Yeah, right. I had actually started checking all of my luggage, including the little case I used to use as a carry on, because it made getting on and off the plane so much easier (and I hadn't actually lost a suitcase in 30 years). Now, it's going to cost $50 to check that extra bag. Guess what? I'm not going to. I'm carrying on as much as I'm allowed, and taking up as much overhead space as necessary. And hating flying even more than I used to.

When I was younger, I loved flying. Careening down the runway, listening to the plane accelerating. That whoooooosh in your stomach as the plane took off. Watching the land move away. Looking out the window, flying over puffy clouds, and watching cars like a model railroad layout far beneath you. Having loved ones greet you at the end of a flight. I'll never forget the first time I met my husband in person (it was an internet romance and we "phone-dated" for 9 months) after waiting for about 300 people to get off the plane and being sure he was not really going to be one of them. Or watching from behind a pillar, in tears, as I saw him off back home that first time, then watching the plane take off from a window in the terminal, as he (also in tears) watched me watching him - unbeknownst to me. Flying meant going somewhere special. Now... the airlines seem determined to make the experience as miserable as possible.

Well, thanks for the tips. I'm not flying anywhere this week - but I'll use them this Christmas, when we will hopefully not be nearly caught in 3 blizzards like we almost were 2 years ago.

Just a note about the Benadryl. It doesn't work on every kid. A certain percentage of kids (my doctor once told me 10-20%) have the opposite reaction to Benadryl. Instead of getting sleepy, they get hyper. It's just the way their bodies react to that particular drug. (I'm one of them, and taking Benadryl still makes me feel like I've just drunk 5 cups of coffee. You can imagine what that's like in a 6 year old.)

So, if you're going to use Benadryl, make sure you try it out beforehand. The last thing you want is a kid that's 10x as hyper as usual on your hands.

I choose disregard ALL of those rules because they are rules. Sorry but I already know you don't care about me, so back at ya.

I truly want my purchased ticket to be a frightful inconvenience to everyone everywhere. I would like nothing better than the TSA and the airline to spend 5x what my ticket cost to nanny me, scold me, micromanage me, threaten me and abuse me. And if 10 other people on the plane get so mad they take a swing at a spouse or kick the dog - better still!

Greetings

Screw flying and all the theatrics in the termainal, paying those bag charges is pretty much last straw

I tried to drive everywhere when gas was too expensive Nnw I can tuck my swiss army knife in my pocket drink my 20 oz beverage and enjoy the solitude of no whining children and no rude staff and especially NO TSA security theatre.

And i used to love to fly its the ground game I hate so fervently

Guess what? I'm not going to. I'm carrying on as much as I'm allowed, and taking up as much overhead space as necessary.

Then I'll be spending some idle moments praying that you're delayed on your way to the airport, and are forced, after boarding, to check all your baggage anyway, delaying your flight and ruining your plans.

Flying is an amazing thing that is made awful, in part, by people exactly like you.

It's not so much your selfishness that astonishes and disgusts, but the fact that you parade your appalling behavior like it's a virtue.

Ever had a picnic on the beach and had a mouthful of food ruined by a gust of wind and a grain of sand? People like you are the grit in the feast of life: forever ruining every social compact you think you are oh-so-clever for flaunting; forever wondering why all your relationships eventually sour; forever taking just a little too much so everyone else goes short.

Grow up.

I usually just check my bags. Last summer, however, I specifically packed one of those small 19" rolling carry-ons for a short trip so that I could put it in the overhead and avoid baggage claim. My seat was in the second row. When I boarded -- at the assigned time -- the flight attendants informed the twelve of us in the first two rows that we had to check our bags because the bins were full. I nearly got thrown off the plane for protesting (and no, I wasn't belligerent, just insistent upon letting my bags stay in the cabin. I lost the argument.) If the attendants had simply done their jobs and made everyone stow above their own seats, this wouldn't have been a problem. Instead, they allowed people to carry on bags that were clearly too big and then put them in whichever bins they pleased -- and those of us at the front who followed the rules were made to pay for their self-centeredness.

While I'm here... what's the rule of thumb for the amount of time between serving drinks and collecting the trash? On my two-hour flight yesterday, beverage service was over at 0:35, yet thirty minutes later the attendants still hadn't walked through with their plastic trash bags. Tired of sitting with my tray down and an empty cup, I finally got up and walked to the back to throw them away. I'd assumed perhaps there was some type of emergency that was delaying trash retrieval. Nope, the two FAs were reading a magazine and doing a crossword; the actual trash retrieval didn't begin until ten minutes later -- a forty-minute wait. I'm used to them walking through almost immediately after putting away the cart. Is forty minutes the norm these days?