Get. Off. The. Plane.
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I have kids now so some of this applies less but!
I totally agree with you. I don't usually have a checked bag when it's just me, so there's no waiting around the baggage claim to look forward to. I DO NOT stop to pull my overhead bag. I've either got it under my seat, already pulled it from the overhead, or I fuckin eyeball that thing like there's about to be a missile intercept (because there is) and I grab and pull while I walk. Once I leave my seat there is no pause. In the same way, if I'm inside on the window, I'm watching for space and when middle seat moves I follow. None of this "oh shit I forgot the light turned green".
Even now with kids we are only slightly slower than that. I have to let the gremlins (who you probably didn't know were on the plane because they've been hyper entertained out of their fuckin minds) be line leader to walk off the plane and I need enough time to stand up and get the bags off the seat behind me onto my body to urban pack mule that shit out of here.
What I'm NOT doing is texting my boyfriend oblivious to the cues being presented to me, smashing through the line because I'm an inconsiderate fuckwit, or standing up when it's my turn and gazing into the overheads like I'm lost in the Arby's menu. Stage your shit and get the fuck off the plane without stopping, then walk like you got some place to be or move to the side. No big deal.
More importantly than any of that though, I've got this really weird superpower where I can listen to what the fuck the FAs say. If someone needs to get off the plane first, I can stay seated and wait for them to haul ass off the plane. Or at least I would, except it's always like a herd of cattle with no awareness instantly reacting to the sound of the seatbelt light turning off no matter what.
^^ This is my take. Behave like an adult.
99% of the time, I don't have anywhere to be in a hurry, so I let others (who may or may not need to) go first.
I often travel with kids at this time in my life, but we just chill in our row until things get calm. Then we can grab stuff from overhead if needed, even if it's behind us.
On the occasions where I've needed to rush to make a connecting flight, I just say it out loud and get some buy-in from those around me, or it's already obvious and the whole cabin is probably aware. In those cases, getting non-pressured people to give you priority tends to work if you just ask.
I can imagine a class of passenger who is super dependent on timing -- but those people have already failed. PSA: When traveling, assume that you will not depart or arrive at the exact time on your ticket. Give yourself an hour or two to absorb delays and then you can just be chill.
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The luggage problem has only got worse and worse over the past decade, and by the airlines' own making. Carriers all started trying to make extra cash by charging for checked luggage, which incentivises people to take carry-on only, up to the maximum size and quantity of carry-on they are permitted.
If bags could be checked for free and people took only an under-seat carry-on for the things they need in flight it wouldn't be a problem, but we know that's never going to happen.
The problem is underallocated overhead space. You give us maximum dimensions, and you know the number of seats. Fucking have sufficient overhead space.
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(Source: TikTok video)
They really need to load back to front, then unload front to back, if it was organized it would go so much better. Like announce when each group can stand and get bags and when each can leave.
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You undoubtedly also skip lines at counters because you're special
Waiting in line to purchase something is entirely different from exiting a plane and I'm disappointed that I have to point that out to you.
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There is a faster method of deplaning. Inside-out is faster. All the aisle seats get their stuff and get off. Then middle, then window
Unfortunately it was never implemented because it makes it difficult to charge extra for higher class zones. It's also very difficult to get people to actually do it
wrote last edited by [email protected]Ah yes, the most human deboarding method. Children deboarding on their own. Families separated.
Hundreds of people trying to reunite at the gate all simultaneously.
That won't cause any downstream issues.
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To all the people telling OP they're wrong, you don't fly enough. The issue isn't evenly distributed. It's not like cars in traffic or whatever.
Airlines put the expensive seats in the front. The people who can afford them are usually much older, either traveling retirees or very late career white collar workers who have significant status. They're the first ones holding up everyone because they take forever to find all the assorted shit (personal item, oversized roller bag, neck pillow, laptop, ipad, lost earbud, etc) they've stuck all over the place, which the gate agent/FAs wouldn't admonish them for because of their aforementioned status. But they're first class, so the peasants behind them can wait in the bread line.
