> Another place I experience this phenomenon is bike shops. They'll start talking to you with specialized vocabulary and won't give you the time of day if you don't know exactly what they're talking about. Yet, I brought my bike to the bike shop because I'm not an expert bike mechanic. Funny enough, I couldn't find a bike shop that wasn't like this so with the help of youtube I do all my own bike work now.

Ugh, the industry still needs to do so much work to this end. There are good shops out there, fwiw, but the elitism is real. Totally counterproductive for a means of conveyance that is so elegantly classless (in the positive, egalitarian sense).

> Another place I experience this phenomenon is bike shop

This is my personal favorite story about bike shops (from circa 2008).

At the time, I both lived and worked in Manhattan. I was lucky that biking was an option for commuting but the only bike I had was a 20 year old Giant Acapulco (not a fancy bike at all).

I worked down in Tribeca and one day on the way to work my shifters just broke. Thankfully, there was a bike shop near work so I dropped of the bike in the morning and said I would be back that afternoon.

Fast forward to the afternoon and I come in to pick up my bike (as I assumed it was an easy fix and they would just charge me). The repair counter guy looks at my ticket, checks something and says he has to go get the manager. This is somewhat confusing as this was a simple fix or repair.

The manager comes out and several of the staff are arrayed behind him. Now I'm a mixture of concerned and fascinated as to what could possibly have happened to my bike given this deployment of bike shop personnel.

Manager: "Sir, the repair for your shifters is going to cost $40"

Me: "Ok, is there an issue with that?"

Manager: "Well, a quality used bike would cost you about $60 so we weren't sure how you would want us to proceed"

(I should add that the staff behind him all seemed as though they were holding their breath here).

Me: "That's cool. I'm good with the repair"

Everyone visibly relaxed, the manager turned around, pointed at one guy, then turned back to me and said "Your bike will be ready tomorrow."

My only thought on this level of nervousness is due to the shop being near a lot of investment bank offices that had a very type A guys who were also into bike racing. I myself dealt with a lot of those folks so it's not hard to imagine the shop staff assuming I would be that way too.

I had an older/seemingly quite skilled bike mechanic look at my bike, who was happy to deal with my vague gestures about squeaky doohickeys and answer any questions. They knew enough to know what normal people don’t know, though, and how to get from there to what matters.

I think the sort of lingo-centric scoffing “expertise” is a defensive posture that near-novices tend to take, to scare off further questions. You see it in every field, and we should all be careful not to replicate it in our own.

sadly, the best way to get data on flights it to use the airlines app - not anything you'd find at the airport

also, it's easiest to use that same app for the boarding pass too these days

once I printed them out (with the provided pdf) thinking it would be easier, the printed paper didn't work and they said I HAD to install and use the app or go back to a kiosk and use one of their printouts and lose my place in line...)

The guy working at the TSA isn't there because they have a strong grasp on the theory of mind.

Oh the last minute gate change is always ridiculous. I never find it happens at really busy airports either. It's always at the airports that have around 40 gates but only around 6 flights an hour.

I've often thought that having a standardized checklist on a big board in the security line would be a big help.

    Laptops: In/Out
    Liquids: In/Out
    Shoes: On/Off
    Etc

Recently had to fly with some splints and crutches and stuff and that was a whole extra set of fun difference in airport rules. First one really wanted to rub their explosives swab on my finger that was held together by exposed metal pins and had exposed subcutaneous tissue. They were a bit put off when I asked for alternate options.

One time, a TSA official told me "never take off your watch in an airport unless you want to lose it" -- which is how I learned that you can wear your watch through the metal detector just fine, which I've now done dozens of times.

Until a few weeks ago when a another TSA official berated me for thinking I could walk through a metal detector wearing a watch...

Even different lines in the same security area can have different rules. If you travel a lot you start to recognize which machines require laptops out of bags and which don't, for instance.

It is really anxiety inducing overall though. Not to mention the ritual of getting partly undressed before the stupid thing then trying to put everything back on and in pockets on the other side.

I had a small local airport act like I was an idiot for not knowing they wanted all food items removed from carryon for scanning.

Literally never heard of that.

TSA PreCheck means I don't have to worry about those rules. Completely worth it. I haven't taken off my shoes, belt, taken out my laptop or liquids in a decade.

I've experienced this at non-US airports where the x-ray at the entrance asks for different things to be in the tray than the x-rays before boarding. It's impossible to keep track of what goes where.

Even at the same airport they can’t seem to get it right amongst themselves. Recently had one TSA person yelling at me to keep something in my bag and then the next person down the line yelling at me for having it in my bag.

When I pointed to the other agent and said “your friend over there told me to do the opposite, that’s why it’s in there!” they just sort of scowled at me.

