Airplanes are Just a Means to an End
Woman in the Middle | February 11, 2017Gosh, I don’t enjoy airplane travel. I like how it gets me places quickly. I sometimes like talking to the people I am sitting next to. But there are other things I don’t like, like being trapped in a rather small seat, elbow to elbow with strangers, for hours on end.
On my most recent trip, here are the good things I encountered.
1. On the first leg of my trip I was sitting on the aisle and the middle seat was taken by a gentleman who was trying to get moved to another seat. So, being the nosy person that I am, I kind of in a way sorta inquired as to why he was trying to abandon me there in row 26. Come to find out, he was a double amputee, and in order to be comfortable, he needed his prosthetics to be able to extend at a 45 degree angle and there was something about the middle seat that prevented him from doing that. The flight attendants were unable to accommodate him, so I insisted he trade seats with me. He was ever so grateful to be able to do that and I was rewarded with an interesting and educational discussion of prosthetics as well as some enjoyable chit chat about other things, that helped my two hour flight speed by. He explained that if he can’t extend his legs enough, the prosthetics digs into the back of his legs and cut off circulation, making for a painful situation. He also explained that his legs are made for walking, not standing, so he would rather walk for 20 minutes than stand for 20 any day. Who knew?
2. On the second leg of my trip I sat next to a woman who is in distribution at Nike. She was telling me that most major companies that have a significant online presence have a major distribution warehouse in Memphis, because that is the headquarters and hub for Federal Express. She told me that they have to give an estimate of how much product they think they will be shipping around the holidays way back in July. Wow, that must be difficult! They are also quite restricted by how much they can move by the fact that there are only three major package delivery companies in the United States – Fed Ex, UPS, and the US Postal Service. There are a few regional carriers on the west coast, she said, but other wise, nothing. Hum….I see an opening there for someone with a lot of money to fill a gap, but who knows if that will happen.
As for the problem parts of my trips, here they are.
I only had one hour layovers in Dallas both ways. That was not enough time, given that they weren’t feeding us on the plane. I managed to get food but it was a bit of a scramble to get on the tram from one terminal to the other, find my gate, get food, and get back to the gate. If my plane had been late getting into Dallas, I would have been in trouble, both getting to my flight and getting food.
On the way home, our flight left Dallas at 7:30 pm local time. They acted as if we were leaving at midnight and kept the lights off for most of the two hour flight. It made no sense. If there is anything worse than being stuck in a plane for two hours it was being stuck in a dark plane for two hours. Really, it was not bed time.
It was all my fault, but I left the book I planned on reading in my suitcase and didn’t have enough reading material on the second, longer leg home. I will not do that again! I read every word in my magazine, the airline magazine, and even spent time looking at the Spanish language airline magazine. FYI, I don’t speak Spanish.
The pilot banged that plane down when we reached Ontario airport, on the last leg of my trip. I mean BANGED it down. My colon was somewhere near my throat after that. I think that was about as hard a landing as I have ever experienced. Whew! I am very glad the up in the air portion went more smoothly.
Happily, on my most recent trip, the problems weren’t huge. Now, where to go next?
Your flights were relatively short. Nothing is worse than a LONG flight in what is really a sardine can. It takes a lot to get me to fly. Unfortunately my stepkids are 5 hours by plane away. I don’t go often.
I know what you mean. Our flight to Hawaii was six hours. The flight to Australia was something like 15. The only nice thing about the longer flights is that they try a little harder to entertain you. On a 15 hour flight they can’t refuse you food and entertainment. A riot would break out.
I think Amazon is creating its own package delivery department so it doesn’t have to rely on the other companies.
I love flying as yet have not had to change planes on any trip and never had anything bad happen, I read most of the time or just close my eyes not always sleeping just closing my eyes