February 13, 2010
Lessons from LAX
When a recent flight took me through Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) en route to Canada, my fellow travelers and I were told to pick up our luggage and go through customs.
We made our way to the baggage-claim area and positioned ourselves around the luggage carousel, watching bag after bag tumble down the ramp. 
As the area filled up with travel-weary folks, people started peering over each others’ shoulders and jostling for position.
Granted, some of this is to be expected. After all, everyone there had just been on a long flight, and everyone was preoccupied with their own agenda.
Nonetheless, as I stood there waiting and chatting with a new acquaintance, a late-comer arrived with two small children, a large, bulky backpack and a luggage rack in tow. He stood behind us, waiting to spot his bags, and every few minutes I heard him scold his son. “Stop running around and bumping into people!”
Within moments of saying this, he spotted his bags. Without a word, he pushed himself between my acquaintance and I, smashing his backpack into my arm as he reached for a bag. Turning, smashed into me again as he carried the bag to his cart.
Moments later he was back for the next bag, again pushing his way through without a word… until I heard him snap at the boy, “Stop it! You’re bumping into people left and right, and someone’s going to get hurt.”
Isn’t that the way it goes sometimes? We’re so concerned with the misdeeds of others that we develop a blind eye to our own ways. It’s not hypocrisy so much as a simple lack of awareness.
As I made my way to the next gate, rubbing my shoulder as I went, the wise words of Emily Post came to mind:
“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”
A Little Consideration in a Very Little Space
Have you ever flown Fiji’s airline, Air Pacific? I recently had the pleasure – and I do mean pleasure! I could not believe the generous leg room, and the flight attendants were amazing. Not only did they perform their tasks well but they were so genuine and warm. I felt like I could not have been in more considerate hands.
My fellow passengers, unfortunately, did not hold themselves to the same standards as the attendants. One visit to the restroom was all it took to put a damper on my otherwise delightful flight.
I’ll spare you the details and skip ahead to some basic guidelines for proper airplane restroom behavior.
- Use care when pulling a paper towel or toilet-seat cover from the dispenser. With a few extra seconds and two crumbs of consideration, you can easily avoid a wasteful mess.
- If you do end up with more paper than you need, discard them in the waste bin – not on the floor. Better yet, stack the towels on the counter for the next person to use.
- Before flushing, close the lid. Not only does this leave the restroom with a classier presentation for the next person, it protects the seat surface from sink overspray and inadvertent sloshing during turbulence.
- Always, always, always drain your water from the sink.
- After you have dried your hands, give the sink a quick wipe with the hand towel before tossing it in the trash. Now the restroom is clean and presentable for the next person.
Flight attendants simply cannot clean up after each person. And thank goodness they don’t, or we might be waiting in line even longer!
If everyone gives just a little extra consideration to those around us, together we can make the world a much more pleasant place to be.
