Airlines deal with COVID but not the everyday travel problems

The airports know how to apply restrictions and procedures to deal with coronavirus, but they have no idea how to make air travel safer and more efficient, failing to deal with passengers who drag all their luggage on to planes, boarding hassles, and inconveniences for the overweight. Worse is the airline failure to address the needs of seniors. Plus there is no doubt that the airlines are price gouging during the COVID Pandemic

By Ray Hanania

I traveled this past weekend for the first time in nearly 16 months, a quick business trip to meet newspaper editors in Las Vegas. But it was quickly apparent that the threat of the Coronavirus was not the real problem that exists at the nearly-back-to-normal Midway Airport.

The southwest side airport was jam-packed with travelers, almost all wearing facemasks, but most, as always, inconsiderate and uncaring about others. Both going and returning flights were completely filled with no empty seats.

I wiped down everything around my seat even the travelers sitting next to me – not really, of course, but I wanted to.

The airlines and airport have implemented safety procedures to minimize the risk of being infected by the Coronavirus and I applaud them. They have adapted, well. Several airport employees stopped people and told them to either put on their face masks or leave the airport.

Flying while senior. Airlines know how to deal with COVID Pandemic but not with the needs of seniors or how to deal with obnoxious passengers. Originally published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group May 12, 2021

Whether you believe COVID-19 is a threat, or a political violation of your Constitutional rights is irrelevant really. The truth is wearing a face mask can’t hurt and it could help.

As Casino movie mobster Remo Gaggi said to his fellow gang members about their casino bagman, Stone, while awaiting trial, “Look … why take a chance? At least that’s the way I feel about it.” The next day Stone is shot in the back of the head by hitmen.

That attitude, “Why take a chance” is so relevant when dealing with COVID. What take the chance?

The walking at the airport has been lengthened as the zig-zagging cordoned off walk areas at security have been expanded.

But the COVID protections were not the real problem. Wearing a face mask doesn’t even come close to the hassles that are the result of ignorant, stupid, and inconsiderate people.

The victims of these airport moronic travelers are mostly seniors. I saw one family walking quickly nearly knocking over two elderly people.

As I walked through the airport, several times people pushed me out of the way because I wasn’t walking fast enough to get on the plane. It’s not going anywhere, idiot, until everyone is on the plane.

Southwest Airlines has a system that I dislike in which people line up and grab whatever seat they can. It’s not the most civilized system, but for an airline that charges so much and offer so little – I did get a Diet Coke and two small snacks of pretzels and chocolate chips that were smashed and crushed and create a speckled mess everywhere. Get a new snack provider, Southwest!

If the airlines would address the real problems they have in the same way they are addressing the threat of fear of Coronavirus, the travel experience would be so much better.

This is America folks and narrow seats are a problem. Americans are overweight and fat. More than half the flight could barely squeeze into the airline’s narrow seats. Widen the seats and charge more to travel. Why not? The worst thing is to be sitting next to someone who is spilling over the armrests and can’t move.

I’m relatively overweight but nothing near the weight problems on the plane I saw.

And how about stopping people from dragging those big suitcases on to the plane. They are always fighting to shove the luggage into the overhead bin taking up all of the space. Those little displays at the Gate Entrances are a joke, right? I have never seen anyone place their luggage into the “measure’ to ensure it is within the proper widths.

We need new rules to stop passengers who carry everything on the plane. Enforce the rules, airlines!

Find a way to help those passengers who are overweight for their sake and for the sake of the people that sit next to them.

And help the seniors. If you are 62 or older, you should be given first priority to enter a plane. If young people don’t like it, tough. Go find another way to travel.

Create a special security line for seniors or couples with one or more seniors.

You can change everything for COVID. Why not change everything to make the travel experience better?

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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