LAS - RNO
Completely full flight - 137 people. I was the 2nd to last to board and I got an aisle seat. Want to talk about awesome? SO AWESOME!
I guess some other Southwest employee was sitting in the main cabin so they had to sit 4th in the back. The guy sitting in the middle seat was incredibly annoying. Not only did he spread his legs out as wide as possible (totally not necessary), but he also spread his elbows out on the arm rests. He needs to read up on full flight courtesy.
I did enjoy my free beer complementary of Southwest Airlines for St. Patricks Day. Woohoo for free beer!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
PHX – LAS
The same gate agent that helped me out last week was working my gate this week. I told her I forgot to bring her a present. She deserves one!
My flight online only showed there were 40 seats available, there ended up being around 70. No complaints there! Unfortunately almost all of the window seats were taken – I got the last available one in the last row on the right hand side. A lot of nonrevs on this flight – I counted 5 flight attendants and pilots.
There was a slightly weird occurrence on this flight – As soon as the plane took off, the back of the aircraft smelled like… well, it smelled like pot. I don’t know if someone was carrying any on them or if it just happened to be the food they were eating – but it smelled like an outdoor rock concert in the middle of the headliners set.
So this jerkface flier sitting in the aisle next to me tried flagging down a flight attendant by raising his hand and waving him to come his direction. Has he ever heard of waiting for her to come by and then ask for whatever he needs? Or better yet, isn’t that what the flight attendant call button is for?
Anyway. As I was getting off the plane I recognized the pilot as my old neighbor! So I said hello. My mom had told me that he worked for SWA but I had never seen him before.
Well I’m off to bed. More flying tomorrow!
A couple weeks ago I posted a blog about the unspoken rules of flying. You can check it out here or read the previous rules below. As these past few weeks have gone by, I’ve heard from fellow travelers, friends, students and even my own family more rules that need to be included in the list.
- The seat in front of you is not yours. If someone is sitting in front of you, don’t use the seat back in front of you as a lever to hoist yourself up. Airplane seats are made to adjust forwards and backwards so they have some give to them. If you put all your body weight onto the seat in front of you, it’s going to make it uncomfortable for the person sitting in that seat.
- Familiarize yourself with what drinks and food the airline offers. They have menus in their magazines and in the seat back pocket - READ THEM! On a short flight there’s nothing more annoying that a traveler asking a flight attendant to run down the list of drinks they offer.
- On a full flight, chances are you have someone sitting next to you in your row. If they ask to get up, get up out of your seat and let them by. Don’t ask them to step over you! This also applies when someone asks to sit next to you. Don’t just scoot your knees to the side and expect them to crawl on top of you to get to the seat. Talk about awkward. Jeez. I’ve had people do this to me. I warn them, “You’re probably going to want to move. I might crush you.” - This usually encourages them to move.
- Rocking out, playing air guitar, or singing is something you do at your house, not on an airplane. On a flight today, my sister had some guy singing out loud next to her. This is not cool. Some people want to sleep. Some people want to read. And some people don’t want to be bothered. Do that stuff in the privacy of your own home.
The bullet points below are the rules previously listed on my earlier blog.
- If the middle seat is unoccupied, that space is to be split between those occupying the seats next to it. If you’re in the window seat and someone is occupying the aisle seat (or vice versa), you do have the right to place some of your personal items on the middle seat. Be sure it only covers half - after all, that empty seat space is supposed to be split. When it comes time to get your drink - ask the person next to you if it’s okay if you use the middle seat’s tray table. 99% of the time they’ll say yes, but it’s just courteous to ask.
- On a similar note - the middle seat - if all seats are occupied and someone is sitting in the middle seat, make it comfortable for them. After all, they are going to be the most uncomfortable out of the three of you in that row. What do I mean by this? Well, I’ve been on flights where guys refused to close their legs (even just a little) so their knees were in my leg space. Talk about uncomfortable. I’ve also been on flights where the person next to me continued to elbow me on my side (whether it was on purpose or an accident, I’m not sure) because they insisted on taking up the entire arm rest. It is constantly being debated who has the rights to the shared arm rests - however I have to believe that those arm rests belong to the person in the middle seat. Both the person and the window seat have arm rests that they don’t have to share with anyone else.
- When it comes to putting your seat back - do it slowly. This has now happened to me twice and every time it happens I just want to kick the seat back of the jerk in front of me. So what do they do? As soon as they can they SLAM their seat back as hard as possible, almost crushing my laptop. The nice thing to do is to slowly put your seat back, so if the person behind you does have a laptop they have time to move it before it gets smashed.
- Screaming/crying babies are never a delight on a plane. However we have to remind ourselves that the parent is not the one responsible for their child’s screaming/crying. There really is no need to turn around and give them the evil eye. The parents are probably already embarrassed and are doing all they can to quiet their child. In fact, you probably should’ve brought those noise canceling headphones in the first place.
- Please & Thank you! On Southwest Airlines your sodas and snacks are free and are given out on every flight. Just because you’re not asking for a special request doesn’t mean you shouldn’t thank your flight attendant for giving you the drink or snack.
Am I missing any rules? Do you have any rules that need to be added to this list?
“ If I had an airplane or you had an airplane, you could rest your head next to mine. Call me in my car tonight tell me where to meet your private flight. And we’d get a hotel, ‘cause people with airplanes sleep in very nice rooms for the night. They rush off in the first early morning light, living their lives at the speed of their flight.
— Cosy Sheridan, “Car phones and airplanes”
PHX - LAS
Is it March already? I think I say that after every February ends – Jeez, February, why do you have to be so short? Anywho.
