Dear airport workers: we passengers are trying our best
Dear people who work at the airport
A frequent flyer's open letter to airport staff apologizes for passenger confusion, from the elderly woman who doesn't understand boarding calls to the contradictory signs and instructions. The author, despite hundreds of thousands of miles, still finds airports baffling and offers a free consultation to designers, comparing himself to Temple Grandin for the terminal.
We were trying do the right thing, and we weren't to know that the bags we were planning to take with us in the cabin were not "cabin bags" as you understand them.
- patchorang
I can't agree more. I was once catching a flight, went to my gate and found no one there and the flight status monitors saying "Cancelled". I couldn't find an agent at any desk, so went back out of security to check-in to figure out what was going on. The agent proceeded to act like I was the biggest idiot in the world for leaving the gate because "we don't control those boards, your flight isn't cancelled, the gate was changed". So I had to run back through security to barely catch my flight.
Another place I experience this phenomenon is bike shops. They'll start talking to you with specialized vocabulary and won't give you the time of day if you don't know exactly what they're talking about. Yet, I brought my bike to the bike shop because I'm not an expert bike mechanic. Funny enough, I couldn't find a bike shop that wasn't like this so with the help of youtube I do all my own bike work now.
- foo-bar-baz529
I dislike the sense of judgment from TSA officials when I don’t correctly predict which items they do/don’t want me to put in the tray. It’s not my fault that different airports seem to have completely different rules for the same items.
- piinbinary
This has some lessons that apply much more broadly than to just airports (e.g. apps that make you jump through hoops and expect you to know what 2fa or SSO mean)
- ASUfool
Here's more fun with flight numbers that just occurred.
How about AA using the same flight number for an arriving flight and a departing flight within 30 minutes of each other?
https://ktar.com/arizona-news/two-american-airlines-flights-...
- neko_ranger
Am I crazy or are the general workers at most US airports of dubious quality at best?
- xvxvx
Last time I flew, it was with United and I highly recommend their app. Clearly designed by people who know airports suck. It automated everything, from checkin and tickets, kept me updated on flights and gates, mapped them out and told me how long it would take to get to the gate and where security lines were the longest. Even tracked my checked luggage.
- superxpro12
i think that 90% of these problems would be solved by an easily accessible, standardized map of each airport.
When i attempted to find airport maps, I was met with a mess of mobile apps, mobile website pdf's, and an enormous amount of text.
Just... give me an easy to use map. Call out the obvious use cases like "how to transfer terminals" and "your bags will/will-not be checked through".
- VeninVidiaVicii
Everything you’re saying is how I feel as a native English speaker and it drives me absolutely nuts. People in airports are obsessed with telling you what you can’t do.
The one thing that kind of works for me is, “Well, what should I do?” when they bark orders about what I can’t do.
“You can’t have your boarding pass in your hand!”, when you’re in the x-ray. “Where should I put it now?”
Oh well, it turns out I actually can have it in my hand. Thanks.