What I Expect On My Next Plane Ride

I still remember the first time I rode an airplane. It was summer of the year 2005. I was only eight years old back then but I can still recall the things I did and felt during that short 2-hour plane ride to Manila until now. It has affected me in a way that I can’t explain. After that first plane ride, I have always wanted to fly again. It took five years for me to be able to ride a plane again. It felt like I was riding it for the first time. After that, I’ve been riding a plane every year but it stopped when I entered college. It has been two years since my last plane ride. It’s not that long ago but I am already looking forward for my next one. I am very excited for it. This one will be special because it will be the first plane ride wherein I am not going to be accompanied by any of my relatives. I am doing this like a grown man but I’m doing with my friends.

For me, plane rides consists of four stages: the pre-departure, the boarding, take-off and landing. These are my expectations on the different stages of a plane ride.

Pre-departure

Every plane ride begins with the pre-departure stage. This meticulous stage is where we do most of the pre-departure stuffs that we should do like weighing and checking the luggage in, paying the terminal fees and many more. I am saying that this is a meticulous stage because if we make even a tiny mistake in this stage, the whole trip could be jeopardized. I speak from experience. Way back in 2010, before our flight to Hong Kong, The Bureau of Immigration at Ninoy Aquino International Airport almost stopped me from flying. The reason: I misplaced a permit issued to me by the Department of Social Welfare and Development that allows me to travel outside the country without my parents accompanying me. We asked the immigration officer if there was another way for me to be able board the plane but she said that without the permit, I cannot travel. I didn’t know what to do during that time. My uncle, who was travelling with me jokingly suggested that if I can’t board the plane to Hong Kong, he would just give me money to buy plane tickets so that I could go back to Davao. I laughed but deep inside, I was nervous. I won’t miss a trip to Hong Kong just because I misplaced a piece of paper. I began thinking of solutions. I am still in the pre-departure stage of this trip so I went back to the check-in counter of the airline we checked our luggage in and asked the lady in there if I could check my bags for something. She said no and explained why she couldn’t do what I asked. To be honest, I didn’t understand anything she said because she was speaking English and was talking too fast so I called my uncle to do the talking. After reasoning with her, my uncle managed to convince her to allow me to check my luggage. I looked for the permit on my bags and after a few minutes of looking, I found it. I was eventually cleared for travel outside the country after showing the permit to the immigration officer. She then gave me an advice. Walk through your trip and make sure you have everything you need. This incident that happened to me taught me an important lesson. Since then, every time I ride a plane I keep all valuables (including travel documents) in a carry-on luggage. This way they are guaranteed not to get lost or stolen with my checked baggage. And in case I need them, I would not go through the painful process of asking the check-in counter for my bag.

On my next plane ride, I would be entering the pre-departure stage alone and I would be doing the check-in process all by myself. I am expecting that this time, I would not screw up because if I do, no one will be there to save me.

Boarding the plane

This stage is pretty self-explanatory. In this stage, we fall in line to the boarding gates, we present our boarding passes to the people in charge then we go inside the plane. Nothing much happens in here but in reality, this is the stage is the most crucial. If you are not on the boarding gates on time, there is a huge possibility that you will be left behind. On my past plane rides, when boarding the plane, I always hear announcements that mention some individuals and ask them to proceed to the boarding gates because it would be closing in a few minutes. There could be many reasons why they are not yet on the boarding gates and such reasons could be because they screwed up on the pre-departure stage. If they are still in the check in area and it is already their time to board, of course they could miss the boarding process and could miss their flight. We have experience this on our flight from Manila to Davao a few years ago. The check-in process during that day was so slow that we almost missed our flight. Normally, a check-in process would only last for a few minutes then we can spend most of our time waiting for boarding but at that time, it took us more than an hour just to reach the end of the line. After the checking our luggage in, we only had a few minutes left so we scurried directly to the boarding gates and thankfully, our flight has been delayed for half an hour giving us a few moments to sit down and let our tired feet rest from all those standing. Another reason could be because people tend to spend a lot of time on airport cafés and restaurants. We are not the kind of people that spends money on ridiculously expensive food and beverages on airport cafés so I thought that we would never encounter a problem because of this. But ironically, it happened to us on 2013 on our flight from Kalibo, Aklan to Davao City. It was an early morning flight and we haven’t eaten breakfast yet because the hotel we stayed in serves breakfast late so we decided to eat at the airport. After checking our luggage in, we went to a small café inside the airport and ordered food. They said to us that they would just cook our food for a few minutes. “A few minutes” turned out to be almost an hour. When the food was served, we only had a short time to eat it. We have to eat it on that café because we can’t bring food inside the airplane. While eating the food, we can see the others already boarding our flight. We managed to finish our foods before our names got called. We boarded the plane on time but that was a close call.