I just smiled and went about my day, but yes the TSA is often just a total dumpster fire. Some folks are very nice but too many of their folks have a giant chip on their shoulder about something.

I used to travel for work. 100ish flight segments a year all over the country, typically carrying two laptops - corporate and client.

In one airport, I had a TSA agent yell at me that I'm not allowed to bring two laptops through precheck in my bag. That they had to go through separately. I complied but asked if that was this airport's policy because no other airport seemed to care. She swore up and down that this was national TSA policy and I should know better if I flew so much.

When I look at the TSA's success rates in audits, I tend to agree with the claim that it is more a government jobs program than a security agency.

So many airports don't have a sign telling you what to take out for some reason.

There’s a fundamental issue with people, which is that it’s difficult to treat masses of people as separate individuals.

After the 20th time you ask someone to take out their laptop, there’s a part of you that’s screaming, “we’ve done this 20 times, you should know this by now!” Of course, “we” haven’t done this 20 times, only one side of the interaction has the repeated experience. But it’s natural to project that onto the other person, and get into a mode of, “I’ve told you before.”

Obviously this can be overcome, I'm not sure TSA hires people with enough self awareness to even see the problem.

Isn’t this the point? To destabilize you, put you on your back foot, make you feel preemptively guilty and a little angry, to feel the presence of an Authority?

This is one of my major pet peeves, and it extends well beyond TSA. Help desks, call centers, car rentals... Essentially, it's when someone expects you to be able to do their job. When you invariably don't, they treat you as if you're stupid.

Exactly. That led me to wonder what in my job do I wrongly assume for my users.

Airport jobs are some of the worst possible jobs - poor pay, bad hours, very long effective commutes (when you consider that they don't clock in until after get to the terminal, get through security), and angry customers screaming at you for something that's not your fault.

Lazy/incompetent/annoyed employees is the inevitable outcome of such an environment

You get what you pay for. And they're being paid barely above minimum wage.

In addition to the minimum wage they get paid, it's also the minimum (negative) value they add. There's zero reason to do better at a job that already is a waste of almost everyone's time.

The TSA and some immigration ones are even malicious

> general workers at most airports

Yes, exactly. But actually, given what they must be paid they do an admirable job. I can’t truly blame someone for not giving a shit, it’s just frustrating for me when getting on my flight depends on them doing so.

Everyone you interact with from the moment you enter the airport has that Brooklyn-diner-employee “whaddayawaaaant?” attitude. Like your very presence as a customer annoys them. Everyone is in dire need of customer service training. The DMV is more pleasant.

Look, our culture does not reward excellence, so those people are doing the least possible to not get fired. That's kind of the whole American thing in general at this point. Nobody is doing great outside of technology workers, and even then, only some of them. You're not going to have a great experience in general from people here. There are always outliers, but those are individuals who have found some internal motivation to go above and beyond, and it's not a systemic thing.

This is not a US-only airport staff issue. I am on the road most of the last three decades and it is international. It is one, binding "quality" in every country. Most the airport staff's core competency rests elsewhere in almost all airports.

I am hedging because i have had nuggets of exceptional service and support here and there, even in nightmarish hellscapes like Heathrow. Flight attendants are a whole different area of joy and fears...

You're not crazy at all. They seem to be selected for having a low IQ and no common sense.

Not a big fan of having to load up an app to do something that should be (an in some cases, used to be) effortless. At some airlines, the gate agents are now starting to expect you to use the app for things, and they'll give an annoyed snort if you ask them for information. Sorry, Tiffany, but your airline app doesn't work on my phone because United's lazy software engineers cut off support for Operating Systems older than the previous version.

> Even tracked by checked luggage.

Which would be great if it was actually accurate. Took a United flight two days ago. Checked two bags. App only reported one bag loaded onto plane. Spent the flight anxiously wondering if the other bag had been lost. Both bags arrived fine.

I'd rather have no information than unreliable information.

maybe this doesn't work in every airport but you can hold up your phone with the camera on, point it down the hallway, and get step by step directions to get to your gate.

Usually the rule is that the personal item must fit under the seat in front of you, the carry-on may be a bit larger.

I have boarded with a wheeled carry-on + wheeled personal item (a backpack with wheels) in the past, but every time the gate agent tested the personal item for size.

A couple of weeks back I was flying out of Chicago O'Hare. The guy in front of me had a carryon suitcase, a laptop bag, and a fanny pack attached to the carryon. The employee checking us in told him that the fanny pack was considered a second personal item. He had to remove it from the bag and wear it on him. Then it became part of his attire and that was A-OK.

My last four flights have each made me gate-check my carry-on at the jetway.

