Air travel banes

I have been meeting doctors of the Bisaya Medical Mission now ongoing in Carcar’s Theotokos Shrine (after two days at the Talisay District Hospital) and learned how a number of them fortuitously escaped the shut down of airports in the East Coast due to very heavy snowfall. Several countries in the West are still being battered by a harsh and prolonged winter, while our meteorologists warn us of a really early onset of summer due to the el nino phenomenon.

Drastic weather situations often bring about problems among travelers. Aside from the more apparent flight delays or flight cancellations, there is the unexpected inconvenience of missing luggage. A problem I have to deal with the other night, when Dr. Oscar Bascug asked my help for his retrieved luggage that he had to claim personally at the airport. Since his medical instruments for the mission were in these pieces of luggage, it was a good thing they were tracked down. I will not even go into the other immediate problem of missing personal items, like clothes.

Another consideration on luggage is the airlines’ straitened policies on baggage weight vis a vis minimizing the carbon footprints. And the airline industry is pretty onion-skinned on the public perception that flying is one of the biggest culprits on carbon emissions. So, accompanying baggage weight is now only 50 kls. per passenger on international long-haul flights, while domestic and short-haul international flight allow only 15 to 30 kls per passenger. Carry-on bags are also reduced, not only in size but also in weight. The Pinoy’s palusot in the past of having staggering cabin luggage can no longer work. My uncle, Dr. Jess Ho, who heads the Bisaya Medical Mission, paid over P20,000.00 in overweight charges for their seven pieces of luggage. Only two of which are personal bags, the rest are medicines he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Miranda-Ho, brought for the mission.

Flying light is feasible if one is going to a tropical destination; however, if a woman flies into a temperate destination in autumn or winter – ah, there’s another bane! Maybe taking the not-so-slow boat to anywhere is the better alternative in these times. 

But if travel you must, think of disposables: throw-away undies, hankies, etc. And travel safely now, as you hurdle all the air travel banes.