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<p>I always check my bag (other than a carryon for my computer and other onboard necessities) for one important reason: my comfort and convenience. I have no desire to be dragging about a suitcase while I wander about the terminal, then vie for overhead space, flinging it up above my head and then have to pull it out among the hustle to leave. Flying is far from the gracious experience it used to be, but I don't have to add to the unpleasant experience by allowing myself to be coerced into being a beast of burden.</p>
<p>Airlines would do a lot better if they no longer charged for checking suitcases and instead charged for large carry-ons.</p>
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<div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"><span class="sig">-- <br /> Sally Wiener Grotta</span></div>
<div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"><span class="sig"><a href="mailto:Sally@SallyWienerGrotta.com">Sally@SallyWienerGrotta.com</a> <br /> ________________________________________________________<br /><a href="http://www.SallyWienerGrotta.com" rel="noreferrer">www.SallyWienerGrotta.com</a><br />(570) 947-7777<br /><br /> * A winner of the 2019 Health Odyssey short story competition with "One Widow's Healing"</span></div>
<div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"><span class="sig">* Author of numerous books, including "The Winter Boy" (a Locus Magazine’s 2015 Recommended Read) and "Jo Joe" (a Jewish Book Council Network book)</span></div>
<div class="pre" style="margin: 0; padding: 0; font-family: monospace"><span class="sig">* Recognized by X-Rite as one of “The World’s Top Professional Photographers”</span></div>
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<p>On 2019/10/30 19:09, Patrick Corrigan via Ipg-smz wrote:</p>
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<div dir="ltr">> United is Satan's airline
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<div>United used to be my favorite, but no more.</div>
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<div> The Indianapolis airport is the best airport in the United States; fight me.</div>
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<div>Have you flown into or out of Portland, OR? Yes, it's my local airport, but still the best U.S. airport I've traveled through. Light rail to downtown and elsewhere even goes right into the terminal.</div>
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<div class="gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 1:57 PM Gabe Goldberg via Ipg-smz <<a href="mailto:ipg-smz@netpress.org">ipg-smz@netpress.org</a>> wrote:</div>
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<p>Author writes:</p>
<p>Travel is a chaotic, exhausting experience exacerbated by people who forget the social contract the moment they step foot in an airport. I travel constantly. I chase miles and have status on three airlines. I read websites about how to best manage airline and hotel loyalty programs, airline credit cards, and the like. I have an app that shows me where every single plane currently flying is and other aviation geek information. I have an app that lets me listen to air traffic control chatter. There is a small park near the edge of LAX where I sit and watch incoming planes landing. I have favorite planes (Airbus 380, Boeing 787, Boeing 757, Boeing 737) and planes I truly despise (CRJ 700, Embraer 145). In short, I have made a necessary condition of my work something of a hobby.</p>
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<p>As you might expect, I have a great many travel-related opinions, most but not all of which are wildly uncharitable. For instance, United is Satan's airline and I will take almost any convoluted route to avoid flying them. Alaska Airlines planes smell weird. The food on American Airlines flights is worse than what I imagine dog food tastes like. Delta serves delicious Biscoff cookies and the flight attendants wear festive purple uniforms. The Atlanta airport is a cruel mistress. There is a bathroom attendant in the Charlotte Airport who likes to sing gospel as she does her work, serenading weary passengers and she is a delight. LaGuardia is unspeakable. You basically have to walk ten miles from the gate to customs in Montreal. The Indianapolis airport is the best airport in the United States; fight me. There aren't nearly enough women or people of color serving as pilots. It is incredibly grating to get a chatty pilot who wants to narrate the entire flight when all you want to do is sleep or stare into the Grand Canyon. The way people treat flight attendants is, for the most part, absolutely disgraceful.</p>
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<p id="gmail-m_-773955700232074864122bf"><span><span>I</span></span> reserve my most passionate opinions, however, for carry-on luggage. If you are ever wondering if you should check your luggage or carry-on, the answer is that you should check your luggage. I don't care why you want to carry-on your luggage. You should check your bag. I say this with the caveat that air travel is prohibitively expensive and baggage fees are horrible and if you can't afford the fees, you do what you must. For everyone else, check your bag.</p>
<p id="gmail-m_-77395570023207486414cba">In 2007, airlines began instituting baggage fees to offset the cost of jet fuel and once they realized they could charge for luggage and other basic amenities of air travel, there was no looking back. Once people realized they were going to have to pay even more than the cost of their plane ticket to travel, all hell broke loose with carry-ons. Suddenly packing for trips of most any length became an exercise in austerity.</p>
<p>Writers, in particular, love to discuss the ways in which they contort themselves toward austerity to go on book tour. Nearly every writer active on social media has discussed, at length, how they will travel or have traveled with only a carry-on suitcase for a five-day trip or ten-day trip or three-week trip. It is something of a competition, as if there is valor in self-imposed deprivation. They offer tips, like rolling your clothes or stuffing your socks in your shoes or traveling without toiletries. They talk about wearing the same, increasingly soiled outfit for days on end because hey, you can wash it in the hotel bathroom sink or not.</p>
<p><a href="https://gay.medium.com/the-case-for-checking-a-bag-b0f92968a852">https://gay.medium.com/the-case-for-checking-a-bag-b0f92968a852</a></p>
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<div dir="ltr"><br />Patrick Corrigan<br />Email: <a href="mailto:phcorrigan@gmail.com">phcorrigan@gmail.com</a><br />
<div><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">LinkedIn: </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-h-corrigan-61669422">https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-h-corrigan-61669422</a></div>
<div><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Member, Internet Press Guild </span><a style="font-size: 12.8px;" href="http://www.netpress.org">http://www.netpress.org</a></div>
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<div>"For every difficult and complex question there is an answer that is simple, easily understood and wrong."<br /> H.L. Mencken</div>
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