From the swivellin' chair...

Most airport baggage carousels aren't quite as exhilarating as Venice's casino-themed luggage-turner. And even if they were, my guess is that most of us would rather get out of there as quickly as possible than waste idle minutes appreciating the local casino's creative advertising campaign.

Roulette wheels or baggage carousel? Picture from Disruption.

When it comes to waiting for luggage, most humans are particularly impatient, horded together around the carousel - as if rubbing up against the carousel will bring one's luggage around quicker. It's pretty pointless and probably does more harm than good, which is why they've introduced Air Law 8 over at Bill Geist's Zeitgeist.

AIR LAW 8: From this day forward there will be established a mandatory "No-Touching Zone" that starts 7 feet back from the carousel. All travelers will stand back, take it easy and wait. When you see your luggage, walk easily, efficiently and directly to your bag, pick it up and proceed.

Good idea, but it's not totally new. A few weeks ago we got an email from Christopher Maland, who has dedicated an entire website to what he calls the Maland Line (I wonder how he came up with the name).

The Maland Line is to be either 2 meters or 6.6 feet around the luggage carousel. Not following the Maland Line is not a criminal act but please politely tell the "offenders" to recognize the Maland Line. If there is no Maland Line present, then have people take 3-5 steps backward away from the carousel.

Now I'm all for the Maland Line or Air Law 8 (or whatever else you want to dub it), but the big question is how it's going to catch on. Creating a website or posting a blog entry isn't going to create airport etiquette... But never fear, I think the following idea for implementation suggested in Bill Geist's post should get the ball rolling pretty soon in airports all over the world.

Even better, when our bag appears, let’s give everyone a little post-flight entertainment by doing some dance step up to the carousel, twirl once, casually lean down and pick up your bag, set it down on the floor with a little flourish, pull the handle out of the bag, and skip away. I’ll bet we could get people to applaud. Gee, they might even throw some money at you. You’ve got to be giving them a better show than some schlep on a bridge blowing his saxophone