Travel Problems that don't go away.

Problem Number 1.
Plane seat arm rests.
It is quite possible to board a plane and be seated in the middle of a 3 seat row, which begs the
question and raises the issue of who has the right to place their arm on the arm rest. This is a
problem as it is all to often a case where 1 or possibly even 2 people will take the armrest for the
entire flight and therefore leaving the less forthcoming individual to stay 'armrestless' for the
duration of the flight, should that be from Sydney to LA then good luck.
Problem Number 2.
Plane boarding.
Let paint the picture. You are traveling as a family of four, you have rows 51 and 52 which are the 2
back rows. When the time comes to board you go last? This causes so many issues it is not funny.
The first 50 rows of people are all busily placing their carry on's in the overhead compartment and
or perhaps sorting their onboard flight entertainment whilst standing in the walkway. So you need to
struggle for 50 rows worth of people who will not make any room for people to pass. Wouldn't it be
smart to let those people at the back of the plane board first so as to leave the walkway clear for
those following.
Problem Number 3.
Departing the plane.
This is in fact opposite of the boarding issue, rows 51 & 52 should wait until all other rows have at
least started to depart, this is just common sense. Whilst is is very common to see people in the later
rows jump up and stand in the walkway waiting for 10 minutes before they can start to exit,
meanwhile all those people who are at the closer to the exit need to wait for space to even collect
their belonging, common sense should dictate that those at the rear should wait, it should be the
opposite rule for boarding as stated above.
Problem Number 4.
Collecting Baggage.
When it comes time to collect your baggage more often or not you will see similar coordination
issues around the carousel. Lets use the rows 51 and 52 scenario as an example. Lets say you have
waited a good 20 minutes for rows 1 thru 50 to exit the plane, you can bet your bottom dollar that
you bags will somehow be going around that carousel numerous times before you even arrive. But
you will find it hard to find a place to stand as it is so crowded and directly in front of the carousel
are so many children playing touchy feelies with the merry go round that it is near impossible to get
to your bags, so you just watch them go around again. It is yet again a lacking of common sense that
governs how the bags are loaded and unloaded. One would think that if the airline coordinated the
luggage in accordance to row numbers and applied some logic to boarding and exiting the plane that
the carousel area would be far less impacted and could in fact operate quite smoothly. People could
actually plan and allocate the time requited to best determine when to arrive at the carousel thus
allowing room for those watching their bags travel around from afar.
Problem Number 5.
Bag Weight Limits.
Wouldn't it be nice if all airlines made it obvious before lining up to check you bags in the actual
weight allowances. How many times do we get caught out because we have a multi airline trip and
trying to remember that going from an international flight to a domestic US flight ( as an example )
means redistributing packs bags so as to reduce the weight, this might even mean purchasing new
bags to fit the excess weight into and suffering the cost. But what makes this situation far less ideal
is that you often don't know what the weight limits are on an interconnecting flight and only find

out when they start weighing the bags which means an obvious inconvenience to yourself and all
those people waiting behind you for the ordeal of repacking right there and then. There must be a
way to alert consumers of the upcoming change in weight restrictions before that disturbing
moment arrives.
Problem Number 6.
Over allocating Airline Seats.
I'm sure we have all been in the situation where we plan to travel in the off season to reduce inflight
overcrowding in the hope you will get a full row of seats to yourself, but it's more common to see
that the airline has discounted tickets so drastically that you will be in the position where the off
season now appears to be peak season. The announcement comes onto the flight board near the gate
that asks for people will to delay their travel plans can do so and get the advantage of a $$$ discount
of their next purchase and free food whilst they incur and extended delay waiting for the next flight.
Wouldn't it make sense to have the sellers of the seats be hooked into the actual allocation database
so that they could foresee if seats were actually available, how it is possible defies belief. This can
surely be addressed in a very easy and cost effective manner.
Problem Number 7.
Huge lines to check in?
A little known fact is that many airlines now have bag check-in facilities just off the street outside
of the airport, they do not advertise this and it is only known to those that have somehow happened
across the information. Wouldn't it be in the best interest for everyone involved at the airport to
know of such rules. The mere fact that you can save upwards of an hour by standing at the street
level check in can save a huge amount of stress. There is nothing worse that being on the later side
of check in that you see a line 100 deep and know that you have at least another hour to go because
there happens to be lines for the next two flights after yours. Sure a little bit of preparation on the
consumers part might help but it's a fact that people will run late and the less congestion the better.
Solution, maybe open up street level check in for late arrivals where you plane is departing within
30 minutes.
Problem Number 8.
Leaving the airport after security checks.
Going outside for any reason after having been through airport security. Why is this a problem?
Well quite often you leave you bags with you party of fellow travelers who have secured seating at
the gate or perhaps in a lounge area, what happens next might seem unlikely but it does happen.
You might go outside for a smoke for example and leave your passport in your bag and just take
you boarding pass. It will only cause you to either miss your plane or leave you with very little time
to work your way through the complex security check to make it. Just having a boarding pass won't
cut it despite that you have already cleared security checkpoints earlier. this may sound silly as in
why would you not take your passport. But why should you need it, as long as you have some
identification the system should know that you were there earlier and shouldn't need to see your
passport or boarding pass for that matter. With all the capabilities of electronic information
available the airport security checkpoints remain one of the most laborious tasks around proving
who you are and that you are entitled to be there. Sure checking for dangerous items is a must and
that should happen regardless but the idea of proof of identity and passport legitimacy is a no
brainer.
Problem Number 9.
Inflight Entertainment.
How can it be that so often the Inflight system either costs extreme prices or for some reason
doesn't work. yet again with the availability of digital information this information should be readily
available when either booking or checking in at the vey least so as you can make some alternative

