Travel is a passion. The anticipation makes me giddy. New places and new faces call to me.  There is very little about travel that I do not enjoy….except airlines. Airlines make me miserable. If there is a way to make humans more inconvenienced, more anxious, and more impoverished; they have incorporated it.  I don’t fault the individuals working for the airlines.  Generally, the employees we have encountered have been overworked yet courteous.  It is the policies themselves that are grossly misaligned to the human experience.  It seems that all policies are aligned to squeeze the most profit for the airlines, humans be damned.

I will admit this post is curmudgeonly and somewhat out of character for me to be so completely disenchanted.  Perhaps I am older and long for simpler times.  Remember when you used to go to the airline counter and they did all the work for your check in, handed you tickets and said “Have a wonderful flight”? Those days are no more.

To be sure that you have a seat assignment, you often have to pay extra for the privilege. To be sure they don’t give your seat away, you need to check in for your flight. Even that process is not for the faint of heart.  When we booked the tickets, we completed the requisite information screens. Carefully transcribing the passport numbers and personal information, we once again made sure that everything was in order several weeks prior to the flight.  On the day of the flight, I got a text telling me I could check in.  Once I logged into the account (it took several minutes as the American Airlines website was having difficulties), I was notified that the airlines needed more information.  I checked all the screens and each had been filled out correctly.  To double check, I went to the iphone app.  On my iphone, I was able to take a photo of our passports and submit.  Suddenly, I was checked in!  Success!  Victory!

I now had digital tickets in my Apple wallet.  Perhaps because we are of a certain age…..perhaps because we have had our phone batteries dies while we are in line to board…..perhaps because we don’t fully understand how an Apple wallet works… we also like paper tickets.  Twenty minutes later after waiting for the American Airlines website to load and find my checked in flight, I was able to print tickets.  I was finally feeling calm and happy about our flight.  No long wait at the airline counter in my future. I texted my husband to let him know that I had wrestled the airline dragon and immerged victorious.

With check in complete, I looked at our tickets. Since there are no direct flights out of St. Louis to Ireland, we always try to book at least a two hour layover to ensure that we have plenty of time to eat, stretch, and get to the boarding area for an international flight. Inevitably, there are flight delays and baggage issues. A two hour cushion makes for less stress when things don’t go as planned.  For this trip, we booked a 2.5 hour layover in Charlotte.  About two months prior to the trip, we were notified that our 11:20 flight out of STL had been changed without notice to a 12:50 flight.  Our 2.5 hour layover was now just 1 hour. This was not ideal and certainly not the peaceful travel experience I purchased. Hoping for the best, I set out my bags and went to sleep.

The next morning, we took our time to dress and complete our pre-travel check list.  At 8:30 am, my husband came out of the bedroom and said that he had just got a notice from American Airlines that we were confirmed on our 11:20 flight.  We live about 1 hour from the airport, so it was still possible to make an 11:20 flight.  I checked our tickets and our check-in on the American Airlines app.  It said our flight was at 12:50 and on time.  Now we did’t know what to do.  Should we rush to the airport in case we needed to be on the 11:20 flight?  Should we show up with our 12:50 tickets and hope for the best?  I went online and searched flight information for the day.  There was no flight leaving Lambert at 11:20.  So we relaxed and continued as planned. 

Upon arrival at the airport, we needed to check a bag.  We went to the self-service queue.  There, I had to scan our mobile boarding passes.  There was no information about how to complete the scan.  After trying several different ways to scan from my phone, a fellow traveler showed me what they had finally found worked for themselves after several failed attempts.  There was no American Airline attendant in sight.  The system took us through all the check in questions again and then proceeded to print our boarding passes again.  For whatever reason, it printed two tickets for me to Dublin.  Now in possession of nine printed boarding passes, we waited for the printed baggage tag that I had requested.  A tag finally appeared.  The directions asked us to follow a five step process to tag our own bags.  My husband started the process and then realized that we weren’t sure how to finish the process, because the directions were not clear.  We approached the baggage drop and asked the agent to help us.  Her directions were to “just stick it together”.  He did and then she said, not there, you need to put it on the other handle.  He carefully detached the tag and tried again.  Thankfully we didn’t have to reprint a tag.  Another hurdle of self-service airlines completed.

Because we would no longer have time to eat during our layover, we sat down for some lunch before boarding.   My husband had just taken a bite of his sandwich when he got a text from American Airlines saying that his 11:20 flight was boarding and that we needed to be in the gate area.  I got up and went to check the flight board.  There was no 11:20 flight leaving Lambert.  I checked our tickets…which still read 12:50.  By now, my blood pressure was on the rise. Check yourself in, check your own bags, and catch a flight that doesn’t exist.  Deep breathing helps.  So did lunch.

