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[RayStorm]

The basic problems of public transportation.

1) Worse than feet or food are smokers.

2) I imagine once someone has kids s/he knows that controlling them is not as easy as it would seem to one who is yet to experience parenthood.

3) It seems that depending on airline or airplane how much a seat relines differs greatly. In general however I have to say: reclining seats in economy have to go. Luckily the only time someone used the reclining feature and my 12" laptop was promptly folded down, when I asked nicely he returned to an upright position.
I fear if I had to suffer through this multiple times with people not as accommodating it would end in violence.

 

[JackAubrey]

soul-destroying experience


haha totally

Had to change nappies on one of my twins on a hovercraft once. Does that count?

 

[freenudemacusers]

Had to change nappies on one of my twins on a hovercraft once. Does that count?

sure

 

[Mesoian]

In seven days?

Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?

 

[apana]

I get motion sick on airplanes. It is incredibly difficult to handle and I have a hard time sleeping on planes as well. I have to wear one of those patches, does anyone have experience with that? I'd love to hear tips from people who have conquered their motion sickness on planes.

 

[SKINNER!]

Do you clap a bus driver when he squeezes through two parked cars?

I would...

Spoiler

sarcasticly

 

[Gustav]

cue this is neogaf gifs

More on topic, I hate flying as well. I really do. It's not so much a fear of crashing or the very fact that I'm trapped 13000 feet in the sky. Although both of those things creep me out a little, what really bothers me is that for some weird reason, what I'm feeling doesn't match up with what is actually happening.

When I close my eyes and try to "feel" what is happening I don't feel like I'm moving at 600mph or whatever. I feel like I'm slowly descending, if anything at all. The sensations don't match up with what the reality of the situation is, leading me to this compulsion of constantly trying to check what the fuck actually is happening. If I can't look out the window, I'm screwed. I need to see how I'm moving. Otherwise I can't get a grasp on the situation.

I get motion sick on airplanes. It is incredibly difficult to handle and I have a hard time sleeping on planes as well. I have to wear one of those patches, does anyone have experience with that? I'd love to hear tips from people who have conquered their motion sickness on planes.

My girlfriend got crazy sick on planes. The last time we flew a transcontinental (non-stop) flight, she puked both ways like 30 minutes after landing.
This year we flew again (1 layover, so effectively 4 flights), knowing how she reacted last time, we got her anti-motion sickness gum (http://www.superpep.com sorry, German!). No sickness at all, just a little stressed out. The gum has dimenhydrinate in it.

 

[Kinyou]

Because computers perform the landing most of the time.

Can those handle crosswinds as well? I was specifically talking about difficult landings.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

Lots of seat reclining hate. Screw that. I am 6'3" I need to recline that shit to put my knees at a tolerable angle. If you are reclined the seat in front of you reclining becomes a non-issue.

I'm 6'3" as well and since I get my knees smashed every time the person in front of me reclines, I don't like to do it out of respect for the person behind me. Plus, I often have a laptop or iPad sitting on the tray, it kind of messes with that too.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

Actually it has become more regulated and better. They can't have you sit on the tarmac in a blistering hot airplane anymore for hours anymore. Sitting there for 3 hours in 100 degree Dallas when a plane only really cools itself when it is in the air on a tarmac watching Everyone Loves Raymond episodes on a loop is hell.

Don't get me wrong, that's great progress and all but that's also an awfully low bar we're setting here...

 

[Anticitizen One]

Planes are just so uncomfortable and I hate sitting around doing nothing for 3-6 (even longer if going to another continent) hours during flight.

None of the American airlines even serve food anymore like they used to back in the 90s

 

[Tawpgun]

No Louis CK link yet?

Honestly, I would be totally for an airline that is the bare minimum experience. Packed seats, no food, no tv no anything extra.

Just get me from point A to B for cheap. I wish I could travel further more but the costs are brutal.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

Honestly, I would be totally for an airline that is the bare minimum experience. Packed seats, no food, no tv no anything extra.

That sounds rather like a typical U.S. flight to be honest, only with the added value of not being cheap.

 

[teruterubozu]

Germs, disease, snot, feces, viruses. I don't give a shit about babies and lack of space - it's getting sick that makes me HATE planes. Nothing like getting sick on the way to vacation. The dry air swirling around a pressurized cabin makes it an ideal breeding ground for sickness and yet you can't escape. And they NEVER clean those cabins properly. Oh god I can't breathe...

