Airplane Etiquette

            Air travel, while more popular than ever, also seems to be more stressful. As airlines struggle with delays and cancellations, tweak their boarding plans and generally try to make life for their customers at least tolerable, the customers—that would be us—deal with the big things, and the nagging little things, too.

            The numbers themselves are staggering. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. airlines flew over a trillion revenue passenger miles in the 12-month period ending September 1, 2023. One passenger mile is equal to one passenger going one mile. This is an increase of 17.4% over the previous 12 months. Planes flew at about 80% of capacity, which might seem surprising, since every time we get on a plane it seems to be jam-packed. Capacity hadn’t really changed from one year to the next, and airlines actually increased the number of flights by about 4%, so why does it seem flights are not only more full, but more uncomfortable than before?

            I have a feeling it’s more a case of passenger behavior on flights than it is with planes being more crowded. Many reports have hit media outlets in recent months about unruly, or at least impolite, passenger behavior. Travelers seem to be paying less attention to “airplane etiquette.” A recent article in USA Today listed the 7 most offensive airplane behaviors, based on a survey by Skyscan. Here they are, from the least-offensive on the list to the most:

·         Switching seats. Maybe you’ve paid extra for the window seat, or one with more legroom…and when you board, someone asks you to switch. “I want to sit next to my kids,” they might say, or “I want to be closer to the bathroom. Would you mind?” Chances are, you do mind, since you paid extra to sit exactly where you are.

·         Using both armrests. Having a seatmate who won’t share armrests can be very annoying. Nearly a third of travelers say using both armrests is an etiquette no-no, even if you’re in the uncomfortable middle seat. A three-seat row will have armrests on the left side of each seat, so the middle-seater should only be using the one on their left, not the one on the right; that belongs to the window-seater.

·         Reclining your seat. About a third of travelers say they don’t like it when the person in front of them reclines their seat, especially if they do it suddenly. That means trouble if you have your tray down and a glass of water on it. And if it’s hot coffee…Better to ask the person behind you before you recline.

·         Taking off your shoes or socks. Many travelers, especially on long flights, want to doff their footwear, but that can be a problem if you wind up with bare feet. Not only is it poor hygiene, very few people want to look at your feet. And they certainly don’t want to smell them.

·         Unwanted conversation. Chatty seatmates are an annoyance to 40% of travelers, according to the survey. Introducing yourself is fine, and making a courteous offer to converse is okay, but many of us want to just sleep or lose ourselves in a book or a movie during the flight. Most passengers will respect that, but some apparently think that seeing their seatmate put earbuds in isn’t good enough to keep them from launching into a story about Aunt Harriet’s casserole. That leads us to our top two airplane etiquette violations, which are actually tied for first in the survey:

·         Using speakerphone. Taking calls on your phone is one thing; then, only half of the conversation is bothering your seatmates. But if you put the caller on speakerphone, this crosses yet another line with many travelers. The growing prevalence of in-flight connectivity, as passengers demand constant access to the internet, is making this phenomenon more common. And finally…

·         Personal grooming. This includes clipping fingernails (or, worse, toenails), painting nails, applying makeup, trimming facial hair, and every other grooming practice that should be done in the privacy of a bathroom. Everybody has a memory of watching Grandpa clip his nose hair, and while it was funny when we were kids, it’s not funny now.

There are others that showed up on the survey but weren’t that common, fortunately. Our favorite? Probably the one that a woman put on TikTok last year, of the woman sitting in front of her, draping her very long hair over the seat and right over the passenger’s screen and onto her tray, almost getting dipped in her coffee. The video went viral and drew some 2.4 million views.

Ready to get out there and see how airplane etiquette is doing, first-hand? We’ll help you get there. Give us a call!

 

 

Family Vacations

Last summer, my husband and I brought our kids along on a cruise to Alaska. The group numbered six adults and one precocious five-year-old: our grandson, Pax Marolda. We’d chosen the NCL Encore specifically because of its itinerary and its plethora of kids’ activities, including a go-kart track, laser tag and hologram gaming. Pax loved everything, especially the ice cream parlor. (He wasn’t that thrilled when his grandfather introduced him to billiards, though. Maybe because no screens were involved.)