They could've saved a lot of time and labor by just letting me check it like I would have before they started charging $30-50 each way for it.

One of the best investments I ever made was the original Patagonia MLC wheelie. It stands for Maximum Legal Carry-on. They have a black hole version now which I am not familiar with but I assume is the same quality / usefulness. I had a few jobs where I commuted regularly on CRJ 200's and this bag fits in the overhead with no issue. The ability to pop out the straps and wear it like a backpack makes the gate agents much less concerned about the size.

The personal item has to fit under the seat in front of you

I'm pretty sure this is a purposeful "feature" of security at least for North America. They don't want anyone getting comfortable with the process and constantly make changes to ensure this. I'm not sure what this is supposed to accomplish other than to make air travel less comfortable.

I recently flew and the airport had gotten the new scanners since the last time I had gone somewhere. The signage was confusing as only some of the lines had signs that specifically said you didn't have to take out your electronics on "this lane only". Even with the new scanners they were pulling out half the bags for additional screening and only had one person doing the additional screening.

Coming back from overseas I saw how it was supposed to work, walked up and they directed me to a line and a specific bin loading station, had someone remind me to ensure my pockets were empty, walked through the scanner and my bag was already waiting for me, took all of 2 minutes.

what i do in tsa lines is just watch the people in front of me and the directions given to them. It's kind of hard to ignore actually.

Yes, this is a thing too. It's confusing for people who don't fly often for the obvious reasons, but experienced travelers have it just as bad because the rules vary wildly by airport and country.

I can't remember which airports/countries/systems require which procedures, so I just have to go in blind every time.

> I have no other explanation but that they do it on purpose.

It's much simpler; the incoming plane takes pretty much any available gate, because they are all almost always full.

Getting the two flights to Vienna in the same spot might mean an hour of extra waiting on the tarmac for a gate to open up.

The airport departure board doesn't have flight numbers? All the ones I've seen do. And if you can't notice the difference between two different flight numbers, how are you going to notice the difference between one flight departing at 1:35 and another that departs at 1:45?

Agree 100. Most of my frustration with things in the world goes right to this IE it's the folks who design/administer it that I blame. Sure, the users and/or operators of any given system can find a way to use/operate things incorrectly. But, so many things are just clearly lazy in design. And, n=1 here, in many cases having worked in service/retail/operations roles, it's usually a matter of decision makers not listening to folks that have to work around the sillyness day to day that is to blame. So long as the front line folks work around it, the decision makers consider it solved...

If someone works at the airport and is screaming at people with limited English proficiency who rarely fly, that is the fault of the rude employee. They should get a different job.

It’s a customer facing role where the main responsibility is directing confused and anxious people.

Now boarding - remain seated. Gate closing!

The author gave plenty of other reasons why someone might be stressed out by what's communicated at the airport.

The whole point is that airport staff (and especially leadership) are maybe not so great at "optimizing for the greater good" always.

> Blaming the airport staff who have to optimize for the greater good is quite something.

I don't think it's actually as noble as "optimizing for the greater good", but rather "optimizing for getting through the day in one piece". Which, in my experience, is why (polite + friendly + reasonable + firm) is the right register to use in pretty much every interaction with airport staff. You're asking them to do something (not telling), but your presence is ideally vaguely net positive (friendly, smiling, relaxed), you're asking for something that's within their authority to do, and there's a vague threat that you're not going to back down if they say no off-hand (their day is going to have a larger hassle-increment if they say no vs. if they say yes).

Written out it kind of reads as cold and calculating, but I think every element of it is the best for everyone involved. You don't end up feeling like you just acquiesced to getting screwed by United or Delta, they get to have a nice friendly interaction that ideally makes those 10 minutes of their day suck less than it could have with an asshole customer.

> optimize for the greater good

Greater good my posterior. The grandma was in the wrong place at that time because they optimised the experience to extract the most money out of the flying public. They were boarding the people who paid extra, and since she didn't they couldn't let her board. Because if they do why would anyone pay extra for their "higher class" more expensive tickets. They could have said "passport?" and then pointed her towards the gate. But doing so as a policy would net the corporation less profit. So they don't.

In other words the grandma's distress was by design. You can avoid the indignity of turned away from the gate by coughing up more money. She quite literally "didn't know her place" both in the queue and in the hierarchy.

The fact that airport staff are forced to be cattle dogs given the lack of airport prior capacity planning is exactly what the author is trying to convey.

It touches on a “race to the bottom” that European low cost carriers have have shown that people don’t care about airport stress in the shadow of cost — which lends to the enshittification of the whole overall experience.