I must toot my own horn when it comes to my timing skills. Tonight I got to the airport, printed my security document, went through security, got my boarding pass, sat down and within a minute we started boarding our flight. I suppose to some people that would be cutting it too close – and we all know I’ve cut it too close quite a few times. Please reference my flight to Phoenix this past Thursday. haha Barely made that one. I guess I just find it pointless to sit at an airport and wait when I could be spending time with my friends and family.
So anywho, there was this older lady that tried to board the plane when the gate agent stopped her because she wasn’t booked on the flight. In fact, she wasn’t even booked on Southwest! As I’m watching her get out of line, I notice that she has 5 bags and she loads them up onto the airport luggage carts. I find out later from the flight attendant that she tried talking the gate agent into letting her on with her five bags because Southwest, “charges for bags.” She was obviously confused because she was not only trying to board the wrong flight, but she tried boarding a flight on the wrong airline and duh, Southwest doesn’t charge for bags!
And just like my last flight from Phoenix, I ended up getting the emergency exit row window seat (ya know, the one with extra leg room). Scoooore. And no one sat in my aisle. It was time to kick up my feet and start blogging!
My flight attendants were great. I chatted with two of them while they were heading through the cabin. I told them about my blog and gave them my little business card for it. I always appreciate it when flight attendants are nice – especially late at night. I know they want to be home just as bad as I do, yet they still have a smile on their face. Like my mom says, “The smile comes with the uniform!”
If you’d like a recap of my weekend, continue reading. (Trust me, you’ll want to keep reading.)
So this weekend I was in Phoenix for the Associated Collegiate Press conference with the editor in chief of our college student newspaper and advisor. We all went to different seminars – most of mine were focused on the online aspect of media. I did this not only for my blog but to give our student newspaper more of an online presence.
One conference I attended was about blogs, I went up to the speaker afterwards to thank him for the advice and give him my card. We ended up chatting for a bit and after telling him about my blog, he told me that he was familiar with it. For only having my blog up for a month and a half – that’s a pretty AWESOME thing.
I ended up handing out quite a few of my blog cards – I’m curious to see how many more readers I get. :)
Woohoo! It’s been one month since Plane & Simple started!
With one month under my belt, I’m so proud to say that I have 366 followers between Tumblr & Twitter.
You guys are wonderful.
If you have any questions / comments / recommendations / etc. for me, feel free to submit them to my Formspring: http://www.formspring.me/planeandsimple or on Twitter: @planensimpleswa
Thank you! <3
“ You’re probably on your flight back to your hometown…
— Fergie, “Big girls don’t cry”
“ Well those runway lights are gettin’ brighter. I’m just sitting out here watching airplanes take off and fly. Tryin’ to figure out which one you might be on…
— Gary Allan, “Watching airplanes”
Have you ever boarded a flight, the plane leaves the gate and just ends up sitting on the tarmac? Usually these delays are less than a half hour but there have been reports for people sitting for hours! Craziness. It’s not right to do to passengers but it does happen. Generally it’s not the airline’s fault either.
Most often times tarmac delays happen because there is a high volume of flights going into your destination city. Air traffic control then has to cut back on the flights flying in. The closer your departing city is from your arriving city, the higher chance you’ll be sitting there for longer. Why? Say you’re leaving out of San Diego, CA and landing in Las Vegas, NV – roughly a 45 min flight. For those flights that have departed cities such as Chicago or Orlando and are already in the air – they have higher priority. They’ve been in the air longer, their passengers have been on the plane longer, and let’s face it – first plane up should be the first plane down.
So now you’re stuck on the tarmac, what do you do? Well there are a couple things you can’t do – or will at least be severely reprimanded for doing. No restroom, no electronics, no standing up, no food or drinks to buy, etc.
Before you even get on the airplane I recommend using the restroom in the airport. Not only will you have more room (we all know how cramped the plane lavatories are), but you won’t have to wait for a fasten seatbelt sign to go off nor will you have to wait for one of the two restrooms to free up.
I recommend packing an emergency snack as well. Whether it’s a meal replacement bar (like Power Bar or a Cliff bar) or an apple – food is always good to have. Let’s be honest, pretzels and peanuts aren’t going to fill your stomach and keep you full. Plus, they usually don’t even pass those out until you’re up in the air! This food item of choice should be easily portable, can’t spill and whatever is left over after you’re done should be easily tossed. Another great idea (courtesy of my mom!) is to bring an empty water bottle with you. Don’t worry, TSA won’t take it away because there is no liquid in it. When you get past security, you can fill it up at the nearest water fountain.
Bring with you something that doesn’t require electricity to entertain you: a magazine, a book, a sketchpad, sudoku, a crossword puzzle, etc. You’re allowed to use these items at all time during a flight – taxing, in flight and landing. Just remember – don’t put your tray table down!
Last but not least, don’t be afraid to start up a conversation with the person next to you. You’re both stuck in a situation where you can’t use your electronic devices to burn time so start burning time by talking! If they’re not into a conversation, go back to your magazine. It never hurts to try.
Be sure to check out my blogs: ‘Starting a conversation’ and ‘Ending a conversation’ as well!
Like I say in most of my blogs: Chill out. Take a deep breath. The situation is out of your control so just roll with it. You will get to your destination eventually if you’re calm about things. The minute you start to act out and cause a riot, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get to your destination. In fact, there is a chance you’ll end up in the nearest jail cell if you get too rowdy.
So be nice, be calm and be prepared.