On my next plane ride, I am expecting that I wouldn’t be doing any of the mistakes that happened to us a few years ago. I won’t be spending too much time on cafés and restaurants to avoid such problems and to avoid spending a lot of money.

Take-off

One of the best things about a plane ride is the flight of the airplane. No one in his right mind would want the plane not to fly. The flight of the plane is one of the most exciting things ever. Many memories are created here especially when it is your first time. When I first rode a plane, I can’t explain my excitement. I was completely amazed. It was my first time seeing the interior of a plane. It was awesome. The flight attendants did their thing and I watched them with awe. The plane started taxiing and I got very excited. The plane was finally moving and it is moving very fast. One second it’s on the ground and the next second she’s already flying. Looking out the window was really fun. It gave me this amazing feeling that I am above everybody else. It also gave me the awful feeling of motion sickness afterwards. I also felt my ears pop. Popping of the ears is common to all plane rides. From what I have heard, it is caused by the sudden change in air pressure inside the cabin. It is painful at first but I got used to it afterwards.

Sometimes, it becomes boring during the flight especially when you are sitting beside a complete stranger. You can’t initiate a conversation. And if you do, it would definitely be short. This happens to me and my relatives always. Most of the time, we don’t sit beside each other because we only availed the promo seats. In this case, some forms of entertainment comes in handy. I always bring music devices and earphones with me. I listen to music aboard the plane. It helps me relax during the duration of the plane ride and it also helps me ignore annoying passengers on the plane. Other forms of entertainment are books, small game consoles and many more as long as it is not prohibited. Contrary to popular belief, eating is not a form of entertainment especially if you are planning on eating airplane food. Plane food have a reputation of being bad and expensive. So in my next plane ride, I would probably full my stomach before riding the plane so that I wouldn’t have a reason to buy food during the flight.

As I have said earlier, take-off is the most exciting part of the plane ride but some people view it differently. For others, it is the most terrifying part of the trip. Some people bring rosaries and pray novenas during take-off. We can’t blame them for doing this because they might have a valid reason of doing it. If I encounter people doing this on my next plane ride, the thing that I would do is to just let them do what they want and respect them. The plane is public mode of transportation. We expect to encounter different kinds of people when we ride them. Some also get sick during plane rides. Many people, including me, encounter motion sickness during flights. Because of that I made it habit to bring some medications and some chewing gums every time I ride a plane. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get sick on my next plane ride.

Landing

Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man.... Landing is the first! All of the landing I have experience is different in its own way and I am expecting that the landing of my next plane ride would be an awesome one. Most of the landing that I have experienced are good but one of them is bad but actually taught me something. It happened during our family’s trip to Boracay. We rode a 72-seater plane from Mactan-Cebu International Airport to Boracay Airport at Malay, Aklan. Our plane was about to land when it encountered strong tailwinds. Tailwinds causes our plane to experience turbulence while landing. The pilot of the plane asked us to fasten our seatbelts and grab on to something because that landing could go nasty. On that moment, I realized that landings don’t always go according to plan. Thanks to our awesome pilot, he managed to land the plane safely and away from danger. Some people got scared because of the extreme turbulence we felt but overall, we were all fine. I expect that I wouldn’t be expecting the same problems on my next flight. I want my next flight to be smooth and fun.

Landing marks the end of a plane ride but it doesn’t always mean that it’s the end of the journey. In fact, it is the beginning of one. You are in a new place with new people. It marks the beginning of new discoveries and experiences. And in this case, it marks the beginning of our field trip. After this field trip, hopefully, we would all remember the day when it all began. We would cherish the day our plane landed on Manila; the day that marked a new milestone in our lives. 

