Travel: Air Travel like a Gentleman Part I- Beginning your journey By now I have written about traveling a few times, but it seems that our humble site has been receiving a number of visitors looking for the gentlemanly rules of the sky.  If you are one of the lucky few who doesn’t have to face the horrors of a commercial airport, direct yourself to Private Jetiquette.  If you are traveling steerage, read on. Although you may wax lyrical about old movies where an out of breath traveller runs to the gate, suitcase in hand, to catch a last minute flight, those days are gone forever. The first step in being a gentlemanly passenger is to arrive at the airport prepared for a 1984-style march through endless lines, metal detectors and rings of fire.  Once you have resigned yourself to that fact you are ready to enter the airport unflappable. The first challenge to your impeccable decorum will be check-in.  Although web check-in is widely available, it is often informative to do it at the airport if you have time.  You will get better information about your flight and may avail yourself of some perks. Let’s face it, being a ticket agent is a terrible job.  More often than not you have some mother with 18 bags and 10 children screaming at you about a cancelled flight to Des Moines, and that’s enough to turn anyone into a compassionless robot. Understand this and use it to your advantage.  A gentleman’s charm will get him everywhere, and when it comes to dealing with a ticket agent remember the Three S Rule: Smile, Sympathize and Sucker them in. After a day of dealing with agitated barbarians showing a little humanity goes a long way. I once let an over-stressed airline employee leave her post to go to the bathroom, all the while pretending, so as not to arouse suspicion, to be severely agitated.  Needless to say I spent the rest of my journey in first class.  Just watch and learn. Next stop, the security line… Bootstrap

Travel: Air Travel like a Gentleman Part I- Beginning your journey

By now I have written about traveling a few times, but it seems that our humble site has been receiving a number of visitors looking for the gentlemanly rules of the sky.  If you are one of the lucky few who doesn’t have to face the horrors of a commercial airport, direct yourself to Private Jetiquette.  If you are traveling steerage, read on.

Although you may wax lyrical about old movies where an out of breath traveller runs to the gate, suitcase in hand, to catch a last minute flight, those days are gone forever. The first step in being a gentlemanly passenger is to arrive at the airport prepared for a 1984-style march through endless lines, metal detectors and rings of fire.  Once you have resigned yourself to that fact you are ready to enter the airport unflappable.

The first challenge to your impeccable decorum will be check-in.  Although web check-in is widely available, it is often informative to do it at the airport if you have time.  You will get better information about your flight and may avail yourself of some perks.

Let’s face it, being a ticket agent is a terrible job.  More often than not you have some mother with 18 bags and 10 children screaming at you about a cancelled flight to Des Moines, and that’s enough to turn anyone into a compassionless robot. Understand this and use it to your advantage.  A gentleman’s charm will get him everywhere, and when it comes to dealing with a ticket agent remember the Three S Rule: Smile, Sympathize and Sucker them in. After a day of dealing with agitated barbarians showing a little humanity goes a long way.

I once let an over-stressed airline employee leave her post to go to the bathroom, all the while pretending, so as not to arouse suspicion, to be severely agitated.  Needless to say I spent the rest of my journey in first class.  Just watch and learn.

Next stop, the security line…

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