arrangements. if the back of seat screen isn't working or the remote to control the working screen is
broken then you should be alerted as such, similarly if the price of watching anything is so
prohibitive that it make your discount flight like traveling first class then you should also be made
aware of such things. Unfortunately this is not the case and it is left until the time you try to operate
the system that it become apparent of the misgivings. In this day and age the relaying of such
information should be taken for granted.
Problem Number 10.
Leaving the Airport.
For most international long haul flights each person is allowed 2 bags and 1 carry-on plus a
handbag or laptop bag. this in total for 4 people consists of 16 potential luggage components. the
problem arises when you try to get transport to not only accommodate 4 people but all 16 luggage
items. Needless to say that some prior warning that you should have stayed in LA as Las vegas
doesn't cater to such a request seems ludicrous. But this is a reality. You either book for a luxury
limousine to take you to a motel 9 or need to split you traveling group up or split you luggage and
likely still have to wait an additional hour so as someone can call someone who needs to call
someone just to make this special arrangement. So if you happen to be on a family vacation in the
US for 6 weeks and know you will need transport you are likely going to be out of luck. I'm sure we
can do better with the wealth of available information on the superhighway of knowledge.

Travel Problems Solutions

Problems that we can fix.
Plane boarding, Departing the plane & Collecting Baggage.
1st up...Plane boarding
Picture this...
You are traveling as a family of four, you have rows 51 and 52 which are the 2 back rows. When the
time comes to board you go last? This causes so many issues it is not funny. The first 50 rows of
people are all busily placing their carry on's in the overhead compartment and or perhaps sorting
their onboard flight entertainment whilst standing in the walkway. So you need to struggle for 50
rows worth of people who will not make any room for people to pass. Wouldn't it be smart to let
those people at the back of the plane board first so as to leave the walkway clear for those
following.
A: This occurs on every flight, even if you happen to board towards the front of the plane i.e. rows
15-20, people will still line up to board regardless of their position on the plane. Due diligence
would sort this but we cannot simply rely on airport staff to do the right thing.
B: This problem is not so much about time lost but the stress you get when having to abide by the
unwritten rules and doing the right and courteous thing.
C: the flow on effect grows in magnitude according to the size of the plane, a larger plane attracts
more people so the odds are that more people will already be aware of the issue and try to
circumvent this by cheating their way onto the plane early.
D: To fix this we could have a chip or magnetic strip within the boarding pass which is
electronically activated based on previously boarded guests in accordance with their row number. If
for example there are special circumstances such as parents with young ones they would already
have a specific magnetic strip encoded as such when allocated their boarding passes. Anyone who
tries to claim early entry without having properly sort the earlier recognition of such needs would
trigger an alert which would prohibit them from boarding until there time is up.
Next...Departing the plane.
This is in fact opposite of the boarding issue, rows 51 & 52 should wait until all other rows have at
least started to depart, this is just common sense. Whilst is is very common to see people in the later
rows jump up and stand in the walkway waiting for 10 minutes before they can start to exit,
meanwhile all those people who are at the closer to the exit need to wait for space to even collect
their belonging, common sense should dictate that those at the rear should wait, it should be the
opposite rule for boarding as stated above.
A: This also occurs for every flight. this is a significant waste of time especially when your carry on
bags have been placed 5 rows in front of where you were seated due to overcrowding in the
overhead compartments at take off time.
B: This can also be avoided by having sensors in the overhead areas which scan luggage tags to
ensure they match up with the person assigned to their seat in the specific row, the size and weight

could be tracked and obviously the number of items could be managed far more efficiently. The
luggage tags would also have the same associated encoded strip which would directly relate to the
passenger and to their seat allocation.

Finally...Collecting Baggage.
When it comes time to collect your baggage more often or not you will see similar coordination
issues around the carousel. Lets use the rows 51 and 52 scenario as an example. Lets say you have
waited a good 20 minutes for rows 1 thru 50 to exit the plane, you can bet your bottom dollar that
you bags will somehow be going around that carousel numerous times before you even arrive. But
you will find it hard to find a place to stand as it is so crowded and directly in front of the carousel
are so many children playing touchy feelies with the merry go round that it is near impossible to get
to your bags, so you just watch them go around again. It is yet again a lacking of common sense that
governs how the bags are loaded and unloaded. One would think that if the airline coordinated the
luggage in accordance to row numbers and applied some logic to boarding and exiting the plane that
the carousel area would be far less impacted and could in fact operate quite smoothly. People could
actually plan and allocate the time requited to best determine when to arrive at the carousel thus
allowing room for those watching their bags travel around from afar.
A: This is more about consideration for others but it can be managed by the carriers and eliminate a
lot of stress which arises at this time. Normally you have been waiting a long time due to the time to
depart from the plane and if you don't have an express passport more time waiting to be passed via
the customs officer. No one wants to wait any longer than they have to especially when it can have
significant ramifications like missing your transport and incurring costs due to the transport
company having to wait also.
B: Lets consider what we could do to reduce the angst involved in baggage collection. Lets assume
yet again that bags have RFID or magnetic strips which when they pass certain steps in the baggage
handlers process would determine when they go or be rerouted. the passenger has departed the
plane and as such their boarding pass would trigger at a point leaving the aircraft, this in turn will
allow the bags as such to know where the passenger is in relation to the baggage collection carousel.
Lets assume the passenger has yet to pass through the passport checkpoint, the bags tags would
know this and accordingly continue to delay sending the bags through. If they have passed through
that checkpoint then the bags would be aware of such an event and time it so as the bags would be
arriving at the same time or within minutes of the passenger being ready to collect their bags.
Imagine the reduction I waiting and the less people there would be to struggle pass just to try and
get to your bags.
Paul Jones 2016
blog.tripstomp.com