 

[Archer]

I always worry that the discount airlines aren't paying their mechanics enough to properly maintain the airplane.

http://jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/102004/D85R7FCG0.shtml or http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/10/20/fbi-probes-punctures-in-us-airways-jets is one example. A mechanic stabbed the jet's air frame with a screw driver. Obviously, the guy was whack, but allegedly it was because he didn't get a raise.

 

[FriedConsole]

I get motion sick on airplanes. It is incredibly difficult to handle and I have a hard time sleeping on planes as well. I have to wear one of those patches, does anyone have experience with that? I'd love to hear tips from people who have conquered their motion sickness on planes.

Despite flying all the time I still get motion sick on rough flights. I take some Dramamine and it works wonders and will also help you sleep. Try getting some Sprite or Ginger Ale if you don't have the Dramamine. I can't read on flights so I would avoid reading. Weirdly I have no problems playing my Vita or DS.

 

[Toxi]

I get headaches and my ears pop like TNT. They've been doing that for the last 20 years and I still can't stand it. Gum doesn't help, water doesn't help, swallowing doesn't help, nothing helps.

Noise doesn't bother me, though. If someone's screaming, I just put on headphones.

 

[Ty4on]

Shit, if I knew that I'd clap every time. That's amazing.

Being reminded of this always makes me search for CAT 3 landing on Youtube

 

[Herne]

I haven't done much flying, but I always enjoyed it. I never reclined my chair nor had someone do that to me, the cabin (in economy) was always fairly quiet and I've never lost loving the experience of flight. Though my ears popping is never anything but annoying and painful.

Airports, on the other hand, can fuck right off.

 

[Lamel]

Eh kids on planes are noisy and inconveniencing sure, but they are kids. You can't reasonably expect people to stay home for 5 years until their kids develop, and even then who knows.

Just deal with it, or buy first class tickets.

 

[Cheech]

Can those handle crosswinds as well? I was specifically talking about difficult landings.

As far as I know, yeah. In fact, on the big commercial airliners, the autoland is used primarily on difficult/low visibility landings. Pilots typically disengage and do manual landings if the weather is a-ok and it's not too windy. I have no idea why this is.

Although, now that I think about it, it's probably a) so pilots don't get lazy and therefore less observant, and b) so they can make adjustments the autopilot wouldn't think to make, like when they get heading/altitude info from flight control.

 

[Lamel]

As far as I know, yeah. In fact, on the big commercial airliners, the autoland is used primarily on difficult/low visibility landings. Pilots typically disengage and do manual landings if the weather is a-ok and it's not too windy. I have no idea why this is.

Computers assist, pilots land. Majority of the time the landing is done by pilots themselves.

And having hand flying skills are necessary and practiced over time, because if the autopilot crashes, then what?

 

[Mammoth Jones]

If someone reclines into my knees I tend you yell "Ow! My knees!" And thrash about until they get the point.

Smelly food? Never had a problem with that? Is it a common thing?

My biggest issues is noisy babies but that was made moot when I bought some noise canceling headphones. Toss on some podcasts and relax.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I hope you mean short flights. There's no way anyone can fly 20+ hours without at least reclining their seat.

I mean all flights. The seats should not recline, there just isn't enough legroom. If it's a very long flight, people need to get up and walk around once in a while.

 

[Neo C.]

I don't get the complain about reclining. All people recline their seats on a long flight, and you people better not complain when I have my 11+ hours flight from Europe to East Asia.

Airports, on the other hand, can fuck right off.

Airport in Hong Kong is fine, Zurich is nice too. Bangkok isn't bad either. And I hope I'll get enough miles for the lounge experience.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Everything about flying sucks. It is about as miserable as it could possibly be. I guess if they made you lay on the floor slave ship style, that would be worse, but just barely

 

[Cheech]

Computers assist, pilots land. Majority of the time the landing is done by pilots themselves.

And having hand flying skills are necessary and practiced over time, because if the autopilot crashes, then what?

One thing I remember reading long ago is that when you land really hard, that is probably due to them using autoland. Computers don't give a shit about soft landings.