After they get off (on watching you glare), depending on airline, it's the fraction of people who are old and not rich, or don't fly often and aren't used to all the ritual. They'll have placed their bag in an overhead that's 12 rows behind them and demand everyone stop and crowd surf it up or else they'll just sit there blocking the line.
After them come the young vacation families, you know, the ones who had the screaming baby for the last 6 hours. They couldn't be bothered to pay for seat selection to save money so one parent is with one kid three rows ahead but needs to coral the kids behind them because the other parent was playing on a Nintendo switch for the whole flight and didn't try to organize all the kids toys, now lost to entropy, and so the marital spat and bawling (louder now) children begin.
Then there's you. You fly a lot so you have nothing more than two pairs of underwear and a toothbrush, all safely hidden from the TSA in your prison wallet and ready to go without so much as a nanosecond of notice, along with your phone and airpods to combat the screaming child in front of you. You got 31B, way in the back, after trying to game united's seat assignment system by checking in only after all but the exit row seats were taken, but someone missed their flight and here you are.
Generally the legacy airlines will have the most old people, but the vast majority of people on them are very used to flying, because they know better than to book a budget airline. It'll be slow yet ordered.
The budget airlines like united and frontier will be the opposite, lots of young spry 20 somethings, but lots of vacation families that couldn't afford Delta... I won't sugar coat it, it's gonna be a shit storm. The FAs have been contractually required to keep everyone at the very edge of their sanity through the enforcement of a variety of draconian company policies (like turning on all the lights half way through a redeye to scream about some credit card offer), so things are primed for chaos. Lots of shoving and yelling. Everyone's reviewing the Wikipedia "list of crimes of passion" to see if this qualifies.
Then there's spirit. Half the people on the flight will be coming down off of something they got on the dark web by the time you arrive at the gate. You've already seen at least a liter of blood spilled from various fist fights. Everyone was already up and crushing each other in the aisle long before the captain even briefed the approach. The FAs have locked themselves in the lavs by now and the captain (an FFDO) has barricaded the flight deck with charts and duct tape and is aiming his questionably modded P320 at he door. Welcome to the new season of Hunger Games - Spam Can. You're on your own, good luck and good hunting.
I just don't (entirely) agree about vacation families. Just like the airlines made their bad with paid checked luggage causing more cabin luggage, they did the same with paid seating. Most families wouldn't care where they sit - so long as they're together.
I male sure we always sit together, but for some, additional 200-500 USD/EUR for the whole trip is significant and may account for a good portion of the holiday budget.
Now one may say that then they shouldn't fly, but why? Again - airlines made this problem.
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(Source: TikTok video)
I've never flown but want to but all this crap news about airlines and people not understanding basic saftey issues is nerve racking.
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Nah y'all just don't hustle enough.
But but but they have a small child- lame excuse for lame breeders, get out the way.
IMHO there should be a child section in back.
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They really need to load back to front, then unload front to back, if it was organized it would go so much better. Like announce when each group can stand and get bags and when each can leave.
But how can they sell priority boarding then? Just think for one minute about the poor airline companies! /s
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Do the ole leg into the aisle as soon as we land to prevent people like this lol
If they're rude enough to cut, then they might be rude enough to "accidentally" bash past your leg.
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(Source: TikTok video)
There's an effect I see in situations like this where the people in a big hurried rush end up being slow asses because apparently they don't care about this working efficiently, they just care about when they can stop waiting.
On a plane these are the people who leap out of their seat and block your row, only to start searching for their bag once it's their turn to get off the plane.
I see the same from drivers at red lights. If there are multiple lanes waiting to go, and one car has to inch forward every 5 seconds even though they are already way past the line, then in my very limited anecdotal experience there's like a 90% chance when the light turns green they just sit there for a few seconds after I start going.
