Passengers observations at airports

[Mokel]

At the airport. Passengers wearing thick coats. I’m sweating with a thin hoodie on.

Then young woman (mid 20s) in front of me in security wore boots up to the shin and we had to take our shoes off.

Thank goodness for Skechers slip ins

Anything else that baffles you about passengers at airports

I fly most weeks and the thing that continues to both baffle and irritate me is people jumping up the very second the wheels hit the tarmac. Even moreso when it's a budget airline taxiing to a stand at the arse end of nowhere so everyone's piling onto a bus to the terminal.

Ooh me too, nice £18 Bacardi to start my holiday, guaranteed will cost more than the whole litre purchased in duty free

I’m one of the last leave the plane so board the bus last. So leave the bus first. In passport control, I turn around and see those idiots who jump out of their seats as soon as the wheels kiss the tarmac about 70 people behind me.

Serves them right for being impatient

If a bus is involved it’s already gone badly wrong. So being first or last on it is the least of your problems!!

Wouldn't "put the bins out wearing sketchers" but would be having alcoholic drinks at 5 in the morning.
You are hilariiious 😂

Another thing about my frequent medical flights to Marseille is that sometimes I find myself hanging around the terminals for hours between getting the navette to Gare Saint Charles, checking in to my hotel, being at La Timone or various other hospitals and flying back.

It's a bit like being Tom Hanks in the film, "The Terminal."

I get to know everybody.

I was extremely saddened when I found out in the media that some of my airport friends who work at the various sandwich and cake places were being threatened with the sack for giving away leftover food!

Especially because sometimes I have gratefully accepted the odd chevre et miel on the weird seedy bread.

Aéroport Marseille Provence : virés pour avoir donné des sandwichs invendus, des salariés accusent leur direction share.google/cBE8sLbzk8qd4PIld

Airplanes can tip when on the ground. There has been a case (at least once) where the aircraft has tipped up on it's tail because the ac was disembarked through the front passenger/ service door and the hold was emptied from the front.

Also, notimagain has said is likely more of a reason as i recognise the poster and know they know their stuff in regs to com aviation. I won't argue with what they've wrote.

@notimagain i'm thinking specifically about the a320 where tipping is in the cc manual.

True with some types in some edge circumstances, so occasionaly care needs to.be taken during unloading and disembarkation.

OTH the seat swapping restrictions being mentioned are down to ensuring the aircraft centre of gravity position is within published limits and ties in with what's planned for trim purposes, particularly important on take-off.

ETA - apologies we crossed - yes I gather the 320 can be a tipper.

Because people (other than you) are inherently nosey, and bored to death in airports and other areas where waiting is part of the deal. I look at the clothes, the hair, the bags, the couples who are having a blazing row in silence, those who wander off and the companion left minding the bags is slightly panicky, looking and looking at his/her watch. The drunks, the cleaners, the kids. Endless entertainment really and all human life is there.

Not everyone has enough luggage allowance to wear slip ons for the airport and then change into
boots at their destination.

And everyone feels the weather differently.

That’s why I suggested reading a book. I just can’t imagine it being entertaining to be so nosey.

Eh? What now? How else do you suppose an airplane full of people are getting to the terminal if the plane isn't on a terminal stand?

I can only speak for myself, obviously, but as a formerly frequent flier, the reason I leapt to my feet as soon as the seatbelt sign went off was not due to me labouring under the delusion that I was going to magically be able to sprint off the plane to my taxi, but because I simply wanted to stand up after sitting down for so long.

If you’re someone who sits a lot, then maybe sitting on a flight for an hour or several hours, isn’t at all bothersome, but I’m not (I use a walking desk) and I’m very ready to stand while the doors are opened and people get down their bags etc. I always book an aisle seat.

I don't tend to be in the airport long enough for anything more than grabbing a coffee and strolling to my gate, but I definitely couldn't sit and read with so much distraction around me.

The flight is 40 minutes. Behave yourself if you're suggesting half the people on board the flight can't sit for less than an hour.

I clearly find it easier to concentrate on what I’m doing than gawk at random people

My weekly commute was 50 minutes. And, like I said, only speaking for myself.

I don't "gawk" at random strangers either. I do what I need to do and prefer to not have time to kill that needs filling.

But you being able to concentrate in a busy and overstimulating environment doesn't make you superior.

Had almost given up on air travel after too many awful Ryanair flights, drunks being screamed at over the tannoy to sit down during landing, take your own food or pay through the nose, standing out on the tarmac for 45 mins etc, absolute hell. No entertainment beyond observing the drunks. And not that cheap if you want to reserve seats and check baggage.

Then have just flown medium haul with another non-budget airline, same length flight as some Ryanair destinations, my god it felt like luxury even in economy. Hot food, drinks provided, civilised fellow passengers, flight times during daylight hours, good films and music on tap. Just like the olden days!

Choose an airline that mainly uses jet bridges? It’s not that difficult, though even then a bus is occasionally involved! But, to counter the OPs claim she leaves the plane last, is last on the bus but first off and is first to passport control, in my experience if you do suffer the indignity of the bus there are always at least 2, so by the time the OP has got to passport control I’m already in a taxi!!

My biggest gripe at airports is what I believe are disparagingly referred to as gate lice. They are the people that, despite the announcements making it clear in what order boarding will be carried out ( generally the disabled, then those with children, then those in Group 0, then 1, then 2 etc etc) that are always crowding round the gate the moment boarding starts even though they are actually in boarding groups 3/4/5 or whatever

I wasn’t referring to you - Getting there in time just to have a coffee isn’t the same as sitting there finding the lives of randomers endlessly fascinating.

I am AuDHD so I have had to learn to shut out as much of the outside world as possible. I really can’t be bothered with what others are doing and find it baffling that others might care about what I am doing

I mean, I don't really have any sway over flight schedules or routes and nor does anyone else. I choose whichever airline flies to where I need to be.

I’m a frequent flyer. I’m always fascinated by the difference between Gatwick north and south. The north terminal is quite orderly at any time of year. South tho - chaos. It’s like they take all the people who don’t know how to use an airport and make sure they fly from the south terminal

Other than that - drinks at the airport at 7am. I’ll never understand it. I was on a 9:25 flight this morning and two women ordered vodkas and coke on a 55 min flight.

liquid rules can catch you out these days - Gatwick it’s basically whatever now, but on my way home it’s still 100mls. Milan Malpensa T2 still has the plastic bag rule too.

It's not exactly entertainment as such but when I'm Tom Hanks' it at Marseille, I'm surprised by how much it is, between the workers at the airport, the hospitality staff at the airport hotels and the connecting bus and taxi drivers how much people remember me.

It's a little community really. I suppose before the airport was built, there was Marignane, which is a real town, still is a real town and people don't stop being in one place just because the vast majority of the people they deal with are just passing through and the old villages have been concreted over.

Mind you, I do have a soft spot for Marseille.

I like the way they have a big sign on the northern hills spelling out, "MARSEILLE" like the famous, "HOLLYWOOD" letters in between the tower blocks of the 16th arrondissement that a Netflix series put up as an advertising stunt to mock them but they decided that they liked it and kept it.