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Thread: the horrors of air travel

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
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    Default the horrors of air travel

    the horrors of air travel

    This week I had some really worthwhile vists to customers, but the travel was the worst experience in a very long time. Things can be really bad, low quality, accosting, weirdos. Not all travel is this bad but I hit the jackpot.

    day 1:
    * evening flight. 3 hours in a seat designed for a mannequin or scarecrow.
    * TSA rooting around in my checked wheeled luggage bag and pawing through my business attire and underwear while I stood there. Commented on my shoes. "Floorsheim, nice!..." WTF some kind of kinky shoe admirer I guess. Did not even look at the ham radio HT or the hard case with some custom made circuit boards in it.
    * Then before I could say I want to repack that because of the electronics, -throwing- the bag, with the custom expensive circuit boards, on the conveyor belt. Significance of $3000 circuit boards months of work and the importance of business was not comprehendable to the footwear-obsessed underwear inspector TSA nazi.


    day 2:
    * training distributors' field engineers and visting customers' lab and design engineers. salesman drove me to all.


    day 3:
    * visting customers' lab and design engineers. salesman drove me to all and to airport.
    * security - felt up and junk groped by TSA goon without warning. Must be some kind of homosexual or a rubber glove pervert. Warned him against trying that again.
    * 2 hours in a seat designed for a mannequin or scarecrow.
    * TSA rooting around in my checked bag, found ham radio HT. called me away from my gate to a room to ask about it. Did not ask about circuit boards. asked many questions about my ham radio and failed to understand the simplest of answers (even that it does the same thing as his radio except that it is for a different service), reflecting the fact that TSA personnel are not only molesting perverts but are really the stupidest cattle on the face of the earth. That experience was terminated when I got out my license and informed the ignorant baboon that I am under federal authority to posess and use that equipment and this authorization overrides any TSA objections to it being in checked baggage, whether they understand the equipment or not. That answer was accepted. I will use it earlier next time.
    *barely made it to gate to board.
    * Some goober was in my aisle seat and did not want to move. Had to get a flight attendant to order the person to move to their own seat. As it turned out, the goober's seat was a window next to the screaming baby in the middle seat and parent on the aisle.


    day 4:
    * training distributors' field engineers and visting customers' lab and design engineers. salesman drove me to all.
    * got a call that the evening flight was cancelled and rescheduled for 0-dark-thirty the following day. Could not reach travel agency to fix seating arrangement (aisle required)
    * Salesman asked @ 5PM if I wanted dinner then kept me out till 11PM with entertaining of customers' enginers. The engineers were more appreciative of the products after a steak dinner and few drinks. Quite a few drinks. I do not drink so I had only two, which was an advantage.


    Day 5:
    * 2.5 hours sleep. boarding time 0500.
    * Hassle getting aisle seat, which is what the original reservation of 2 months ago had confirmed. Finally pulled out my handicap 'car windshield hanger', which I very seldom use but do take when traveling. Told the agent I have to be able to get to the restroom on short notice and elaborated in graphic detail until what can happen. the aisle seat requirement was met.
    * I doubt the airline, at fault for theor broken equipment, will compensate me for the hotel I had to stay an extra night in.
    * 3.5 hours in a seat designed for a mannequin or scarecrow.
    * back in my home city, the foreign cab driver tried to add a $3 charge because I would pay with a credit card. Relented when I said that was illegal and I would call the cab commissioner unless he took $20 off the cab fare ($60) right then (penalties are fines starting some $250 and suspensions). The cabbie said that wasn't fair. I said 'then why do you try to cheat your customers?' I paid the proper/lawful meter fare and got out.


    - I've made a decision to drive now to the cities of all visits, even if it takes two days and I have to use a vacation day to do it.
    - I doubt airline travel will ever return to what is 'normal', or was 'normal'. It can only get worse and worse. That is, there are rumored to be levels in hell, each worse than the next.
    - The final evolution of air travel will no doubt include iron seats with spikes on them, pay toilets, no free water, a fee if you get out of your seat, satan's demons as the TSA (already happening), and the souls and dignity of the passengers burned as the fuel of the industry.
    It is the will of Landru.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    Alabama
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    270

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    Sounds like a fun time. I also hate flying commercially. It used to be fun.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    Churchill(hour S from Houston)
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    Three trips from Texas to SELEM- twice by car- nearly involved is a multi-car/truck pile-up. And a close call with my co-driver getting us pulled over for going 85 in a 55 zone even tho I warned him that last year I got a speeding in ALMOST the same spot. They could have arrested the driver and towed the car leaving me stranded with a ton of gear.

    For SELEM 2012 I got a swell discount at the last minute, only to find out the next day I had booked the wrong airport to take advantage of the free ride offered to me to and from the event. That was an $80 mistake. On the second leg of the return flight as I was trying to pull all three of my bags from the parking lot elevator as I was grabbing the second bag a guy stepped between me and my bags trying to help and I was blocked from grabbing my most valuable bag from the elevator so my pelican flight case went back up to the fourth floor by itself. Waiting to see if I would even get it back seemed like 5 min. but when the elevator came back my case was still there along with a elderly couple who may have saved me from getting my case stolen.

    I am already working on a TEXAS to SELEM car pool with 2 or 3 others.

    Opcom.. are you interested? same to sugeek-Mr Willing, displaser et al . I will not go to SELEM 2013 any other way. I also will not carpool with any that cannot get away long enough to be there early Thurs and leave either Sunday nite or on Monday AND have no desire to set any records times to get there.

    If you have the right vehicle I have the perfect 4X8 utility trailer for all the gear we want to bring. Four people in a suite works fine for me at $25 each per nite- you can take the beds. I am peachy with my airbed.
    Last edited by hakzaw1; 12-25-2012 at 18:14.

  4. #4
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    A lab with some dripping water on the floor.
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    Four day trip to Florida two years ago. TSA destroys a bit of legit medical gear that I need. No sleep for 4 days because they poured water based "explosives detecting" fluid into the gear, then dropped it, killing the electronics. The humidity sensor in the unit detected the dampness and set the EEPROM to "terminate" use. Considering that about 3 percent of the population owns one, they should know better. Was not allowed to accompany my perscription device to the back room screening. I saw him drop it.

    Could not get a replacement one under Florida law. Without seeing a Florida specialist and having Florida tests....
    This would have required checking myself into a Florida hospital while un-insured at least overnight, after trying to find a local Doc to see me.
    Figure about 2500$ to make that happen on a emergency basis plus another 700 for the device.

    Lost the client because I could not concentrate well after day two. Could have had very severe consequences health wise.

    Next time, requested hand inspection, told lead TSA guy what had happened last time. Got taken to front of TSA line, allowed to accompany device. Blocked fluid based inspection, treated like royalty. I scared the F&*& out of the TSA guys upfront. I've found that is needed. Let them KNOW up front your not up for any BS, perferably being good natured and professional about it.

    All for a plastic housed circuit board based medical device that is transparent under X-ray. All because of some consultant "suspecting" that a piece of light weight medical electronics would be a good housing for a device. It took concerted national action by device users to get TSA to stop this, and odds are some people got killed because of it. It did not help that humidty sensors were added to the units so lawyers could block lawsuits from people who "bathed" their units to clean them.

    I drive now, its easier, cheaper, and I have control over my gear. I'm loosing business because of this mess.


    Steve
    Last edited by mixedgas; 12-27-2012 at 09:04.

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