[RickFLM4]

How does the person with the window seat in that illustration get in and out?

[protecon]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

How does the person with the window seat in that illustration get in and out?

At least the seats don't recline and you get to hold hands/make prolonged eye contact with the people opposite.

[1MOREMOD]

Did you hear about the airline that had to make emergency landing due to sheep? Cargo plane and 2100 sheep with so much flatulence set of some sort of alarm in plane maybe carbon monoxide? Forced it to land.

[wjk_glynn]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

How does the person with the window seat in that illustration get in and out?

Flip up seats, your fellow passengers make room...

[P1]

I fly United on a weekly basis and have yet to find something wrong with their E+...

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by P1et

I fly United on a weekly basis and have yet to find something wrong with their E+...

I always try to fly E+ when it's available. Makes a big difference.

[M3Bimmer77]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Also I'm one of those people who think airline seats should not recline. I never recline but always seem to sit behind someone that does on the rare occasions I need to fly.

Tip: carry a small siringe (no needle). If the guy in front of you reclines just pretend you need to go out or just stand up. Have yr serine with a little bit of water and lots of air. Pretend you sneeze and squeeze the syringe on top of the guys head. Voila!!!!! Sorry I have a bad cold!!!!

My wife always carries one for the medicine of the kids. Beleive me it works.

[larryn]

Long-time Delta Diamond here. Alway get C+ on my international travel and Business of Delta One for most of my domestic travel.

I agree that regular coach seats are tough. I really think that they should profile people to fit them together better (although it would be unpopular). I'm 6'2" 190lbs with wide shoulders, but usually fit okay, unless there is a person next to me that requires belt extenders.

Airlines do take care of frequent fliers, but it's kind of like blood money. You give a lot of your life for those perks. For me, Oct>EOY I will do 4 UK trips, 2 Munich trips, 1 to Quito, Ecuador, and my Christmas family vacation at Disneyland.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by larryn

Long-time Delta Diamond here. Alway get C+ on my international travel and Business of Delta One for most of my domestic travel.

I agree that regular coach seats are tough. I really think that they should profile people to fit them together better (although it would be unpopular). I'm 6'2" 190lbs with wide shoulders, but usually fit okay, unless there is a person next to me that requires belt extenders.

Airlines do take care of frequent fliers, but it's kind of like blood money. You give a lot of your life for those perks. For me, Oct>EOY I will do 4 UK trips, 2 Munich trips, 1 to Quito, Ecuador, and my Christmas family vacation at Disneyland.

Oy, west coast to Europe 6 times in 3 months? I couldn't do it. Just getting to the plane is a hassle, even if you have good seats.

I'm going to bite the bullet and go with Trusted Traveler. At least that cuts down on security line time and hassle. Might do the same with the customs thing before our UK trip next year. Now I need to figure out if we have enough miles to up our game to business class for that trip.

[larryn]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Oy, west coast to Europe 6 times in 3 months? I couldn't do it. Just getting to the plane is a hassle, even if you have good seats.

I'm going to bite the bullet and go with Trusted Traveler. At least that cuts down on security line time and hassle. Might do the same with the customs thing before our UK trip next year. Now I need to figure out if we have enough miles to up our game to business class for that trip.

If you do upgrade to business, you will usually be given a Fast Pass card, which takes about the same time as teh known traveler line/ePassport line.

I find Heathrow's new ePassport system to be getting more crowded, and it is also a rip-off compared to the US's 5 year Global Entry program. It costs the same, but UK's is only good for a year. The cards are sooo cheesy too, where GE has nice picture IDs, the UK's is a pruple generic card that you have to write your name and number on the back yourself.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by larryn

If you do upgrade to business, you will usually be given a Fast Pass card, which takes about the same time as teh known traveler line/ePassport line.

I find Heathrow's new ePassport system to be getting more crowded, and it is also a rip-off compared to the US's 5 year Global Entry program. It costs the same, but UK's is only good for a year. The cards are sooo cheesy too, where GE has nice picture IDs, the UK's is a pruple generic card that you have to write your name and number on the back yourself.

I guess we must hit Heathrow at a slow time when we fly. We usually take the one early morning flight out of O'Hare (American Airlines) that gets into Heathrow around 10:30PM local time. We rarely spend more than 15 minutes getting through customs at Heathrow. We're not Brit citizens, though. Maybe they don't check tourists as closely? I always travel with high end camera gear and no one has ever said a word to me about it. I bet Brit citizens can't come back into the UK with $5k worth of gear without questions being asked.