            He wasn’t the only child on board, by a long shot. Cruise lines have offered specialized fare for underage travelers for years, with some lines, like Disney, catering especially to families. But land resorts have lagged somewhat behind cruise lines in children’s offerings. Caribbean and Mexican resorts have traditionally attracted couples who were more than happy to escape the winter back home and leave the kids in the care of their grandparents or aunts and uncles for a week.

            That’s changing, though. Travel Weekly reports that resorts have been investing heavily in kid-friendly activities and play centers. This is good news for parents who didn’t really want to leave their kids behind. And the best news—the trend is to educational fare along with traditional playtime activities, which means no computer screens. (Cue the hallelujahs!)

            The all-inclusive Club Med launched Children’s Clubs way back in 1967, but it has built on and expanded its offerings ever since. Now, it’s adding a Baby Club to its Club Med Marrakech La Palmeraie resort in Morocco. The company says Baby Clubs will cater to the growing number of “millennial families with young children” who have been flocking to the resort. Children account for about 21% of Club Med’s guests in Europe and Africa, a percentage that’s gone up since 2019, the last year of pre-pandemic travel. Americans are especially kid-heavy, with 41% of Club Med’s U.S. guests comprised of families.

            At the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay in Vietnam, parents will see an amazing playland for their kids, Vooc Village, over 5300 square feet of fun. Among its 58 activities are a jungle gym and a splash area, and indoor offerings include organic gardening, yoga, Little Mixologist and Junior Photographer classes. Kids can also opt for spa treatments like foot massages and herbal ball compresses, plus a “make your own body scrub” session. Local artisans help teach Vietnamese origami, Hoi An lantern making and native musical instruments. Perhaps best of all, the Village is WiFi-free.

            Closer to home, Viceroy Hotels recently introduced its V Team Kids platform, designed to look at things from the kids’ perspective. There are plenty of projects waiting for kids in Viceroy’s resorts in Los Cabos, St. Lucia and even their property in Serbia. Viceroy resorts without dedicated kids spaces are also implementing the program with available space. Each V Team Kids activity is designed to fall under one of four “core pillars”: creativity, community connection, exploration of the local terrain and, of course, playfulness.

            Kids clubs are no longer just places at the resort or the hotel where parents can leave their children for a couple hours while they go to dinner or a show. The new kids clubs offer traditional games and toys, of course, but also engage kids in immersive, educational and cultural activities. Disney got a leg up on this some years ago; when our son Jim was 11, we took him to Disney World, where he spent time at Epcot in art classes, giving us a welcome break from the hectic theme parks. But what Disney offered kids in the 1990s is a far cry from what many other properties are providing today.

            Interested in a family trip? Give us a call, and we’ll help you get you to the place where parents, and their kids, can all have a great time!

 Airline boarding strategies

Any airline traveler knows that the least-favorite part of flying these days is jostling for seats. Even though every one of them is assigned and well-marked, that doesn’t necessarily make it easy to get in, especially if you have a window seat and the adjacent seats are already occupied.

            It’s said that the first dispute over seating on a plane took place on December 17, 1903, when Wilbur and Orville Wright flipped a coin to see who could get on board their rickety one-man biplane for the first-ever powered flight. (Orville won, and he had to lie down on his stomach for the 12-second, 180-foot flight.) Airlines have been searching for the most efficient method to seat their passengers ever since.

            United Airlines might have come up with something that actually works. It’s called WILMA, for “window, middle and aisle.” Last month, United started boarding passengers in economy class with window seats first, designed to reduce the time planes spend sitting on the ground while passengers jostle for their seats. Variations of WILMA have been around for a while, but United thinks it’s come up with one that will do the job. It spreads passengers out along the aisle so that more people can stow their luggage at the same time.

            Customers in first class and business class will see no change in their routine, which is already pretty efficient. There’s also no change for those with priority-boarding privileges, including travelers with disabilities, unaccompanied minors, active-duty military and families with children age 2 and under. United will allow family groups to board together, even though only some of them will have window seats. The new policy will be in effect for all domestic flights and some international routes.

            Average boarding time has increased by two minutes since 2019. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but over the course of a day or two it can add up, increasing delays, which in turn lead to all sorts of problems for the airlines and their passengers. Tinkering with the boarding process has been going on since airlines started charging fees for checked bags many years ago. Those fees encouraged passengers to bring bigger carry-on bags, which generally are still free except on low-cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier.

