Frustrations at the airport! How to overcome them?

Published in the Sunday Indian Express Magazine - Eye on 14 January, 2024

Your last flying experience. What were some of your frustrations? If there were many, why not change this with your next flight!

I want to start by asking you to reflect on your last flying experience: How did you feel when you were boarding the plane? What do you remember from your in-flight experience the most? Was it a pleasant one or did something happen which ruined your mood completely?

For many of us, flying today is just the fastest way of getting from point A to point B. For some, it’s about finding the cheapest fare no matter the duration of the journey. If you are like my wife, Heta, your main goal is to minimise the idle time at the airport. She will be forever optimising her time of arrival to the airport such that she reaches her gate precisely when her boarding zone is called. She will never check-in a bag to avoid check-in queues and baggage belts. If you are a flight nerd like me, then flying for you is about the experience - appreciating the nuances of each airport, each airline, each aircraft, and each flight route.

Regardless of which category you fall into, one thing is inevitable: The rate at which Indian aviation is progressing, more people are going to take more flights every year. This also means, more crowded airports, fuller planes, and a greater load overall on airport systems. When I fly these days, I see a lot of travellers frustrated across the 4 phases of their flying experience: pre-airport, pre-flight, in-flight and post-flight. Let me illustrate:

Pre-airport frustrations - the factors that cause anxiety before you even arrive at the airport: The Uber or Ola driver taking a wrong turn, Google Maps underestimating the traffic, finding a traffic jam at a key junction or just mundane things like being unable to find your wallet when you are supposed to leave. Now you are worried whether you will make it before the check-in or gate closes.  Worse yet, you find after making it through all this anxiety that your flight has been delayed by 3 hours.

Pre-flight frustrations can especially ruin your mood because these are not always about you; they are often due to another passenger making life difficult for other fliers. Take security check: regardless of the airport you are at, you will always find three stars: 1. That person who is foreign to the concept of ‘queues’ and just tries to cut to the front of the line 2. One who has indeed arrived late and is skipping all queues telling everyone diligently waiting in line that their boarding has started and that they have no choice but to skip queues. 3. The one pushing the x-ray machine trays of other passengers away and only trying to get their tray to the front of the queue. Another major cause of pre-flight frustration are crazy long lines at check-in or even at the boarding gate. This can make many of us, including myself, feel edgy or snappy.

If that wasn’t enough, you reach boarding and see a long line form at the gate before boarding even starts or people trying to board in the wrong zone. You finally get to your seat but the cabin space above is so full that you now have to go 10 rows behind to store your bag. Heta’s biggest frustration: meticulously packing all her travel needs into a cabin bag only to be told at the boarding gate that she needs to check-in her bag (which is directly a post-flight frustration that I will discuss next). Then you realise you have a middle seat on a 14 hour flight, or that your family members are split up. You look around and see a tall or large person struggling to fit in an economy seat, or a vegetarian who finds out only non-veg meals are left on the flight. You take off and realise your entertainment system has no good content (or is broken!), and you forgot to download your movies or podcasts.

Finally, the post-flight frustrations: hours long immigration queues, bags taking forever to reach the belt, bag arriving damaged or drenched from the rain, or worst of all, your bag not making it to your destination at all, leaving you with absolutely nothing for your trip. And after that whole ordeal, having to coordinate with your Uber driver with the complicated airport signage to just feel relieved to be done with it all.

It is safe to say that there is an abundance of scenarios that can sour our flying experience, which inevitably leads to a bad start to a trip, be it for work or for leisure.  And I really dislike that! With the advancement of science and technology that enables transportation at 37,000ft in the air, our flying experience should have us feeling like we are on cloud nine! While I can appreciate that many factors in the flying experience are out of our control, I certainly believe that there are many things that we can do to improve our experience and that of our co-travellers.

Based on the airline you choose, there are many steps you can take to minimise frustrations and increase delight. If you are an impatient traveller like Heta, get priority check-in and boarding, and ensure you have DigiYatra through security. Have a flight with a short layover? Get travel insurance that covers delayed luggage. Picky about your food like me? Pre-book your meal and you have something to look forward to. Finally, the one step that costs nothing: just plan to arrive at the airport with an extra 30 minutes to spare for any eventuality. After a horrific sequence of events that led her to miss a flight, Heta has finally started putting this into practice, and has found Zen in her flight experience.

So here are some of the things on my personal checklist to ensure that each and every flight is a fun one.

Pre-book your meal. I can’t stress this one enough. If you are flying to countries like Japan or South Korea and are a vegetarian or have any other dietary limitations/preferences make sure you select a meal of your choice. These flights generally have limited vegetarian meals which run out quickly. Nothing ruins a flight more than being left `hangry’.

Check for airline add-ons. Akasa’s priority check-in, and Indigo’s Fast-track service can ensure super fast check-in and sometimes priority boarding too - skip the queues, be the first one on the plane and keep your cabin bag where it suits you best.

Check the validity of your travel insurance. This often can come in handy for lost or damaged baggage.

Check-in online, and early! I usually put a reminder on my phone when I book a flight for when the check-in opens. Select a seat of your choice and keep your boarding pass handy. Are you a couple that wants some privacy on a 3-3 seat configuration flight? Some aircrafts such as Indigo’s A321 neo have a row (row 28) with only 2 seats on each side.

Check Google Maps and multiply by 1.5. I always assume it’s going to take 1.5x the time Google Maps estimates to reach the airport and leave accordingly. This leaves enough time for a wrong turn or sudden change in traffic patterns.

Set up DigiYatra. Load the boarding pass for your flight on the app so entry into the airport is hands-free and quick. This also ensures a dedicated security check line.

Plan for security screening. I keep my electronics easily accessible to remove at security checks. I even dress for it, avoiding belts, and wearing easy-to-remove shoes. Heta and I are now extra mindful at security, noting each of the requirements and taking an extra minute to ensure we remove all the items asked for, because too often we have found our bags pulled up for additional screening. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting in yet another line of additional screening when it can be avoided.

This is the checklist that I have created based my own frustrations and observations. So let me come back to what I started the article with: Your last flying experience. What were some of your frustrations? If there were many, why not change this with your next flight? So go on, get your checklist ready. Bon Voyage!