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.