            As well all know, wrestling our luggage into the overhead bins can be time-consuming, not to mention uncomfortable for people sitting nearby. If a few passengers are taking their sweet time while stowing their bag and finding their seat, it can make the difference between a flight departing on time or registering as delayed in the government’s official statistics, and no airline wants to be moving up that particular leaderboard.

            No doubt the other major carriers will be watching United’s plan closely. If it works, rest assured that Delta and others will be copying it, probably applying their own fancy acronyms to the process. As long as it works and makes the boarding process more efficient, we really don’t care what it’s called!

            Ready to get on board? Give us a call! We’ll get you flying, window seat or not.

Halloween Travel - if you dare.....

It’s Halloween, with its make-believe ghosts, goblins and assorted other costumed trick-or-treaters, engaging in a tradition that goes back a long time in America. But have you ever thought about traveling somewhere that might actually have ghouls in its history? If you have the nerve, then maybe Transylvania is the place to go.

            It’s a real place, not just something made up in horror movies and vampire novels. Known as “the land beyond the forest,” Transylvania is a region in central Romania, bordered on the east by the forbidding Carpathian Mountains. There really was a Dracula, and he lived here.

            Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel introduced the Dracula legend to Victorian-age audiences, to be followed 34 years later by the classic movie starring Hungarian-born Bela Lugosi. Stoker’s villain is based on legends surrounding the real-life, 15^th-century nobleman named Vlad Ţepeş, known as “The Impaler” for his favored method of dealing with opponents. It is said about 80,000 of them discovered Vlad’s fondness for long spikes from the sharp end. Fun fact: genealogists say that Britain’s King George is the great-grandson 16 times removed of old Vlad.

            Traveling to Transylvania can be like going back in time. It has earned its monicker as “the last truly medieval landscape in Europe,” with horse-drawn carts, shepherds tending their flocks and villagers making hay. Twenty-first-century infrastructure might be lacking in many places, so patience is a must. Trains can be slow, so busing between destinations is preferred, and hiring a car to drive you around is recommended. A Hungarian phrasebook comes in handy, too. Hungary ruled this region for a thousand years until Romania annexed it at the end of World War I.

            Ready to explore one of Europe’s treasures? Here are some things you’ll want to see:

·         Thermal springs. Transylvania has many resort towns famed for their therapeutic waters. The mineral mud and warm salty waters of Bear Lake in Sovata are rumored to cure infertility. In Covasna, you can indulge in a sauna of post-volcanic gases, mainly carbon dioxide with a dash of sulphur, thought to benefit cardiovascular health.

·         Bear watching. The Carpathians are home to wolves, lynx and Europe’s largest population of brown bears, who flourished under the communists because only the dictator, Nicolae Ceauşcu, was allowed to hunt them. The Forestry Commission escorts visitors to places in the wild where they can indulge their wildlife watching to the fullest.

·         The world’s most amazing road. Most Transylvanian roads need a lot of work, but the Transfăgărăşan Road, a 1970s-era military road, winds through the mountains to a lake and through a 900-meter-long tunnel before continuing down into the forests of the Wallachia region. Heavy snow keeps the road closed for all but a few months of the year.

·         Plum brandy. My husband and I sampled palincă in Hungary once, and you never forget that fiery first taste. Around 45-proof—more if it’s the homemade variety—it packs a punch. Served at room temperature, it is downed in one gulp with a hearty “Noroc!” (“Cheers!” in Romanian.)

·         Bran Castle. If Hollywood could build the ultimate vampire castle, it would be this one, near Braşov. This 14^th-century castle was built by the Saxons as a bulwark against the threat of the Ottoman Empire to the east and south and later housed troops to protect German settlers in the region.

·         Poienari Citadel. For serious Dracula fans, this is the real deal. Vlad lived here in the 15^th century, repairing and consolidating the original 13^th century structure. It was still used after his (apparent) death in 1476, but earthquakes brought down much of the structure. The ruins that are still standing can be reached by determined hikers.

 

Eastern Europe is a fascinating place, and you’re probably not going to find a more interesting part of it than Transylvania. We’ll be glad to help you get there—if you dare.