A couple of thoughts

[Brave]

1. Most people attempt to ease turbulence anxiety by underscoring how strong the plane is, how safe it is to fly. But it's the feeling of my stomach dropping that I dread much like when on a roller coaster or curvy mountain road. Disequilibrium is extremely uncomfortable; some say it may be caused by an inner ear issue.

2. Why do pilots feel the need to tell passengers that turbulence is expected later in the flight or when landing? I rather know a few minutes beforehand and start worrying then. If they tell me right after takeoff then I'm needlessly anxious for a long time. I purposely crank up my iPod and try not to listen to the pilot's first message.

[B744drvr]

1: You can try taking meds for that. Same meds you take if you get car sick. Usually bigger planes will give you less vertical sensations during turbulence. Not sitting in the back of the plane will help as well.
2: It isn't possible to please all passenger with the flight info you give. Some like to know what's coming and some don't. Cranking up your Ipod seems like a good idea.

[Brave]

Thanks. I should have mentioned that crashing is seldom or ever a worry during turbulence, it's all about the motion. Before booking, I make darn sure what sort of plane will be flying. No Bombardier, props, or small regional jets for me.

The turbulence forecaster is good tool, but I seldom use it anymore as it just gets me amped up if I see lots of Orange. Besides, it's too cumbersome to cancel or change a ticket/meeting 24 hours beforehand.

[FormerFrequentFlier]

Personally I would rather be informed than not know, but each of us is different.

My friend is a flight attendant for JetBlue and had to work a JFK-SYR flight. There had been nasty storms in the area and before boarding the pilot actually made an announcement in the gate area that the ride was going to be horrible, and if anyone was a jittery flier they may want to find other transportation or take a flight the next day. About a third of the passengers opted not to board and my friend said they were appreciative of being given the heads up before they were in the air scared to death.

[Brave]

Thanks for your reply. I would gladly welcome such an announcement before takeoff so that I can opt for a later flight. What I don't appreciate is an announcement during the flight that it will be horrible about three hours from that point. That is, it's going to be horrible, so I rather have the angst start right before the event rather than have my entire flight ruined.

[FormerFrequentFlier]

Thanks for your reply. I would gladly welcome such an announcement before takeoff so that I can opt for a later flight. What I don't appreciate is an announcement during the flight that it will be horrible about three hours from that point. That is, it's going to be horrible, so I rather have the angst start right before the event rather than have my entire flight ruined.

I agree. Sometimes if you know too far in advance you can get yourself so worked up with nerves that the whole experience seems worse than it really is. I flew last summer from Boston to Las Vegas and I was leaving the same day that the Hurricane was moving up the coast. I originally told my husband to book me on the earliest JetBlue flight so I could get out before the weather and have a quick stop in JFk before shooting west. Well the big dummy misinterpreted my request and thought I wanted to avoid JFK so instead he books me on a Delta flight heading SOUTH connecting through Memphis. To make matters worse it was a puddle jumper for the first leg. When we got on the plane the Captain said because we were one of the first flights of the day there were no travel reports from other aircraft regarding how bad the turbulence would be due to the Hurricane. I was like, great, we're flying into the storm so you already know it's going to be a crappy ride. Of course it didn't disappoint. Moderate turbulence the entire way until we headed west to Memphis. It wasn't horribly scary, but definitely an uncomfortable ride.

[Jpreb]

I've had a flight just like the last post we took a skywest jet a little small plane from Memphis back home to new Orleans and we were also the first flight to leave out with no reports of turbulence and as always whenever I fly on one of those regional planes that little plane was getting smacked up and down the sky u def feel it on those planes and I don't like it