My Preferred Field Trips and Seminars (FTS) Model

                Php 21,000.00 – the estimated cost of Model A. It may be a pretty reasonable price for a field trip model that would include a five-day educational trip to Manila but for students like me, it would somehow be impractical to choose it. It would be very hard to come up with that huge amount of money. It would take me months to save for that. But still, I chose the said model.

                Before I told my mother about the choice I made, I told my mother that it was not my personal decision, but a majority vote. I told her that during the meetings for this course, three models were presented to us but among the three, Model A received the most number of votes. Even if I voted for the others models, it wouldn’t have made a difference. She didn’t believe me at first and pointed out that raising that amount in a few months would seem impossible. I said to her that even if I chose other models, it would already be useless because the class had already decided which model to follow. I told her the cost of Model A. Upon hearing that, she was in utter disbelief. I saw the reaction on my mother’s face the moment I finished talking. She looked worried. She was quiet for a long while. But she then started thinking of ways on how to come up with the money.

                Seeing her troubled made me think about my choice. Maybe model A was not the best choice after all. Maybe I should have chosen Model B or Model C. Both models are way cheaper than model A since most, if not all, of the trips that will be conducted will only be here in Mindanao.

                Of the three models presented to us, Model C would probably be the cheapest. If I were to base my decision on the cost of each models, I would definitely choose Model C.  It comprises of three minor field trips in Mindanao, four seminars worth sixteen hours in Mindanao, and two hours interpersonal skills. It may seem that this model is the best choice for students having a hard time financially like me, there is actually something I don’t like about this model. According to the model waiver given to us, there is a very high chance the activities on this model will be conducted inside Davao City. This means, we won’t be needing to purchase plane tickets and book hotels, which is good, but I feel that the essence of field trip is lost we our trips are just within our hometown. Another is that Davao City doesn’t have that much IT companies that we can visit. Because of that, the number of things we would be learning during the duration of the course would definitely be less than the number of things we could learn on a trip to Manila.

                As expensive as it may seem, Model A is very promising. Yes, it is definitely the most expensive of the three models but an educational trip to the capital city would yield very amazing results. My classmates may have chosen this model just to experience travelling outside Mindanao but I didn’t. I chose this model because of the rare opportunities it offers to us. Who wouldn’t want to attend a national convention of IT students and professionals? I am talking about the Y4iT Conference. It is one of the largest information technology events in the Philippines. For sure, almost everybody in field of Information and Communications technology would want to attend the said event. Who wouldn't want to learn about the new trends in science, technology and research? As a computer science student, I would love to discover new things and innovations. Manila is the perfect place for that. Unlike Davao City, Metro Manila is ahead of other cities in the country in terms of technology. It also has more places and facilities we could visit. Visiting various companies and universities would give us the opportunity to try new technologies and learn new information through journals, researches and seminars. Who wouldn't want to know how different systems used by different companies and agencies work? I think it would be a great privilege to visit some government or private agencies and learn how their IT departments work. Who wouldn't want to do this all with his or her closest friends and colleagues? Everybody would want to do this with somebody they are comfortable with.

                Another reason why I chose this model is the fact that I would be doing this by my own. This would be the first time that I would be travelling without my parents or any relatives. And for non-selfish reasons, I have always wanted to experience such thing. I have been to Manila a few times already but all of those trips are for leisure only and in all of those trips, I was with my relatives. They were the ones in control of the budget, carrying the tickets and checking our luggage in. Soon, I shall be responsible for my own tickets, luggage and money. Such experience would definitely help me become more independent and responsible. In this trip, we wouldn't only be learning about things related about our field but also some important life lessons that we could bring wherever we go.

                There was actually a time when my mother and I talked about me taking this course next year instead of now because of financial reasons. But after seeing all the good Model A can offer, I would be a fool to let it go away. This is an opportunity that I must not miss. After explaining all of this to my mother, I was able to convince her that our money will be well spent in this model. I already promised her that I would help her pay for the expenses of this trip using the allowance I get from my scholarship. Luckily, some of my relatives expressed their will to help me fund this educational trip for they also see benefits of it to me. Model A all the way!