I fly a hell of a lot, and that means a lot of airlines, airports, and airport staff. In many ways how you interact with these people is very indicative of the place as a whole (at least in my mind), so there’s something that really grinds my gears. Why when the USA is supposedly the customer service capital of the world does every aviation based interaction with them leave a bad taste?
Flying into Guam should have been a relatively painless experience, but as soon as we hit the immigration officers were barking at us. Barking that did stop when we were processed. I was lucky in the biggest issue to be shouted at was wrong placement of my thumb, but for one of our group he had to be interviewed (and nearly missed his flight) simply because he had interesting stamps in his passport. Dear US of A, get the fuck over yourselves. Terrorism isn’t the biggest risk to your way of life, gun crime is though. Until you can fix your own house stop bothering the rest of us.
And United airlines? American Airlines in general are just crap, bad to no food, surly service, and a seeming requirement that to work as a steward requires a spoon up your ass, and the attitude of of a Valley Girl on the rag.
Empires are build on rise and fall, and no one will have any romantic memory of you, the (self-proclaimed) best country in earth when your empire falls. Much like the disease the UK is going through, these bygone eras you long for simply never ever happened.
In future I’ll just avoid US Airlines (particularly United Airlines), and US territory. Nothing speaks louder than voting with your wallet.