Things that put me in a grumpy mood
*Delays
*Delays – for no adequately explained reason
*People shouting instructions (Stansted security staff are really into this)
*Overcrowded waiting areas
*Realizing that the drunken stag party currently chain-smoking with gusto in the no-smoking area is booked on the same flight as me
*Bizarre procedures that only apply to certain airports or airlines and seem to serve no useful purpose (why does Air2000 need to check boarding passes 3 times?)
*Discovering that members of the aforementioned stag party have seats allocated next to me
*Being sat behind someone on a charter flight who insists on reclining their seat
*Overcrowded airport buses that sit on the tarmac for 15 minutes whilst the driver reads a newspaper.
Things that perk me up
*A row of seats to myself
*Sitting in the emergency exit row
*An uninterrupted view out of the window
*If there’s a delay being given a plausible explanation why (“late arrival of inbound aircraft” doesn’t count)
*Cabin Crew who are on the ball – and who manage by whatever means to keep assorted stag parties, malcontents and miscellaneous mad people under control (top marks to the BMIBaby crew on my flight back from Prague last year)
*Even if I haven’t got a problem, it’s nice to see the crew looking after people who have.