As a frequent traveler myself, I have spent many an hour in airports observing and interacting with other travelers. As a child, trains were my primary means of travel and nowhere as inhibitive or scary as airline travel is these days. The only people we met on those trains were usually traveling for pleasure or to meet their families and as far as I remember, traveling and planning for travel was a big deal in those days. It still is for a lot of people. However, new lifestyle and opportunities have redefined how, when and why people travel these days.
The first kind of traveler is the age-old "taking a vacation once in a year or two travelling with family and looking hassled at the beginning of the vacation" traveler. This person will probably look a lot more relaxed at the end of the vacation than when he started out. This traveler wants everything to be perfect on the vacation because he planned for it for so long. He has the heaviest baggage and chances are will run into problems every step of the check-in process in the airport. To him, its like the cosmos are conspiring against his well planned vacation to ruin it for him.
The second kind of traveler is that traveling salesperson or consultant or the like for whom a missed fight can be disastrous, but they fly so often and pack so light that they are unfrassled. This is the most unfriendly traveler because he/she is trying to make as much use of any spare moment they have. Headphones plugged in and moving around with a mi-fi they are trying to get as much work done on the plane or an airport as possible. He/she might as well be in his/her office making the mos important presentation of their lives; they are completely immune to their surroundings.
The next kind of traveler is the weekend traveler, probably working in a different city from where his home is. Could be a student, or a hard working man/woman trying to get back with tons of dirty laundry to home or children. Surprisingly they are also quite relaxed during travel even though anxious to go home and in spite of the fact that they are lugging a week's worth of dirty laundry with them :) Maybe the thought that they will be home soon keeps this traveler sane.
Another kind of traveler is the business traveler, possibly the head of some leading organization. Arrives just in time to board a flight, has been all over the world, but has never seen too many places of beauty, always travels first class and has access to all those classy waiting rooms in airports, but probably never used them, because s(he) arrives just in time for the flight; skips those delicious first class meals, because they pass out as soon as they board the flight because they have traveled 5 time zones in the past 5 days. This is the traveler who can be funny and witty and very informative, if they were ever awake for you to strike up a conversation with.
The last category is the one that I like to put myself in. The kind that travels for pleasure and leisure, so much so that every moment of leisure is spent traveling. This kind misses flights every so often, but is laid back about it, can pack a week's worth of clothes in a duffel bag, whiz through security screens and eventually get good at not losing anything while traveling after having misplaced a few expensive items in the process. This kind is capable of sleeping in the airport for 24 hours or even in a car at -32F is necessary. All they basically want to be able to do is go from spot A to B and back to A in time for work. Mind you, these travelers can be further categorized as adventurers, weekend travelers, world travelers, etc., but for the purposes of air travel, I can safely put them under one category.
I cannot say why I felt the need to list out the different kinds of travelers I meet, except that I felt a compelling need to note down my observations from my travels. However, there is a moral to the story - travel like life, is a journey - and different people like different travelers approach it differently. Some people just want to get from point A to B, to some getting to point B is what is important and they will tolerate anything for that, to some getting to point B is as important as how they do- it all has to be perfect, to some its all a haze, they are working so hard at so many things that they forget to look where they are going or enjoy the process of getting there and finally there are those people who enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Of course, I will not comment on what the best approach to travel or life is, because like travel, life puts us in a certain place and time and we all play it as we see fit! All we can wish for is for the journey to be pleasant.
The first kind of traveler is the age-old "taking a vacation once in a year or two travelling with family and looking hassled at the beginning of the vacation" traveler. This person will probably look a lot more relaxed at the end of the vacation than when he started out. This traveler wants everything to be perfect on the vacation because he planned for it for so long. He has the heaviest baggage and chances are will run into problems every step of the check-in process in the airport. To him, its like the cosmos are conspiring against his well planned vacation to ruin it for him.
The second kind of traveler is that traveling salesperson or consultant or the like for whom a missed fight can be disastrous, but they fly so often and pack so light that they are unfrassled. This is the most unfriendly traveler because he/she is trying to make as much use of any spare moment they have. Headphones plugged in and moving around with a mi-fi they are trying to get as much work done on the plane or an airport as possible. He/she might as well be in his/her office making the mos important presentation of their lives; they are completely immune to their surroundings.
The next kind of traveler is the weekend traveler, probably working in a different city from where his home is. Could be a student, or a hard working man/woman trying to get back with tons of dirty laundry to home or children. Surprisingly they are also quite relaxed during travel even though anxious to go home and in spite of the fact that they are lugging a week's worth of dirty laundry with them :) Maybe the thought that they will be home soon keeps this traveler sane.
Another kind of traveler is the business traveler, possibly the head of some leading organization. Arrives just in time to board a flight, has been all over the world, but has never seen too many places of beauty, always travels first class and has access to all those classy waiting rooms in airports, but probably never used them, because s(he) arrives just in time for the flight; skips those delicious first class meals, because they pass out as soon as they board the flight because they have traveled 5 time zones in the past 5 days. This is the traveler who can be funny and witty and very informative, if they were ever awake for you to strike up a conversation with.
The last category is the one that I like to put myself in. The kind that travels for pleasure and leisure, so much so that every moment of leisure is spent traveling. This kind misses flights every so often, but is laid back about it, can pack a week's worth of clothes in a duffel bag, whiz through security screens and eventually get good at not losing anything while traveling after having misplaced a few expensive items in the process. This kind is capable of sleeping in the airport for 24 hours or even in a car at -32F is necessary. All they basically want to be able to do is go from spot A to B and back to A in time for work. Mind you, these travelers can be further categorized as adventurers, weekend travelers, world travelers, etc., but for the purposes of air travel, I can safely put them under one category.
I cannot say why I felt the need to list out the different kinds of travelers I meet, except that I felt a compelling need to note down my observations from my travels. However, there is a moral to the story - travel like life, is a journey - and different people like different travelers approach it differently. Some people just want to get from point A to B, to some getting to point B is what is important and they will tolerate anything for that, to some getting to point B is as important as how they do- it all has to be perfect, to some its all a haze, they are working so hard at so many things that they forget to look where they are going or enjoy the process of getting there and finally there are those people who enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Of course, I will not comment on what the best approach to travel or life is, because like travel, life puts us in a certain place and time and we all play it as we see fit! All we can wish for is for the journey to be pleasant.
