Food availability. Truthfully, I will put up with any number of delays and cancellations if I am well fed. Paying $10 to dine on Pringles and Mountain Dew doesn't cut it. Going 10+ hours without food while stuck in a shut-down airport overnight, or on a stranded train, is GUARANTEED to make me extremely cranky. I don't know how it hasn't occurred to these people yet that handing out apples and juice boxes and maybe a chocolate bar or two will solve the blood-sugar portion of their customers' air rage instantly...
Even when there's no delay, it's getting harder and harder to eat well in transit. I always seem to arrive at destination feeling like I need to lie down with a ginger ale and some soda crackers. You know when you get so hungry that you start to feel sick? And the only available cure, junk food, will only make you feel sicker?
Okay, rant over. I really don't handle food shortages/restrictions well. Possibly I should be tested for hypoglycemia...?
Thanks, Eva. I have the same problem, and it was one of about five items on a list I started making on my two cross country flights last week. I wondered exactly what you do: Why has no entrepreneur or mega corporation (hello, Whole Foods?!)come up with the idea of healthy, fresh, tasty airport food (at a reasonable price shouldn't be too much to ask either)? I pack food, but I often run out, and some flights are so long, it's just not practical. Last week, as I ate a dried shrimp Maruchan soup at the airport in Mexico, I knew the choice was between not eating and getting sick or eating and getting sick. It was the latter.
There is nothing we can do about it, but I would love to change the baggage checkout area. Long lines irritate me, then you get check again entering area and over and over. If you arrive early, as they suggest you do, then you have to undergo all these check to which no restroom or other facilities are in the area you are sitting in. You have to go back out and get checked again if you need to potty.
Also, it is a bad thing I know, but I am a smoker. I was traveling 26 hours across USA to Australia. I stopped in Denver, they had an area you could grab a few puffs before your next gate. Stopped in San Fran and there was no place to go even though I had a 1 hour layover and 14 hours of flight time ahead of me. I was just to suffer without nicatine. I was even outside waiting on a bus to transfer me to another terminal and couldn't smoke outside. No one but my son was there and the worker. Were they afraid I would polute their already dirty air more? I was ready to kill someone after I landed in Australia. It was a quick kiss to hubby, love ya NOW GET ME OUTSIDE FOR A SMOKE (and decent coffee) OR DIE! I respect the rights of people that don't smoke, what about a little bit for the terrible ones that do?
The teeny tiny seats in economy class on 14 hours of flight was no fun either. I took sketching tools and books for something to do and was crammed so tight I could only read. Doesn't make it easy while trying to sleep (so I don't kill anyone over my nicatine cravings) either.
Crofty-
I'm not a smoker, but I'm a coffee drinker, and I'm with you on this one: airlines need to serve some decent coffee. And no, Dunkin Donuts does not count.
Teeny tiny seats? Yep, it's going on my list. I had a US Air (my least favorite airline ever) flight last week and though it was only about 2 hours, I thought my joints would jump out of my body I was so uncomfortable.
And baggage. Oh, yes. Baggage. That's a good one. It's going on the list, too.
I would like to see all buses go hybrid or hydrogen, as many have in Europe, and I'd like to see more eco cruises that actually use eco friendly energy. Whale watching cruises, for example, allow people to appreciate the animals, but they obviously spew out more fuel and fumes that also harm wildlife.
Good points everyone - I would go a little more dramatic though - no more planes, lots of slow, cheap, well-appointed trains, and plenty of trans-oceanic passenger ships.
Go slow...
No more planes?!?
I know, I know... The world is ending and all. But that would put travel back in the exclusive reach of the independently wealthy. Say goodbye to cross-cultural understanding.
I'd certainly like to see people using alternatives wherever possible (ie no more RyanAir flights from Cardiff to Edinburgh) and I'd like to see more alternatives being made available (Amtrak? less of a joke, perhaps?) and I'd like to see scientists working on ways to minimize the harm from planes, but I can't see how we can get rid of passenger air entirely...
Joined: 09-14-06
If you could change anything about travel and the travel industry, what would it be?
For example: I would change the fact that airlines, trains, and other travel related services all seem to have voice-activated prompts when you call them, WHICH MAKES NO SENSE because passengers use these services in places like airports, which have many noises that interfere.
What would you change?