I was reading travel tips the other day and one of the articles was all about air travel and whether it was getting better or worse. One of the suggestions the writer made was that to be treated well you should dress well. He didn’t mean go out and buy a wardrobe of designer clothes just to fly the friendly skies. What he meant was that in the early days of air travel it was an occasion and you dressed for it. Those early days weren’t that long ago really. Back in the 70’s when I traveled by air I remember everyone was in business attire. No one wore jeans or worse sweats that look like you just rolled out of bed.

His point was that if you want to be treated with respect you need to look the part…walk the walk..or however you want to say it.

With that in mind I decided to give it a try…no jeans and T-shirt this time. I pulled on a pair of Khakis and a flowered blouse. I put my hair up in a neat bun and off I went.

At the first stop I dropped off my car. The attendant whisked my luggage to the shuttle and had me at the United gate in less than 5 minutes. Last time the process to over 30 minutes!

In the airport the desk personnel were chatty and friendly. Time for the security check point and the TSA. Once again smiles and pleasant wishes for a nice trip. I’m on a roll.

Seated in the gate area one of the united people was going around checking in carry on luggage because the plane was too little for most of the roller bags. Mine had my 500mm mirror lens and my telephoto lens. Combined value around $1500. I didn’t want those separated from me. I explained my concern and was surprised when they let me take them out of the luggage and keep them with me! And all that was suggested with a smile. It put me over the “limit” for carry ons but they didn’t care!

So far this has been one of the most pleasant trips I’ve made. Could it really be as easy as dressing a little neater?