Travelling can be challenging, particularly during the Christmas/New Year holidays. It is a means to an end- get to your loved ones for Christmas, for example- but can be a stressful experience for a lot of people. It is undoubtedly not fun to be stuck behind a queue of cars on the motorway, knowing that the Christmas turkey is about to be served at the table at your parents’ house but you are not going to be there for the meal with the rest of the family. While they are taking their share of the festive feast you are here on the road with a bunch of strangers, and, depending on the country you are in, some of them could have decided to be rather nasty to you because it is obviously all your fault they are there with you.
I flew home for Christmas this year. Things seemed relatively calm at the airport until a lady at the check-in counter decided to wreck the peace by shouting at the air-hostess because she was told she had too many pieces of hand luggage. The lady said that she had done this before; she hadn’t exceeded the allowed weight/size/volume of luggage and she needed to have both bags with her on the plane. The air-stewardess was very sorry but it was airline policy; could the lady not try to stow one of the bags into the other one and/or shift some of the things in the bags into her hold luggage? At this point the lady pounded the check-in desk and screamed at her. She was trying to bring Christmas presents home; most of the things in her hand luggage were fragile so NO she CANNOT POSSIBLY transfer them into the hold luggage or try to cram everything into one piece of hand luggage. Why was this happening to her? And with that she sobbed at the counter. The air-stewardess looked lost. Nobody else from the airline came to her help and eventually she said,’ Madam I will not have you speak to me in that manner.’ At this point I finished my check in and so didn’t know what happened to the lady and her presents. Not quite Christmas time, mistletoe and wine.
Its not all doom and gloom. Might as well make the best of bad situations. A number of passengers went missing after they checked in for their flight to Alicante. The airline stewards seemed quite desperate to get them to their destination and made a number of pleas for them to hurry to the departure gate, delaying the flight so that they could get on. You may be going ’aaaaahhhhh’ at a heart-warming story of human kindness but this is the prelude to a line that had me laughing for some time. The announcement ended thus: ’ Failure to arrive at the departure gate within the next minute will result in you and your luggage being removed from the plane.’ I wondered if the person who wrote the script wanted to check how long it would be before one of the announcers noticed what they were reading. I would have missed this had my flight not been delayed.
I flew home for Christmas this year. Things seemed relatively calm at the airport until a lady at the check-in counter decided to wreck the peace by shouting at the air-hostess because she was told she had too many pieces of hand luggage. The lady said that she had done this before; she hadn’t exceeded the allowed weight/size/volume of luggage and she needed to have both bags with her on the plane. The air-stewardess was very sorry but it was airline policy; could the lady not try to stow one of the bags into the other one and/or shift some of the things in the bags into her hold luggage? At this point the lady pounded the check-in desk and screamed at her. She was trying to bring Christmas presents home; most of the things in her hand luggage were fragile so NO she CANNOT POSSIBLY transfer them into the hold luggage or try to cram everything into one piece of hand luggage. Why was this happening to her? And with that she sobbed at the counter. The air-stewardess looked lost. Nobody else from the airline came to her help and eventually she said,’ Madam I will not have you speak to me in that manner.’ At this point I finished my check in and so didn’t know what happened to the lady and her presents. Not quite Christmas time, mistletoe and wine.
Its not all doom and gloom. Might as well make the best of bad situations. A number of passengers went missing after they checked in for their flight to Alicante. The airline stewards seemed quite desperate to get them to their destination and made a number of pleas for them to hurry to the departure gate, delaying the flight so that they could get on. You may be going ’aaaaahhhhh’ at a heart-warming story of human kindness but this is the prelude to a line that had me laughing for some time. The announcement ended thus: ’ Failure to arrive at the departure gate within the next minute will result in you and your luggage being removed from the plane.’ I wondered if the person who wrote the script wanted to check how long it would be before one of the announcers noticed what they were reading. I would have missed this had my flight not been delayed.
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