It’s so bad that people are starting to /pay/ to have less stress by visiting airport lounges, which are now starting to be, themselves, overcrowded due to the increase in demand.[1]

[1]. https://web.archive.org/web/20260714133432/https://www.globa...

while your ignorance is bliss for you, it is a punishment for the rest of us. now get in line and wait for your boarding group to be called.

I think the point is that they have zero empathy

Airports by nature of flying being expensive will always be filled with people with zero idea about how airports work.

> b) hardly speaks English

> c) is in a foreign country

So you don't want tourists to your Country? You do realize 95% of the World lives outside the US? and at least 80% lives in non-English speaking Countries? Creating a horrid experience for them would mean losing huge chuck of that wealth flowing into your Country. Especially so when their income levels are rising drastically compared to a US Citizen (in terms of % change in disposable income as many are from low cost of living countries).

what? especially the bags part seems crazy. Easy to imagine what happens when we stop screening bags...

Yeah, airports are way too stressful. I'd honestly rather use a train to travel across a continent than use an airplane. The time saved just isn't worth the stress.

> We see other flights to our destination that were scheduled after ours from the same airline on the same type of plane boarding and leaving.

I feel like there is a lot more to the fungibility of planes. E.g. add just one more consideration, like bag loading, to the scenario and suddenly you end up with a mess of not great answers for a whole complex tree of things unless you somehow know with certainty how long the fix is actually going to take ahead of time. The more of these additional considerations you add, the more they start interacting with each other and the less likely "just switch the planes" only means passing the delay along.

There’s been a bunch of airline IT meltdowns in recent years, some much much worse than what you described. Airlines just decided IT is a “cost center” and decided not to maintain it.

The manufacturers and vendors who sold the non-working check-in kiosks profited. That reason alone is enough justification.

other than the remarks about the signage, most of the post is about the employees.

Both

I haven't flown in a few years, it was alright last time. But if my parents ever want to fly somewhere, I'm coming with them if only to tell them what to expect and help them around.

Everyone* knows how terrible air travel has become. People over 40 know it doesn't have to be that way.

Back then, the plebians did not fly as much as they do now.

I am a pleb and say this btw.

It's still like in the past days in Business class and upwards, not to mention private flying - all friendly, fully serviced, no nitpicking. Air travel has become more like transatlantic liners from the period just before their demise.

Other than TSA, air travel seems better to me than the 1990s.

I don’t need meals for domestic flights, and it’s trivial for me to pack a little something. Noise canceling earphones and ipads/laptops/phones make entertaining oneself trivial.

There is even wifi now, and messaging is free so you can be in constant communication with your friends/family, especially to coordinate pickup.

The planes themselves are better (except maybe if you are a big person). But price per hour of flight time for me has stayed below inflation, so I assume the extra seats helps offset that for me.

I can buy flights anywhere, anytime on my electronic devices, have the boarding passes on my watch or phone or paper, and I can get push notifications about all flights so pickups/dropoffs are simple. I can even see the status of the plane’s previous flight so I get even more of a heads up about delays. There is also luggage tracking available now, at least with airtags if not from the airline itself.

I'm over 40, and I flew many times before 9/11. Nope, flying has gotten much easier. The entire experience, from getting to the airport and parking to getting to your hotel. Yes, TSA is a drag, but I've never had an issue. And since I got PreCheck, it's gotten easier. Altogether, I enjoy flying.

My theory is that it's intentional; change the rules for security personnel so they don't end up in a routine, change them for travelers so... they also don't end up in a routine. If travelers with malicious intent are stressed because of the lack of predictability, they'll be extra stressed when they're up to no good.

Of course, this is baby/bathwater territory as only a fraction of a percentage of people are up to no good, and of those only a percentage is a danger to others.

i made this point earlier but in a TSA line do you not just watch the people in front of you and do what they're required to do? That works pretty well for me.

Thus but unironically.

Railways--and public transit generally--is optimized for people who speak the native language and use the system regularly and more or less ignore the jet-lagged person just off a flight who doesn't speak the language. In general, a lot of systems do a bad to terrible job of accommodating people who are unfamiliar with them.

It also doesn't help when so many countries (and even cities) have totally different systems for paying, etc. Contactless payment is simplifying some of that. But you still, for example, have the need to tap out in some places but not others. And, no, having to scour guidebooks (of possibly outdated info), for all the right incantations for a given locale isn't really satisfactory.

You come to Croatia for cheap holidays and are surprised not all works as you're used to.

German service providers absolutely don't care if you don't speak German and will take that extra step to make sure you get the message.

When article says "..it's actually behind you" that leads me to believe that if you're staring at those signs then you're actually at B45. I'm not sure off the top of my head how you'd put B45 on those signs in a clear way. If B45 is at the intersection of two hallways then it really shouldn't be on either sign but then where should it be?