 

[Trouble]

Just buy 12,150 pudding cups to get 1,253,000 frequent flier miles and you can get first class upgrades for life like this guy did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Phillips_(entrepreneur)

 

[Hieberrr]

Flying economy sucks. How the fuck is anyone able to sleep in those seats on those 20+ hour flights. Fuck me...

 

[diffusionx]

this is ridiculous. No reclining seats?

Why is it ridiculous? Reclining seats destroy the personal space and legroom of the person behind you and doesn't make it that much more comfortable. It basically funks up the entire experience for everyone in that column.

The seats can be designed with a little bit of tilt, but locked into place.

 

[BigJonsson]

And whats the deal with airplane peanuts?

 

[BigJonsson]

I had a conservative Jewish man pop open a tupperware full of old fish about 20min into a LA --> NYC flight. I wanted to fucking murder him.

Why did you feel the need to point that out?

Oh yeah, in my experience orthodox jews are the worst passengers in terms of etiquette.

From what I've noticed they always get way more nervous too and the whole box-on-head cradling back-and-forward thing is pretty annoying if you're sat next to them.

The what?

 

[nOoblet16]

Why is it ridiculous? Reclining seats destroy the personal space and legroom of the person behind you and doesn't make it that much more comfortable. It basically funks up the entire experience for everyone in that column.

The seats can be designed with a little bit of tilt, but locked into place.

No, reclining is expected and if it takes up space you can recline yours too...what exactly is the problem here? the person behind you will do the same thing. Reclining is not about just about leg space, the posture of your body in a non reclined position is very tight and can cause body ache if on a long flight. I find it impossible to maintain my body in that posture when on a 15-20 hour trans continental economy flight.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Why is it ridiculous? Reclining seats destroy the personal space and legroom of the person behind you and doesn't make it that much more comfortable. It basically funks up the entire experience for everyone in that column.

The seats can be designed with a little bit of tilt, but locked into place.

The problem is no leg room, not the guy reclining his seat 1.5 inches into your personal space

 

[NathanMcMahon]

You haven't lived until you've flown First Class across the Atlantic on an 11 hour voyage.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Wow, it seems reclining airplane seats is the new tipping on GAF. lol

Edit: Damn right I recline my seat. I've flown maybe 100 times in my life. Literally every single one of those times the person in front of me reclined their seats.

 

[sikkinixx]

Fuck recliners. The ones from start to finish deserve to be slapped. Especially when trying to eat or do anything basically.

Especially annoying is people who grab and pull themselves in/out of the seats, jerking them back and forth.

And fuck airports too. Security lines people getting mad at having to be waved with a metal detector wand or having to take off your shoes. Screeching "Violating my privacy!!" should have you escorted from the airport. It's not hard. EMPTY YOUR POCKETS! "Oops... Forgot some change in there..." Fuuuuuuuck. "We are boarding those that need physical assistance" and EVERYONE rushes to the gate. SIT DOWN AND WAIT YOU FUCKING ANIMALS.


I'm generally pretty easy going but for some reason the entire flying experience from the minute I walk into the airport to people cutting in line every step of the way to dealing with flying itself to waiting through customs or luggage carousel. I just get so angry with the selfishness of people. I should smoke a joint or something before I start thing.

 

[Dark Octave]

Most common things that really get to me on airplanes. What are yours?

Smelly food. Examples, 5am flight and a mothers four boys all have a hefty pile of fried breakfast items. 9am flight, this woman right next to me before the plane even takes off cracks open a bag of onion flavored chips. Honestly, do you realize there are other human beings around you in this tight pressurized cabin? Do you need to have the smelliest food on this 3 hour flight right now and not before or after the flight.

Noisey kids/babies. I honestly cannot for the life of me fathom why you would go to a beautiful tropical desination with a 1 to 3 year old. Sure, they could have relatives there or maybe they won the trip on wheel of fortune but I know neither of those are likely. Wait until your kids are grown up. Same goes for other crowded events. I am going to do my part as a respectable parent and just stay home for a few years so noone else has to hear my baby crying the whole time. Im not even really talking about a baby that will cry for a few minutes every hour. Last flight there was this six year old looking 2 year old that was throwing the biggest temper tantrum i have ever seen. the mother almost dropped him twice while he was spinning in her hands like a new yorkers pizza dough and you can tell this wasnt their first rodeo. Seriously, if you have the wildest craziest baby, stay home.