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They really need to load back to front, then unload front to back, if it was organized it would go so much better. Like announce when each group can stand and get bags and when each can leave.
Airlines: "Wait, but I thought if you unload front to back you get a UTI"
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(Source: TikTok video)
Let all 200 of you live a separate life for a year and you would all start killing one another as soon as you boarded the plane. By the time the plane landed all of 'you' would all have to be carried off.
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There's an effect I see in situations like this where the people in a big hurried rush end up being slow asses because apparently they don't care about this working efficiently, they just care about when they can stop waiting.
On a plane these are the people who leap out of their seat and block your row, only to start searching for their bag once it's their turn to get off the plane.
I see the same from drivers at red lights. If there are multiple lanes waiting to go, and one car has to inch forward every 5 seconds even though they are already way past the line, then in my very limited anecdotal experience there's like a 90% chance when the light turns green they just sit there for a few seconds after I start going.
one car has to inch forward every 5 seconds even though they are already way past the line
In my limited experience these cars are driven by people so absorbed by their phones that they don’t realize they aren’t fully engaging the brakes.
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(Source: TikTok video)
And me. I'd just wait the 30 seconds for all of yous to deboard and then take my sweet time.
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(Source: TikTok video)
Me and my 300 clones spider-crawling over the seats to deplane.
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Seeing the crowd of people squeeze off the Airplane like a tube of toothpaste only to all congregate around baggage claim is the same energy as passing aggressively on the street only for you to pull up next to them at the redlight.
This ignores:
- People with only a carry on.
- People with tight connecting flights they need to get to.
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The problem is underallocated overhead space. You give us maximum dimensions, and you know the number of seats. Fucking have sufficient overhead space.
wrote last edited by [email protected]The amount of space is the amount of space. You can't create more, because it's literally constrained by the roof of the plane. It's already maxed out.
The only thing they could do to make sure there was "enough space" is to have less tightly packrd seats and carry less people, which again they aren't going to do for the obvious reason - profit.
Or - reduce the max carry on baggage dimensions, which I'm sure people would equally complain about. And would make them look worse against other airlines which "allow" bigger bags, despite there not being enough space to put them!
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one car has to inch forward every 5 seconds even though they are already way past the line
In my limited experience these cars are driven by people so absorbed by their phones that they don’t realize they aren’t fully engaging the brakes.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I think automatic transmissions have conditioned people to sit too far from the pedals.
I just bought an old classic and haven't driven stick in a decade. After I got everything comfy and adjusted how I wanted I realized something: I couldn't get the clutch all the way down if I tried, I'm too far away. Same for the brakes.
Power brakes have made us feel as though all we need is the braking power of our toes, but what happens when your ABS pump goes out and you have to use actual force to apply the brakes at 65mph? Do you have the leverage to get those brakes as far down as they need to to stop safely?
If we were all still popping clutches at every red light I don't think this would be an issue. I think we'd have less distracted drivers too, needing to shift manually keeps a driver engaged with the car and road.
I Wasn't advocating to ban Automatic Transmissions when this comment started, I am now.
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My point still stands. Everyone is living their own lives and have their reasons for being in a hurry. Not everyone is a chill dude like you.
It stands, but it neither contradicts nor supports my line of thinking. I was aware of it already when I wondered about adults constantly being in a rush. You can restate it if you like but it doesn't change my curiosity at the nature of this common problem.
My comment is more about what the underlying cause of the pervasiveness of this issue. Were people always like this or is it one of these fun results of industrialisation? Is it a western culture thing? Is it a capitalism thing? Rhetorical questions in this case - I'm not seeking specific answers from anyone today. I am interested but it feels like we'll end up arguing and I could do without that.
I'd be curious how different cultures handle rush, timekeeping, social pressure related to commitments. Needing to rush constantly seems like a bit of either a systemic failure or a deliberate dark pattern.
