What to Expect When You Travel in 2023

Ahh…  Air travel.  A luxury once enjoyed only by the rich is now enjoyed by just about everyone and almost everything.  Commercial air travel has come a long way since its first flight in May 1908.

The Golden Age of travel in the 1950s and 1960s, with its “lavish silver-service meals and fine wines” and ample legroom is now a modern-day Chiva bus with unruly adults, children, and pets, and seats that force you to bend your knees to your chest if you’re taller than 5’5”.

I’m genuinely surprised airlines kept the cargo hold for our luggage and didn’t pack us in there like stowaways, transporting our luggage in an Amazon courier bag attached to the plane’s tail and air dropped military-style at our destination.

Don’t get any ideas, airlines!

Nowadays, you should count yourself lucky if you board your flight and find your seat without any drama, find space in the overhead bin above or across from you, are not kicked off (dragged off) due to weight restrictions or an oversold flight, and depart and arrive on time.

For many, flying is a necessity.  Most business travelers and frequent flyers understand the risk that comes with flying and are able to remain calm when shit hits the fan; they have their executive/personal assistants on speed dial, ready to implement Plan B.

It’s the people who fly the least who have apocalyptic-style meltdowns, sparing no airline employee in sight.  It’s with these folks in mind that I write this piece.

Delays! Delays! Delays!

During the height of my travel years between 2003-2018, I experienced a total of three flight delays.  My limited experience with flight delays was a result of traveling during off-peak seasons.

Today, however, delays are a part of the travel experience no matter the time of year.  Since 1998, delays have increased overall by sixty-two percent (for the economic toll, click here).  And it’s only going to get worse as more people take to the skies and the effects of climate change worsen.

But it’s not only an increase in the number of people traveling and extreme weather events that are contributing to delays. 

Many airlines operate ancient technology that is ill-suited for the 21st century, a well-known fact that contributed to Southwest’s recent meltdown.  The airline had experienced two previous technological issues resulting in massive delays system-wide in 2019 and 2021.

---

Add to that mix the disastrous combination of airlines pushing for a return to normalcy during a pandemic, yet simultaneously furloughing a significant portion of its workforce and accepting early retirement notices from others.  Airlines found themselves understaffed and ill-prepared for the 2021 travel season, and have yet to fully recover two years later.

There is serious doubt airlines will ever fully recover their pre-COVID stable workforce if they don’t do something about the way they schedule above and below the wing employees, and address verbal and physical assaults from passengers.  Before COVID, veterans of the airline industry weathered every figurative and literal storm because the benefits outweighed any downsides.

That’s not the case anymore.  The downsides are many with very few benefits left to entice employees to stay, veterans and new hires alike.  A revolving door of employees in any business is a sign of mismanagement, but mismanagement of employees in the aviation industry increases flight delays and cancellations.

---

Mismanagement of space is an additional factor contributing to delays.  We’re running out of space, folks!  We don’t have enough gates or runways to service the thousands of flights that take-off and land in the United States.  The lack of construction of new airports and runways is a result of communities pushing back against air and noise pollution.

Regardless of your position in that argument, the reality is that we need air travel.  Air travel facilitates the transportation of U.S. mail, medical equipment and supplies, and other necessities.  It also transports the millions of people who travel year round for various reasons.

---

There’s no question that the amount of human beings using air travel for personal and professional reasons has increased since the 1960s, which means carbon emissions from airplanes have increased exponentially.  The increase in carbon emissions has contributed significantly to climate change, which means we’re experiencing extreme weather events more frequently year round.

There are rules in place to keep passengers and crews safe during major storms.  For example, ground personnel (i.e., ramp workers and baggage handlers) will be ordered back into the airport if lightning is detected 5nm or 9km from the airport.  Gates will close and airplanes will remain grounded until dispatch and ATC give the green light.

Instances such as these cause a domino effect of delays across an airline’s system.

