HOW TO AVOID STRANGERS ON AIRPLANES

A frequent flyer turns tales of travel woes into career tips in this guide.

As a consultant holding the “Million Miler” status with a U.S. airline, Blewett is well-versed in the air-travel problems that come from the “forced intermingling of complete strangers under pressure and in close proximity for prolonged periods of time.” His book is written for well-traveled professionals like him, who will sympathize with the common pain points he identifies and perhaps learn some larger life lessons on how savvy travelers can avoid such pitfalls. The first chapter imagines an amusing collision between two people whose attempts to catch their plane are thwarted by a combination of Uber drivers, Google Maps, and airport security. Blewett then addresses, chapter by chapter, what he’s identified as the “Six Habits of Highly Annoying Travelers.” These include “Gate Lice” (people who clog the boarding area for no reason); the “Overhead Tetris Flunkee” (who refuses to check their bag); and the self-explanatory “Eager Exiter.” In each case, the author offers a funny story from one of his numerous journeys before relating the core problem to his career in sections titled “as applied in reality.” He compares boarding passes, for example, to connections to high-earning jobs, and backpacks swinging wildly in aisles to his own difficulties pivoting to consulting. Blewett’s book is most entertaining when it’s at its snarkiest. When Blewett judges the less well-traveled or overly emotional vacationers, he conjures rapid-fire jokes and memorable imagery: Lost travelers, he says, move with “the fervor of a cheetah on a cocaine bender,” and a troubled airport experiences a “Gatequake that registered north of a Dante ‘nine’ on the ‘gridlock’ scale.” The blend of professional memoir and self-help is less successful when its veers into familiar advice about staying fit, listening to colleagues, and building a solid network. With each chapter, the metaphors feel more forced and drift further from the humorous tone that works so well.

An often funny but uneven mix of self-help, memoir, and travel anecdotes.