The 7 Most Annoying Things About Flying

boarding-on-plane
Boarding - Image by Jim "FrodMan" Ford
Most Annoying Things About Flying - Boarding on plane
Boarding – Image by Jim “FrodMan” Ford

If you have done any kind of flying in the past 5 years you have probably noticed some of these nuisances that make the fastest way to travel also the most annoying.  Even with the rising cost of plane tickets many of the annoying aspects of flying remain unchanged. Perhaps you have experienced some of these pesky problems the last time you flew.

  1.  Constant delays.  If you are already under a tight schedule when you are flying, flight delays can destroy your entire itinerary.  There is nothing worse than that helpless feeling that creeps over you after you see on the screen that your flight has been delayed and you will be missing your connecting flight because of it.  Entire vacations, business meetings, and big events have been altered simply because of an annoying flight delay.
  2. Security screening.  Yes, security is important and we need to take every precaution possible to ensure the safety of every passenger on board an airplane, but there is no doubt that the long lines for security check points are annoying.  Add on top of that the recent debacle over the “naked scanners” and all too personal pat-downs, and it goes from annoying to disturbing.
  3. Extra charges for carry-on luggage.  Airlines are doing everything they can to raise some extra revenue, but charging a fee for something that used to be complimentary is a bit egregious when you consider that bags still get lost just as much when they are checked.  However, charging $10 to $20 for an extra carry-on seems to becoming par for the course to fly the not so friendly skies.
  4. Parking at the airport. Whether you are parking in long-term or short-term parking, the whole parking experience can be a bit of a fiasco.  Long-term parking usually means you will have to take a shuttle to the airport and short-term parking means you will have to pay a much higher rate for the couple hours that your vehicle was taking up a space.  It’s much less annoying to just have a friend drop you off, but then you will need to find someone to pick you up at the end of your trip as well.
  5. Close quarters.  Unless you are sitting in first class you will just have to get used to sitting uncomfortably close to perfect strangers for the duration of your flight.  Every crying baby, noisy PSP, and sneeze will seem like it’s right next to you.  Those close quarters can be especially annoying to the taller ones among us who have to sit with their knees chest high and their elbows tucked in.  But besides just being annoying, sitting so close to so many people can cause claustrophobia and also be a great way to spread some germ love around.
  6. Unsanitary Restrooms.  It’s bad enough when you have to “go” at 10,000 feet and the plane is going through turbulence, but to make matters worse most airplanes have foul smelling bathrooms.  Sometimes to compensate the airlines will “over-sanitize” that little room to try to cover up the smells, but it’s still such a deprived experience most people will just hold it until they get to their destination.
  7. Terrible Food.   I don’t know a single person who has ever raved about airline food.  Some is better than others, but across the board those in-flight meals are more like survival food than cuisines, no matter how they try to dress it up.  It would be great if we could just bring our own food, but that just makes the hassle of going through security that much more annoying.

Flying isn’t all that bad, but it’s those little annoying things that tend to stick out in our minds.  But as long as planes are faster than cars and trains, people will continue to put up with the hassles of flying so they can spend less time traveling and more time enjoying their destinations.

John is London based writer, who loves to travel and to write travel tips for safe and enjoyable journeys across the globe.