Airport Etiquette

After a recent cross-country flight, I have confirmed my intense dislike for flying. I hate, I repeat, hate flying. The lack of personal space, leg room, and control over who sits next to you is something I just would rather not experience. Call me a control freak - I'll own up to it.


Now, don't get me wrong, I realize it's completely impractical for me to say I will never fly again. I go to school in Boston, and my family lives in Charleston, South Carolina. According to Google Maps, the drive is 17 hours and 21 minutes. That is just not going to happen. I got bored driving to my college that was 4 hours away; I could never make it 17 hours and 21 minutes.


I have tried to find redeeming qualities in flying, other than its practicality. However, this past trip was so awful I forgot all of them. Coming from a warm Southern climate, the concept of de-icing a plane requires some adjustment. Normally, an hour between connecting flights is fine, but not when your plane has to be de-iced. That process alone took an hour, which even the pilot admitted was rare. However, here is where our etiquette lesson kicks in:


If you are sick, hungover, suffering from food poisoning, prone to motion sickness (as I am), etc, there is an air sick bag in the seat pocket in front of you. You may also excuse yourself and get to a lavatory on board. It is not appropriate to get sick all over yourself and the seat in front of you.


Yes, this little gem also happened on my flight, and I can only thank the good Lord that it did not happen next to me. So not only did we get essentially delayed an hour because of de-icing, but we also had to go back to the gate, take this passenger and his bags off, clean the plane, and re-seat those passengers in that row. Thankfully, the US Airways representative I talked to was able to get me a seat on a plane back home, even if it did mean I was sitting in the Charlotte airport for 5 hours. Thanks, Rochelle from US Air, for getting me home at all - otherwise my parents would have had to drive 6 hours round trip to take me home.


I know flying is a necessary evil, and with Dramamine's help, I can survive the turbulence, push thoughts of crashing out of my head, and pass out for the duration of the flight. Guess I should have thought about this before I moved 1,000 miles away.