Irritation Inflation

Something terrible is happening to me. I’m becoming a grumpy old git. My tolerance of other people, particularly in a travel context, is at an all-time low and I hold the pandemic entirely responsible.

There was a time when I was a contented business traveller transiting the globe, brushing up against and bouncing off fellow travellers as I went, in a jocular and tolerant way. I was unphased by the fellow passenger who pulls out his steel edged Rimowa wheelie into my face, as he empties the overhead bin, or the ‘Group 1’ zealot who elbows through the gathering throng at the gate, waving their boarding pass under the misguided assumption that they are the only member of this elite group. I was just glad to be there, happy to be on my way.?

"Lockdown and the ensuing isolation from my fellow travellers has turned me into an irritable time bomb."

I had rather hoped that when travel started up again (and by travel, I mean the less stressful non family related business variety) that, once again, I would just be content to be on the move again and that tolerance and fellowship would be my guiding mantra. I could not have been more wrong. Lockdown and the ensuing isolation from my fellow travellers has turned me into an irritable time bomb. I have lost the ability to accept and embrace the foibles of my fellow travel warriors and find myself annoyed by their very existence, let alone their presence on my flight, on my train or in my hotel.

Case in point. While travelling back from New York the other day, I was not surprised on arrival to hear the cabin crew ask all passengers to remain seated and refrain from removing their hand luggage from the overhead bins, as they would be disembarking the aircraft on a row-by-row. Predictably, of course, a large percentage of the cabin ignored this request and began to congregate in the aisle along with their oversized garment bags making any kind of ordered socially distanced departure from the aircraft all but impossible. Now this is nothing new and passengers have been standing in the aisle while taxiing from the runway to the arrival gate for years. However, my response this time truly alarmed me. I turned to the passengers gathering behind me and curtly asked them at the top of my voice why they couldn’t understand the very simplest of instructions.?

My propensity to offer up my opinion in a way previously never experienced was also in evidence on a recent flight from the Caribbean. Now before you pile into me for going on business to the West Indies, I was actually returning from a holiday but had I been flying to a conference in Vegas my response would have been the same. Shortly into my flight from St Lucia it became clear that two fellow passengers in Business Class had actually been upgraded from Premium Economy. ‘Good for them’, I uncharacteristically thought to myself, even though we had paid good money for the pleasure of a flatbed on this overnight flight. What really riled me, however, was the insistence of the couple that they should not be treated like second class citizens in the cabin and denied their first choice of meal, even though the pasta dishes in question had been taken by full Business Class fare paying passengers elsewhere. I huffed and puffed in a way that was clearly audible to those sitting around me and sarcastically offered them my rigatoni. I sat down quite shocked at my outburst.?

"We need to make a superlative effort to be patient and understanding as we encounter each other on flights and in hotel lobbies around the world."

The reason I’m sharing these vignettes with you is not to self-flagellate but to illustrate what I believe may be a wider phenomenon of what I refer to as post pandemic ‘irritation inflation’. It’s a trend that needs to be reversed if civilised social interaction is to be maintained. I am witnessing a general trend of impatience and intolerance among travellers who have been cocooned from the trials of travel during lockdown during which the only people to annoy them would be close relatives. As we emerge from the hibernation of pandemic restrictions, despite all manner of behaviour and customer service shortfalls being blamed on Covid, we need to make a superlative effort to be patient and understanding as we encounter each other on flights and in hotel lobbies around the world. I guess I’m saying that you should do as I say, not as I have been doing. Mea culpa.

Finally, the inclination to be less accepting and less patient with the behaviour of others is perhaps not the only legacy of lockdown that we need to eradicate. I’m very sad to say that I see more and more people travelling the globe in hoodies, sweatpants, and sliders. Don’t get me started!

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