Airliners offer broadband and satellite radio, yet still don’t have decent air quality

On a recent flight between Calgary and Las Vegas, the plane I was on offered Sirius satellite radio, a TV monitor on the chair-back in front of me, access to pay-per-view movies, 26 cables channels, and live coverage of an international hockey tournament being played in Switzerland.  If I’d wanted to purchase a headset for $3 so I could partake of the entertainment offerings, I would have been allowed to keep the headset permanently.  Gone are the days of a single in-flight movie and those clunky rental headsets that you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing in real life, even if you’d been permitted to keep take them home as a souvenir.  It’s obvious that my comfort and entertainment are deemed paramount to a positive flight experience, but I wish some airline, any airline, would put such effort into making sure that I leave their plane healthy as well as happy.

I’m not a newbie air traveler, but I am a germ-o-phobe.  When flying I take with me lots of my own tissues, portable hand sanitizer, and I make a point of never touching my face as to avoid escorting germs directly into my eyeball, for example.  I often bring my own snacks and water bottle so I don’t have a lot of hand contact with the flight attendants, who are passing things out and retrieving used objects from every passenger on the plane.  I feel like I do everything possible to isolate myself (everything but wear a mask and make people think I have TB), yet I still came home from my recent flight with a terrible virus which has moved through my sinuses and lungs with joyful abandon.  I tried to drown it out of me with hydration, using Airborne as RU-486 for head colds, but the virus was victorious.  It hit me with a wallop about 72 hours after I was safely back home in sunny Las Vegas.

I’ve never traveled on an airplane without catching a cold virus, and I’m frustrated in my failed attempted to change my odds.  Given all the efforts I make to isolate myself from germs while flying, maybe it’s time for the airlines to step up and take some responsibility for this, too.  Can’t the air be run through UV and other sterilizers as it’s recirculated during the flight?  Is it really so difficult to keep air in such a tiny space clean?  I’ve got a room full of cockatoos in my house with one air-cleaner, and I think that air quality is better than anything I’ve breathed on an airplane.  I don’t think the airlines are devoting enough attention to the problem because consumers are complaining about it.

The next time I fly, I’m considering the paper mask.  Perhaps I’ll just wear a gas mask with charcoal filtration to save me from rhinovirus and anthrax.  What I really want, though, is to see an advertisement for a new airline called “Fresh Air” or “Head Cold Free Air”, so I can throw them my business.  I’m supposed to fly again in April and while I look forward to the trip, I also know I’d better stock up on Theraflu so I can drown my sorrows when I return.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/23 at 05:20 AM

  1. Try taking the product “Airborne” a couple of times a day, starting about a week before you fly. I too am a germaphobe and often have gotten sick after flying.  The Airborn stuff is a tablet you disolve in water. It’s supposed to help you stop getting sick. In reality, it’s vitimins and minerals. While nothing stops the common cold, my Doctor told me there was definitely no harm in taking it to boost my immune system when needed.

    Posted by Joshua Pettit on 01/27 at 09:18 PM
    2. Page 1 of 1 pages

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