<div dir="ltr">Amen! <div><br></div><div>It's my bag and I'll check it if I wanna.</div><div><br></div><div>And you'll never catch me washing anything in a hotel sink. Just not my thing. Besides, I prefer to spend my 30 minutes of spare time at the bar :-) </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 4:57 PM Gabe Goldberg via Ipg-smz <<a href="mailto:ipg-smz@netpress.org">ipg-smz@netpress.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Author writes:<br>
</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>
<br>
<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>
<p>...</p>
<p id="gmail-m_-559343212905392636122bf"><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_-55934321290539263614cba">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" target="_blank">https://gay.medium.com/the-case-for-checking-a-bag-b0f92968a852</a></p>
</div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">Pam Baker<br>Freelance Journalist<br>email: <a href="mailto:bakercom1@gmail.com" target="_blank">bakercom1@gmail.com</a><br>Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/bakercom1" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/bakercom1</a><br>LinkedIn: <span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Nimbus Sans L",sans-serif;font-size:13px;line-height:15px"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/pambaker" title="View your public profile" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border-width:0px;border-style:initial;border-color:initial;outline:none;font-weight:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-size:13px;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:underline;color:rgb(0,102,153)" target="_blank">http://www.linkedin.com/in/pambaker</a></span></div>