You Think Visiting An Airport Makes You Cranky? Try Working There!

My boyfriend and I are travelling for a holiday abroad. As we are not going for too long, we take one suitcase between us and a rucksack. We are waiting by the gate, and [Boyfriend] goes to get us some water while I look after the bags.

A few minutes later, one of the airline staff members starts moving around and talking to people. I’m not paying much attention until she grabs my bag, lifts it, and barks something in German, which I don’t understand. She has now rubbed me the wrong way, but I tell her I don’t speak German.

Airline Worker: “Your bag is too heavy; it needs to be checked in.”

Me: “Oh, okay, I’ll move some stuff into the rucksack, then.”

Obviously, I’m trying to avoid time waiting at the baggage carousel.

Airline Worker: “How many bags do you have?”

Me: “The suitcase and my boyfriend’s rucksack.”

Airline Worker: “Oh, there are two of you?”

Me: “Yes, can you give me a minute to sort this out?”

Airline Worker: “No, it has to go into the hold. There is not enough space in the plane.”

Now I am really annoyed. Which is it? Either my bag is too heavy (which I can remedy to some degree by shifting the weight between the bags) or there is no space as the flight is full (which isn’t my fault, and therefore, I’d expect some slight conciliation from the airline when this occurs). Either way, I now face the outcome of waiting at the other end for my bag rather than going straight through the airport. I grab the other rucksack and start moving things like my laptop and documents into there that cannot go into hold baggage.

[Boyfriend] then arrives and asks what is happening. Obviously, this takes a few minutes, and the woman is getting annoyed that I haven’t immediately gotten up and moved.

Airline Worker: *Exasperated* “You need to check your bag in.”

Me: “And I will do that once I’ve taken out things that can’t go in the hold.”

That makes her quiet. I join the queue standing at what I think is a reasonable distance (being British and not wanting to look like I’m trying to overhear the group in front). 

Airline Worker: “You need to step forward to join the queue.”

I didn’t see where this woman is coming from as people were now standing behind me. I just shrugged and waited. A couple of minutes later, the bag had a tag on it and the woman was still giving me the stink-eye.