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Research, Technology, and Teamwork blog by Susie Wee

An odd passenger

Published 20 September 2007, 03:11 PM

I just flew from San Francisco to Singapore. I have a confession. On this trip I did something that I never did before- I brought my Sony PlayStation Portable with me... and I played it in public on the plane! I never brought my PSP with me on a trip. The main reason I don't bring it is because I like to work on airplanes. But, to be completely honest, I think a secondary reason I don't bring it might be because of image. I'm generally not an image-conscious person, but have you ever seen a 30-something (okay, closer to 40-something) year old professional woman in business class on an airplane playing with a PSP?

Actually, I decided to play around with the image of a business class flier even more. My airplane left San Francisco at 1:20am, but I had a 9pm hockey game before my flight. So, I decided to try an experiment. I would play in my hockey game, send my gear home with a friend, go to the airport in my sweats, check in, and then shower in the Singapore Airlines airport lounge. Fortunately, my plan worked perfectly and I made it to my seat squeaky clean! After I showered, I decided to travel comfortably in clean sweats rather than my more typical casual business wear.

So, there I was sitting comfortably in business class in my sweats playing my PSP. I think the airline attendants didn't quite know what to make of me, since I didn't quite match the image of anyone else in the cabin. However, you might know that Singapore Airlines has outstanding service, and since I have over 100K airline miles this year alone, I think I might get extra-nice service. The workers were great, treating me just like everyone else, even though I looked a bit odd. I got a couple comments since it was hard for them to get my attention to give them my food choices, but they handled me very well.

So, have you ever seen a professional business woman in an airport playing games (other than crosswords and sudoku)? Should I stop this silliness or carry on? Am I an oddball or is the world changing?

Please feel free to leave a URL with your comments.
Posted By susie.wee | 11 Comments | Trackbacks | Permalink
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Susie -- I think as long as you are not offensive in your behavior or fashion you can be who you want to be. I would rather be comfortable flying half way around the globe than to dress the way you think you are expected to. I bet most of the others on the plane were envious of you. so what types of reactions did you get from the other passengers? Did you get any special interests from others that you could use for your benefit? Did you get any negative reactions?
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 04:30 PM by cwoodruff@terralant.com
Hi cwoodruff! Thanks for the note. I was not offensive, and I should say that my sweats were actually neat and clean looking- no holes, tears, or dirt. I didn't notice any reactions from other passengers other than curiosity. I think some people might have been surprised when I pulled out my laptop and started doing "real work", as they might not have expected that I had a real job. I didn't notice any special interests, but I'll be on the lookout on my return flight. Thanks for the encouragement! That brings up a good question- Is there a dress code for airline flight?
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 04:43 PM by Susie Wee
As a former -- thankfully -- heavy traveler, I never looked askance at fellow travelers playing games or working on their laptops regardless of their gender. In fact, someone playing a game was less likely to bug me. ((grin)) Unfriendly I know, but often I counted on al long plane trip as the only big block of uninterrupted work time I was going to get in a week. As to clean, well maintained sweats, rather than looking down on a person, I would have likely been envious if I had gotten stuck traveling in suit.
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 06:20 PM by carter_lusher_at_hp_com
"Is there a dress code for airline flight?" That´s a good one. And i think that there is a code, but that depens on your cultural and economic level (so that could be like, more than one code). Anyway, i think that the "flying appeal" should be a confortable one. I mean, if you are gonna stay seated for a pretty long time, why you ALSO have to stay unconfortable?
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 07:54 PM by alexeitd
alexei: Ah, so there is an unwritten dress code based on culture and economic level. Interesting! I guess my main unwritten rule is that I base my dress on what's appropriate with where I will land. On this trip I changed back to my normal clothes during my stopover in Hong Kong so that I could mix back in with the business crowd when I got off the plane at my final destination.
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 10:03 PM by Susie Wee
clusher: Now that I think about it, I think "surprise" and "envy" would be the right word to describe the looks I got from people. Actually, I did see another woman in neat, clean, comfortable yoga sweats and I remember thinking "that looks comfortable" and "what a good idea" without any sense of looking down on her.
# Thursday, September 20, 2007 10:04 PM by Susie Wee
Hi Susie, I was at the IDM seminar today, must say that I really enjoyed your refreshing presentation and ur facilitation during the afternoon sessions. Also enjoyed your HALO video too. As for the SIA trip, don't worry a thing about it! As they say, it's all in the mindset. To me, it's more like they are trying to see what moves u were executing over ur shoulder! haha...all human beings are curious!
# Friday, September 21, 2007 01:58 PM by espeno888
espeno888: I'm glad you found the talk "refreshing" and that you liked Halo and the Mediascapes/Roku video. I think our vision is a very nice match with Singapore's Interactive Digital Media vision. Your feedback really helps. Also, thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment!
# Saturday, September 22, 2007 07:23 AM by Susie Wee
Let's face it: Air travel is tedious and sometimes unrelenting, so anything you can do to relieve the boredom and stress is fair game in my book. Most people talk to the passenger next to them, to pass the time, but that gets old fast and can be really annoying. If I saw you in sweats playing PSP seated in the Business Class, I may not venture to ask you what you do or your name, but I would ask you about the PSP game. Of course, you will attract more than your share of techno-geeks, which could have been your intention, too. Just don't wear anything with a circuit board on it, that would definitely be bad for your image.
# Thursday, September 27, 2007 02:38 PM by ivansinger_at_gmail_com
ivansinger: I just got back from Boston and Germany flying coach class on United and Lufthansa. I opted for comfort and wore jeans and played the PSP for a small portion of the trip. When I pulled out my PSP near the end of the flight, the Russian gentleman next to me yelped with pleasant surprise- I think he wanted to play. :)

Thanks for the fashion advice on not wearing circuit boards. I was just at MIT while I was in Boston and I was reminded about how normal and acceptable such attire is on campus! But, I'll make sure not to wear them off-campus since as you said it would be bad for my image. :)

# Saturday, September 29, 2007 09:35 PM by Susie Wee

Pingback from  is there a dress code on lufthansa

# Tuesday, July 01, 2008 04:48 AM by is there a dress code on lufthansa

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