By noon, we approached our gate.  Our 12:50 flight was on the board and on time.  We sat down to wait.  Seven minutes until boarding and no plane in sight.  Time to board comes and goes.  Two minutes later, a plane appears.  As the plane is emptying, the gate agent announces that all carry on luggage that won’t fit under a seat must be gate checked.  She announced that it would put under the plane and brought up to the passengers once we reached Charlotte.  I felt the stress return.  We have a one hour layover (international flights begin boarding 1 hour before departure) and our carryon luggage has been taken out of our hands and placed under the plane.  Normally when that happens, they just offer to send it to your final destination.  In this case, we would have to wait until someone brought it to us. I breathed deep and hoped for the best.

We entered the plane quickly and they were able to push off to the runway only 4 minutes late (which was a miracle as the incoming plane was over 25 minutes late).  I was feeling confident of making our flight…..until we parked on the holding area of the runway.  We sat for what felt like forever.  Finally, the pilot told us we were waiting on cargo data.  I felt sure we would miss our flight.   Suddenly we were in the air and I tried to nap. The wifi didn’t work on the flight, so options were limited.  Next thing I knew, the pilot announced that we would at our gate in Charlotte 5 to 10 minutes early!  I was suddenly hopeful again.  We landed and got in the parade of American airlines aircraft trying to make our way to a gate.  We departed the plane on time, we had one hour to walk the six minutes to our flight to Ireland.  Yes!!!

Except…. The entire plane was waiting for their “gate checked” bags.  Baggage handlers began bringing luggage to the jetway.  After about 10 bags, he disappeared.  That left about 50 people standing in the line wondering what happened.  Several minutes later, he came back and said, “Do you all need luggage?”  At this point, I was asking myself what would happen if I just went to get on my flight to Ireland without my bag.  I could hear the men yelling to each other to check the back of the plane.  I mentioned to the attendant most of us need to catch an international flight.  After several minutes, I looked out to see that the suitcases had been lined up near the back of the plane on the ground.  I could see my bags. I mentioned to the attendant that I could see the bags and asked if anyone was bringing them.  I thought I used a nice voice, my husband thinks I sounded like a shrew.  The answer I received was “I don’t know”.  That’s it, a shrug and he walked away. Our bags are 15 feet from the door of the jetway. 50 people are waiting on bags in order to make their connection. His response is “I don’t know, not my job.”  At this point, I know I turned into Attila the Hun.  My bags were sitting on the ground outside an airplane.  I was filming grown men telling each other that it wasn’t their job to walk them from the back of the plane to the jetway.  Meanwhile our flight, just down the terminal was boarding.  I could feel my blood pressure climbing.

After another few minutes of arguing, the man on the jet way walked down and began to bring up the bags.  We grabbed ours as fast as we could and power walked to our gate.  We made the boarding call with just minutes to spare. So much for planning ahead for a stress free flight.

 As those of us caught waiting for our luggage were rushing through the line, a gate attendant told a family that they couldn’t walk on the left side of the line that was for “elite” customers and that they would need to come through the other side of the line.  Since the line of mere peons like us, had virtually no one in it, I wasn’t sure what the issue was. We were all running late and just trying to make the plane.  I suppose when people pay to be the elite, the like to see their lines enforced.  Pondering the excesses of capitalism and the demise of the airline industry,  I got on the plane and released a huge sigh. I felt like I had run a marathon.  Flying shouldn’t be that hard or that stressful.

In fairness, the flight to Dublin was relaxing and had great service. I was able to relax and watch a few movies that I’d wanted to see.  Other than the person sitting next to me spending a lot of time with their arms and legs in my seat, it was a great flight. The flight attendants were friendly and helpful.  

 We landed, de-planed, and made it through security stops in record time.  We followed our signs to the baggage carousel and began to wait…and wait…and wait.  At one point the flight was cleared from the board and the carousel sign turned off.  Fellow passengers found a representative of another airline.  He asked if the whole plane was still waiting on luggage.  We answered yes.  We waited some more and then some more.  We made friends with another couple and shared travel stories.  Finally, over an hour after we cleared passport control, I spotted our bag and ran to get it.  Shortly after that the carousel stopped and our friends were notified that they could expect another 30 minutes of wait time while they unloaded the remaining bags.  We were lucky and went straight to a coffee shop to regroup. 

In summary, I understand staff shortages. I understand cost projections. However, I’m not sure the airline understands customer service any longer. The system as it currently operates requires the passenger to navigate numerous systems, some of which do not function properly. When the passenger asks for assistance they are directed to self-service kiosks. When the kiosk doesn’t work, the passenger is told to wait in another line. After navigating the myriad of directions for check in and arriving at the gate, passengers are then not so subtly reminded that money defines us. Some passengers with valid tickets are turned away from the flight because the airline oversold seats. If you were lucky enough to get to your destination, you are left to wonder if you will ever be reunited with your bag. You seek help in finding the best course to be reunited with your belongings and find no one on duty. It seems the friendly skies have turned stormy. I’m not sure what the answer is. Flying in 2022 requires patience and perseverance from the traveler. We will just have to keep navigating as best we can and I’ll try to keep my inner Attila the traveler in check. The destination is worth it.