Reclining issues. You know the seat wont recline no matter how hard you push the button or when you actually are able to recline the person behind you pushes on the back of your seat because they either think that is their space or are afraid it will just keep reclining until it hits their lap. Last time it was the passenger behind me was trying to catch my seat while it was reclining cause it was going to "fall into me".

As a parent of a soon to be two year old and seven week old who is about to take a trip involving a plane to visit my wife's family for the holidays, I don't think I need to tell you what you can pucker up and start smooching on.

Am I looking forward to it? No. Do I know the hell I will be in and putting everyone on the plane in? Yes. Is there anything that I can do about it? Absolutley not.

Also, if you recline on a plane, you are the lowest piece of human shit. It's not even a satisfying recline anyway.

 

[Skellig Gra]

As a parent of a soon to be two year old and seven week old who is about to take a trip involving a plane to visit my wife's family for the holidays, I don't think I need to tell you what you can pucker up and start smooching on.

Crying babies is one thing, but when the kids are like 7-10 years old is when I start getting pissed off. That has much more to do with parental indifference than a baby who has basically no self control.

 

[Choppasmith]

I've always had a great experience on my 12 hour flights from L.A. to New Zealand. There's plenty of leg room (I'm 6'4"), so if the person in front of me reclines the worst that happens is I can't use my tray(but that's fine because the flight attendants make everyone or their seats forward when they pass out food.

When you're used to 12 hour flights a 3-5 hour flight across the country in a cheaper plane is nothing.

 

[nomster]

Having been on both sides of the issue now I can say that the parents of those noisy babies are for the most part way more disturbed and aggravated than you are. There are the occasional bad apples that don't give a fuck but the rest are trying to quiet that kid down.

Their lives don't need to stop so you can have a two and a half hour ride in peace.

 

[Dark Octave]

Crying babies is one thing, but when the kids are like 7-10 years old is when I start getting pissed off. That has much more to do with parental indifference than a baby who has basically no self control.

True, but it's still bad when you brought this thing (now in stereo) that will ruin so many people's flights on the plane and everyone on it hates you because of it. It's so bad, the thought almost passed my mind of asking my wife to go by herself (and the kids) just so I don't have to go through what I know will be pure hell. I know that's just the most messed up thing to do though and I don't have it in me.

Oh god...

 

[Devolution]

Big planes are pretty awful. They just have these small hoppers from Portland to Oakland (and the reverse) for Alaska. Only two rows and two seats next to each other instead of three. More leg room. Better chairs.

this:

so much better

 

[BigJonsson]

Pretty sure the OP is only bothered by crying infants on flights to Caribbean vacation spots, not parents taking their kids to visit family

 

[FlyinJ]

Reclining makes you a douche?

I don't think I have ever had someone in front of my not recline their chair if they chair allows it on every single flight I've ever taken. And I fly about 6 times a year.

As soon as the light goes on, bam they recline. Which forces me to recline, as I lost room.

I've also never acknowledged anyone behind me before reclining. I've never had anyone acknowledge me... and I've never seen anyone acknowledge anyone else before reclining their seats.

What bizarro world do you people live in where everyone's talking over their seats to each other to see if it's OK that they can move their seat back an inch and a half?

The worst part about reclining for me is when I fly Virgin on a trans-atlantic. The viewing angle of the seat-back LCD screens gets completely dark when you're looking at it at that angle. I end up not only having to recline my own chair, but I need to slouch down in the seat to correct the viewing angle.

 

[Goldrush]

Every time I hear a screaming baby or toddler on a plane, I just empathized with the parents. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have all the parenting tools/strategies taken away. They can't even use their voice because it would probably cause an even bigger scene. At that age, the kids don't really even grasp delayed punishments and rewards.

 

[God Dayumm]

I think I can handle noise better that body odor. Airlines should demand showers before the flight, just like pools do

 

[Salsa]

I love riding anything as a passenger really as long as I can look out a window and listen to music. Love riding the bus and a plane is like a bus in the sky, fine with me.

 

[Dark Octave]

Reclining makes you a douche?

FlyinJ
Douchebag. Yes, me.
(Today, 12:40 PM)

 

[Agent Cooper]

I only flew once and it was pretty okay. The ear popping thing wasn't too pleasant, but it was pretty okay.

on the way back, though, this business guy decided to take out his entire office and it was spilling over into my mom's seat and wow what a jerk

i called him business bill