Flying...

I currently love overseas traveling. When I was younger, I even loved the physical airplane ride. When I was 19, and could curl my little 19 year-old self into a ball and sleep for the entire 10 plus hours with my head gently resting atop my bent knees through the beverage service, the dinner, the late night beverage service, the continual water offerings, the breakfast, and even the landing, I just couldn't understand how anyone could loathe flying.

Even into my early twenties when I couldn't sleep for the length of of the entire plane ride, I'd find a good movie to watch on the small screen placed on the backs of all seats; conveniently economy-class airplane technology was developing alongside my ever increasing inability to sleep in a curled up ball. And as long as I remembered to tell the travel agent to order veggo meals for me, the dinners were never as awful as popular culture purported. After my hot veggo dinner and complementary bottle of wine for one, I could easily fall asleep to whatever movie I'd chosen, only to be awoken by the smells of food carts full of breakfast, and at least one veggo breakfast for me.

I've not taken residence in the states for six years now, so in order to return home, it has to be an international return home. And since nearly all of my friends here in South Korea are also Native English Teachers, oceans away from their families, international flying is a common, well-researched, topic of interest often discussed around dinner tables. The general consensus reassured by every one of these conversations is that all airlines owned and run by any North American is inferior to all Asian airlines in nearly every possible way.

Airport services. Many Asian International airports have massage rooms, massage chairs (some are even FREE massage chairs), movies to watch, shower rooms, and some even have exercise rooms for the long layover-er. Oh, and these services are offered to everyone, not just those lucky enough to carry some Super Elite Frequent Flyer card with free entry access to places as choice as Narnia. Internet in many Asian airports is also free, and if not free, at least it's an affordable way to spend an hour or so of your time. I once accidentally spent $25.00 of my last $45.00 US Dollars in LAX within hour 1 of my 7 our layover using a ridiculous priced internet service on my laptop (In Korean airports, even for domestic flights, you can use airport computers for free internet services).

Bag checking. On my last trip from Chicago back to Korea in February of this year, the large fella working at the Baggage Check looked at my things, as they made their way through the rubber flaps on the secure side of the conveyor belt, "We got another one who can't listen and follow directions," he said. "Excuse me?" I asked, "Have I done something wrong?" He gruffly explained that just moments before he'd yelled to everyone that they needed to keep their shoes OUTSIDE the buckets. I irritatedly apologized and explained that it was really hard to hear anything as so many things were being yelled at us back there. Furthermore, it's difficult to know just what to do, as every American airport seems to have different rules, though the same sense of condescending righteousness among its workers. As I grabbed the rest of my things, anger boiled up inside me, and I couldn't resist telling him that I didn't appreciate him treating me as though I were a child, and that I'd done a fair amount of International travel, and no other nation had airport workers as rude as the Americans. He then told me, "That's cause American airports do it right." Riiiight, I thought.

On a recent weekend trip to Seoul from Jeju, I had failed to take my mini swiss army knife off my key chain, and as I didn't check any baggage, it was scanned, identified as dangerous and I was asked by a very pleasant employee to go back to the counter and check it through. When I showed him my boarding pass and told him that I didn't have enough time, he escorted me downstairs to my gate, handed the knife to a steward on my flight, who put it in an envelope and then assured me that I'd get it back in Seoul. If only I could have expressed in Korean that the 'American airports do it right' then these incredibly helpful, patient Korean airport workers could have seen error of their ways.

Service. Just last weekend I had to change my flight departure date for a domestic flight from Seoul to Jeju, and because the Sunday flight was originally more than the Monday flight that I was changing to, there was no fee at all. Had my flight changing happened in the states, I'd be sure to pay a fee, regardless of price difference, possibly even more than the price of my ticket.

Smiling, attractive stewards, stewardesses and counter people. In Asia, only happy people, or people who fake happy well, are allowed to serve you on an airplane or in an airport. I'll refrain from describing the physical appearance of most of the stewardesses on North American international flights, but let's just say, if they smiled more I wouldn't notice just how fat they are.

The days of curling up in a ball and sleeping for the entire course of an international flight are over for me. I increasingly find it difficult to sleep much at all on flights these days, and courteous, smiling stewards and stewardesses are becoming more and more important to me. One day, when I move away from Korea and enter life back in the West, I'm sure I'll sorely miss Asian airplanes, airports and staff.