Just a quick one, while I'm gone

I'm on a brief business trip this week where I'm piloting some stuff for the big trip, which I'll write about later. Just before boarding commenced for my outbound flight yesterday, the gate agent made the following announcement: (I'm paraphrasing, but I promise this is what they said):

No, you can't actually carry it on, April 2012

"We have a full flight. All of your carry-on luggage will not fit. I need 16 bags for gate checking. If you do it now, there won't be any excitement during boarding. And we won't charge you for a checked bag. Or else we'll wind up taking the same number of bags during the boarding process, probably from those of you in the back of the plane. Which will piss you off and piss everyone else off because it will waste time. So just come right up here and give us your bags."

It looks like a big plane to me, April 2012

 

They apparently got enough volunteers, as there didn't seem to be any excitement during the boarding process. The crush to line up and board was a bit more frenetic than usual, however.

As my wife says, they really are going through pains to make air travel as difficult as possible. For years I've refused to fly when driving is possible, even if it theoretically would take longer. I say "theoretically" because between delayed departures, rerouted landings, lost baggage and cancelled flights, it often turns out to actually be quicker to drive despite what the schedules say.

The last time I flew to Boston from NY, which was more than 20 years ago, the flight home - all the remaining flights home - were cancelled one evening because of "thunderstorm activity near Hartford". We wound up spending the night in Boston at a very nice hotel with no change of clothes, toiletries, etc. Since then, I've driven dozens of times without incident, without stress, and WITHOUT ANY FRIGGIN' AIRLINES.