I detailed the causes of delays because it’s the part of the travel experience that most frustrates travelers, but delays aren’t the only negative aspect of flying.

Inflight Experience

Your inflight experience could be a hit or a miss.

You could experience a quiet flight: No crying babies or rowdy children, and adults who behave like mature adults; make it to your seat without any problems; find space for your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment.  Hell!  Your flight could depart on time with an expected early arrival.

Or it was all a dream and you could experience any of the following:

• Experience: You’re definitely going to be on a full flight.  Empty and semi-empty flights are long gone.
• What to Do: Please stop asking flight attendants if the flight is full.  If you want an empty plane, work seven jobs to afford a seat on a private jet.
• Experience: You’re going to find someone sitting in your seat because that person wants to sit next to their significant other or friend.
• What to Do: Yes, you can get the flight attendant involved to resolve the issue if you can’t resolve the issue yourself (one of the few exceptions for which a flight attendant should be called).

Side note (to women): If you and your boyfriend are separated by two or twenty rows because you booked your flight at the last minute, do not sit in someone else’s seat first with the expectation that they’ll take your shitty seat.

You don’t know how many times, as a passenger and a flight attendant, I had to deal with a woman who would plop herself next to her man and try to negotiate a change.

I don’t know why women are obsessed with sitting next to their man only to be ignored by said man for the entire flight, or vice versa.

If you’re afraid your man is going to strike up a conversation with the woman that eventually sits next him, then you have serious insecurities issues that require professional help or you know your man is a player and you should dump him already.

• Experience: If you boarded last, you’re not going to find space in the overhead compartment.  It’s possible but very unlikely.
• What to Do: Check your carry-on bag at the gate.  Just check the damned thing.
• Experience: The passenger in front of you reclines their seat.
• What to Do: Deal with it.  Every passenger has a right to recline their seat.  Your beef is with the airline that thought very little of you and decided to sacrifice your comfort for more money.
• Experience: If you bought a basic economy ticket, your entire body is going to hurt.
• What to Do: Work five jobs to afford a seat in First Class.
• Experience: The restrooms are Harry Potter-size broom closets on some planes.
• What to Do: Go to the bathroom at the airport to avoid going on the airplane, or slim down.  Same goes for long-haul flights.
• Experience: Served stale pretzels or cookies.
• What to Do: Don’t eat them.
• Experience: Wi-Fi doesn’t work.
• What to Do: Stop complaining and read a book, or talk to your kids.

It’s Not All Bad if You Know What to Expect

I’ve been flying since I was two or three years old and have flown to over thirty countries as an adult; and I was a flight attendant for three years.  Air travel has changed quite a lot and not always for the better.

It’s safer than ever to fly, but delays, for any reason, and cramped planes are making the travel experience a hard pill to swallow.

We could have punished airlines for shrinking the space between rows by truly following through on the common threat spat at flight attendants by angry passengers, “I’m never flying this airline again!”  But no one ever did follow through with that threat, and now we have society’s ills packed into a transcontinental flight.

We’re also not doing anything to fight climate change, so I’m equally as disinclined to feel any sympathy for passengers who experience flight delays and cancellations, or become stranded due to both.

And while I understand the need to reduce air and noise pollution, I don’t see any of those people reducing their consumption or fighting to implement greener solutions like high-speed railways.  Both would help address people’s valid concerns about the effects of air travel, and would help mitigate extreme weather events.

---

Those of us with extensive travel experience understand the risk that comes with air travel.

We understand that no airline employee can fully control an aircraft’s on time departure or arrival.  They cannot control the weather.  They don’t have a say in an aircraft’s modifications or the technology used to plan an aircraft’s schedule.

You can’t control any of these factors either.  What can you control?  Your attitude and your temper by understanding the realty we’re all living in. Don’t take it out an airline employee.

Your travel experience is dependent on factors well-beyond your or airline employees’ control.  You should plan for the worst and hope for the best, and mind your temper at all times.