I'm so glad I'm not flying today, or even this week. Now, when worry over airline safety is at a high, is probably one of the safest times to fly - but it's also one of the more frustrating, today especially. So many flights have been cancelled - there will be days worth of rescheduling backlog. No liquids will be allowed in carryon, except for prescription medicines, so there'll be more thirsty people than usual. No toothpaste is allowed for the same reason, so hope many bring mints at least.
Worst of all for the sake of the long hours of flying, no carryon luggage means no books, no game boys, no laptops, no knitting, no magazines, no notebooks. It means spending the long hours of a long-haul flight being bored, and being on a plane full of other equally bored people, adults and children alike. In-flight entertainment systems usually take a few hours to start up at the beginning of a flight. A flight full of bored, fidgety people. At least there's one form of entertainment this will encourage, although just how successfully entertaining it is depends on luck of seating: conversation.
I realize that boredom seems a small price to pay for security, and a small factor indeed in the face of today's rescheduling, cancellation, and 2000 persons of customs backlog at Stansted. But next week and the week after, when I will be travelling, boredom is likely to be a greater risk than all the other mess which today's headlines unfold.
Worst of all for the sake of the long hours of flying, no carryon luggage means no books, no game boys, no laptops, no knitting, no magazines, no notebooks. It means spending the long hours of a long-haul flight being bored, and being on a plane full of other equally bored people, adults and children alike. In-flight entertainment systems usually take a few hours to start up at the beginning of a flight. A flight full of bored, fidgety people. At least there's one form of entertainment this will encourage, although just how successfully entertaining it is depends on luck of seating: conversation.
I realize that boredom seems a small price to pay for security, and a small factor indeed in the face of today's rescheduling, cancellation, and 2000 persons of customs backlog at Stansted. But next week and the week after, when I will be travelling, boredom is likely to be a greater risk than all the other mess which today's headlines unfold.
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owlfish- S. Worthen
- S. Worthen
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It's still looking quite chaotic over here - only one airline has anything flying into Heathrow, because there's no room to store the planes! It should ease up a bit by next week, though. Unless, God forfend, something big does happen.
I suspect the UK will be dealing with at least a few days of travel insanity, just dealing with the aftermath of today - let alone if flights continue to be cancelled for more days.
Interesting that they are reckon the explosives were liquid-based... were it not for the fact that you wouldn't be able to read it on the plane even if you could get hold of a copy, I'd recommend a book called "A big boy did iut and ran away"...
So true about laptops. Their fragility is part of what makes them so compact and portable - which is ironic, given how much sturdier and more resilient their non-travelling desktop counterparts are.
It's only outbound flights from the UK being affected by the no carryon luggage policy currently, and I doubt it'll last very long, not to this extreme. But we'll see.
Big BrotherJohn Reid needs even more powers to foil even more plots.I thought the news said that prescription medicine was only allowed as pills. I must have misheard or got muddled with non-prescription medicine as there are obviously some liquid medicines that some passengers would not be able to pass a long flight without.
"Prescription medicines and medical items sufficient and essential for the flight (eg, diabetic kit), except in liquid form unless verified as authentic" - I have no idea how they'd verify the medicines as authentic. It sounds like a discouragement, but not an out-and-out denial of necessary meds.
As for books for sale on airplanes - talk about a captive and competitive market! And imagine the spin-off airplane book clubs! (They'll seat you with other loyal same-brand airline readers so you can discuss this month's books.) Plus they'd have real incentive to sell books on the shorter side - the cost of being a fast reader would be needing to buy more than one book over the course of a flight.
(Of course, I wish they sold paperbacks in flight too, because I routinely fail to bring a long enough book. *sigh*)
Oh, God, there's nothing I hate more than people talking to me on airplanes! The only exception is when I'm going to the AAR, where I can have a reasonable expectation of sitting next to someone intelligent and interesting. I've created an entire gruff persona just for airplanes. On airplanes I am a person who has NOTHING NOTHING to do with the study of religion or the study of anything really. Because for the entire non-AAR population of the world, "I study religion" seems to be synonymous with "I give a shit about your entire stupid life history and your spiritual struggles and how your parents raised you and why you're not that any more" and ARGH FUCK. I'd rather watch the inflight movie. Even if it is King Kong.
When I got through security, I bought a book and a New Yorker at a bookstand. As I was paying for them, another BA staffer told the cashiers (who were already reluctant to sell me the items) that now books and magazines would not be allowed on board *groan*. I figured I could at least read the magazine in the lounge and try to check the book as needed. I enquired about this at the gate, and they said to hang on to it until they had further information. When I handed them my boarding pass and passport, the agent said nothing about my reading material. We were searched again after walking onto the jetway, with the patdown and examination of the contents of everyone's plastic bags. A few people had large ziploc bags full of stuff, including fruit and books. The flight attendents did their best to hand out all newspapers and magazines left on board to interested passengers, and I passed on my New Yorker so at least 2 other people got to read it (I got a Guardian which I shared with my seat mate).
The inflight entertainment started within 20-30 minutes of take off, I can't say I've ever had to wait more than half an hour for it to start on any airline that offers it, unless they were having technical problems with the dvd system.
Anyway, it didn't end up being a huge deal in the end, though I would have obviously liked to have kept my mobile and iPod, though neither appear to be damaged. I will say this, the lack of hand luggage meant we were off the plane in no time this morning. And I'd rather be inconvenienced than dead. My advice would be to call the airline you are scheduled to fly with and check their baggage policy 24 hours before you leave.
Inflight entertainment usually starts within 30-60 minutes, but there's usually just public service tapes on for the first hour or so on most flights I've been on lately, rather than movies or any choice of content. It's something at least.
I'm glad to know you were permitted a pen on board. I've been having worried thoughts about customs queues exacerbated by a complete lack of pens on board - and thus no one filling out their forms in advance.