[larryn]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I guess we must hit Heathrow at a slow time when we fly. We usually take the one early morning flight out of O'Hare (American Airlines) that gets into Heathrow around 10:30PM local time. We rarely spend more than 15 minutes getting through customs at Heathrow. We're not Brit citizens, though. Maybe they don't check tourists as closely? I always travel with high end camera gear and no one has ever said a word to me about it. I bet Brit citizens can't come back into the UK with $5k worth of gear without questions being asked.

They are not worried about US or UK citizens with $5k of camera gear, at all. There's a lot of people coming and going there, from all over the (volatile) world, much moreso than come through the US Customs.

The LHR Customs lines were not that bad up until 3-4 months ago (I fly into LHR 2-3 times/mo.), when they really started pushing the Regestered Traveller Programme. So, one of two things happened:

1. They artificially made the wait times longer to bolster the 70GBP programme revenue
2. They are increasing the level of detail on person checking scrutiny

I would hope they are doing #2, but I wouldn't doubt #1.

[M_Six]

Coming through security on Friday I got pinged because I had a 3.5 oz can of hair spray and you're only allowed 3 oz. When we're worried about a 1/2 oz of hair spray, the terrorists have won.

[NEFARIOUS]

Originally Posted by M_Six

Seats are 10" wide. Guy beside me is 20" wide. The math works out poorly.

I know the feeling... This was the last time I've ever flown back from Portland, OR (minus my dad's death, I've driven up since); I was on a full flight, and the only seat available?

A morbidly obese chick that didn't even speak English that was squished so much into the corner, her flabs just encompassed at least 0.5 - 1 foot from where I imagine her actual flesh ended against the left wall, then intruding at least 6-7 inches into where my seat was supposed to be (she even had to use a seat belt extender), then I'd fit into the middle somehow, and intrude 2 inches into the other guy's space... If it wasn't for the fact that the flight attendant knew how to raise the aisle's armrest, it would've more awkward a flight than it was.

Even worse? There was some turbulence, so I was only seat belt-free had the luxury of standing in the aisles for only about half an hour out of a 2 hour flight, so I had to spend a little over an hour squished next to her.

By the time I got off the plane, my shirt had so much of her crystallized sweat, it smelled like hell (even the people on the airport shuttle were complaining and I almost got kicked out) and it took a pre-soak, hand wash and toss into the normal laundry to get it out, and my arm felt like it was dislocated for a week.

[zx10guy]

Try being 6'5" and flying.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Try being 6'5" and flying.

I'm 6'3" and it's tough enough. Can't imagine being any taller and flying steerage class.

[Axius]

I remember on my flight back to Detroit a couple years ago, I got sat next to this old dude, he had to be at least 200 years old. Anyways, he fell asleep on the flight, but apparently his anus did not. Myself and gent across from me kept hearing toots, rather squeaky too. This isn't normally a problem, until it started to stink. Everyones face started to look disgruntled in the vicinity.


I tried to go to sleep so I wouldn't have to bare it, but I couldn't. It engulfed my life for 2 straight hours.

[MightyMouseTech]

It is going to get much, much worse:

[M_Six]

You'd think it would get to a point where people just won't fly, but people will put up with stunningly stupid stuff sometimes.

[davis449]

This is where I thank God I am not a tall person. I have no issue flying SWA. I despise almost all the other major airlines. Being that I don't travel for work and, subsequently, don't get perks, the coach on most other domestic airlines is so much worse than Southwest, unless you happen to land a flight wherever you're going that isn't on a plane that's over 25-30 years old. Delta, United, and AA can just suck it...fuck them all. Guess it doesn't help that I end up on a lot of "regional" jets that use those fucking Canadair's. Even being short, those things are horrific. I'm a native Texan, so if it's under 8 hrs., I consider that drive-able.

[carzaddict]

I fly Delta and Jetblue the most when I can....2 of the best airlines. Jetblue has awesome customer service and space, delta has good customer service but their Mobile App is one of my favorites. The best feature: if your flights is delayed, even by a few minutes...you have the option or selecting a new flight, right from the app!

AA, US Air, United, the worst of the worst.

[M_Six]

I grabbed a front row window seat. Big mistake. Most uncomfortable seat ever. Will never fly SWA again if I have a choice. The airlines have simply ruined flying.