Dania

They moved my original post to Air Travel(got a message from a mod that they were moving it) but left the rest here. Sorry, not sure why that happened.

Ez73

That's funny. But it's great that they are doing something about it. I have had priority boarding a few times on SAS and they seem to let people on with total disregard to boarding status.

suze

I thought you really meant lice. Like catching them in the boarding area or from a plane seat on in your suitcase.

zebec

Fellow former (and current) teachers will attest: the word 'lice' sends a chill down our spines. Elementary students having head lice are a given in most inner-city schools. Each year, some kid in our class would get them and often pass them along. In 2000, the moms at our school who were volunteering to do head checks, kindly offered to include staff as well. After examining me, they told me that they thought they'd seen nits (baby lice) in my hair. Gulp.
An hour later at lunch, I went to the local mall's hair salon and had them cut off all my hair. I was bald for most of that winter.
Looking back, its possible that I jumped the gun. Were those well-meaning moms really qualified to ID nits?

I am done. the once-bald

gruezi

zebec - head lice also make the rounds amongst affluent school children - it went around here in CT every year. I had the nit combing project with one daughter with very long hair. It was not fun! I felt itchy for weeks.

In the international school my younger daughter attended in Zurich, it was not considered an issue for kids to have lice or go to school with lice so they kept making the rounds. I found this attitude very annoying and so did the American born school nurse, but she explained mothers from other countries did not see lice as a reason to stay home or to share with other moms and she was not allowed to send a note home. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Bokhara2

Oh good grief, Gruezi! Can’t imagine anyone thinking nits were no big deal. The little beasts travel at the speed of light and I can see the whole school community scratching madly.

I don’t know what the current rule is in schools here now but back in the ice age day scholars had to go home until their plague was vanquished & boarders were quarantined in the infirmary while the nuns dealt with the little beasts.

In a former life, I co-ran local government Health Clinics in country areas and “Nit Kits” were both hand-outs and used by the nursing aides who helped some of the larger families at the clinics.

schmerl

During lice outbreaks I remember students having to put their book bags into large plastic bags when they entered the school .

curiousgeo

z, trying to get my head around the once bald!

zebec

Twice bald CG. A few years ago, I foolishly drifted asleep in the chair unawares that my hairstylist (with little English) had just misunderstood my stated preference. Woke up about 2 minutes in, too late.
Btw, after that first-bald I later rendezvoused with Mrs Z after work at our gym. She was unaware of my misadventure and was on the stationary bike right next to me for 7 or 8 minutes til she suddenly recognized her husbear with a start!
I am done. the shiny heads

carolyn

When I was little, my mother curled my hair in long curls a la Shirley Temple. We had an outbreak of head lice, and the teachers did head checks. The one who checked me was a friend of my mother's and as she pulled each curl apart, she kept saying, "Your mother is going to kill me." My mother taught first grade and always said it made her head itch like crazy if anyone mentioned lice.

Trophywife007

To answer your question, no. You're in group 3 (or whatever) and you board with that group. It's people who are in group 25 and try to board with group 1 who are gate lice. Oddly, there recently was a thread on FT that devolved into a discussion of using such a derogatory term for those who try to cheat their way through. Clearly, they get away with it often enough or they wouldn't still try. It carry on space weren't such an issue it wouldn't be a problem. I also dislike those who put their bags up front and continue on to the back. Then there are those who think the box above their seat is reserved for them -- made worse because everyone is already on edge. I can't imagine what it would be like for those who fly 2 or 3 times per week.

bumpmaster

I was told that the term referred to those who cluster around ths gate waiting for their group to be called, thus blocking the way. However, this is entirely on the airlines for making it costly and problematic to check bags, and to retrieve them. They are responsible for the tension, not the passengers hopng to find a place for their carryon.

AnselmAdorne

Your definition is exactly the way that I understand the term.

As for the cause, yes, carryon baggage and competition for overhead space are big factors, and as trophywife007 points out, it raises people's anxiety. But airport design and management also contribute. Gate areas have to be big enough to hold 300-odd people in orderly lines. Airports that rent out retail space near the gates make crowding inevitable. (Toronto Pearson/YYZ, I'm looking at you.)

gruezi

Agree about the airlines and the airports causing the problems. I don’t want to have to walk backward in the plane after landing to get my luggage because someone seated in the back has filled the overhead bin with their bags.

Airlines made air travel miserable not travelers.

Still, I wait politely while every level of priority access is called and then the families etc. before I board my purposely near the front seat I’ve paid more for and booked early. Usually I can put my very small carryon above me. (Don’t get me started on the bags some people try to pull off as carryon &#128580

zebec

When our flight home from Paris landed exactly a week ago, I reached into the overhead bin to extract Mrs Z's stuff. I had a real sore back, so my movements and body language were not elegant. I manhandl grabbed the tan purse there, palming it roughly like NBA players do when preparing to dunk.
And then I noticed to my horror that it was not my wife's purse but instead the one belonging to the French woman beside us! I immediately softened my grip and handed it to here with as much delicacy as possible, posing as though I'd meant to assist her all along, 'tres gentile' like.

I can just hear her as she sipped wine in some swanky cafe later that night with her friends:
"He was a boeuf, that Canadian! He showed no respect for my Hermes bag. Mais oui: lumberjacks, all of them."
I am done. the advil

Trophywife007

Silly lady for subjecting her Hermes to the overhead. She's not worthy.

AJPeabody

Did you determine that it was not a counterfeit Hermes?

AnselmAdorne

Did you say lumberjacks??!! Cue Monty Python!!

zebec

Sorry Heti, the lice are loose. Toronto airport=YYZ. Hence the Rush piece performed below live in front of a massive Rio crowd who sang along to this instrumental!
Listen closely @3:26.
I am done. the loose lice

Moderator1

two threads have been merged