loved it.

    2: Yeah, rarely.

    3: Once when flying from Miami to Portland Oregon after a hurricane; the original flight was cancelled so I got an upgrade.


    4: Years back flying home from Hawaii to Sacramento; we had to land in the tiniest airport near Marysville! The terminal was one building.

    5: Thankfully, I haven't had that happen but I hope I'd be polite. I mean, it's not their fault, right??? Right?

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  4. 1) I am registered with TSA pre-check. Saves lots of time.
    2) I've gotten a smile or two but for the most part no. Of recent they are mostly fixated on my rather large beard.
    3) Quite often. It's a perk of flying the same airline so much. Airline status, and the more you have, really helps especially when there is an interruption in travel and one needs to be re-booked. When a passenger is loyal, the airline is loyal.
    4) Yes and yes first class is a much better place to be when one ends up waiting to a storm on an unexpected Tarmac for several hours.
    5) Always "Thank you, have a great day!" I've even run into flight attendants I've met on board inside airports between flights in different cities and had fun conversations. People remember being treated well.

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  5. 1. Someone does this for us so I don't know.
    2. none of them do
    3. once upon a time, a long long time ago.
    4.yes due to a hurricane.
    5. thank you.

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