Several years ago I was on a transatlantic, 11 hour flight. I was on the aisle seat, and an older lady and her husband were next to me. They had so many bags stuffed under their seats that the man had to put his feet in his wife's area, and she shoved her feet into my foot area, which had my feet and my one modest bag. When I pointed out to her that she was invading my space, she pointed to the bags and said she had no choice. Of course she had a choice! Everyone knows how many bags and how much space you have allowed to you on a flight. So for 11 hours I had to stick my feet out into the aisle and move them out of the way when people went by.

BTW, she was skinny. So it's not just fat people who "ooze into your space like Germany invading Poland."

Posted by: DragonHawk at August 31, 2010 5:39 PM

Sunday night I flew from Boston -> Oakland on business. I was in the TSA security line when the X-ray machine for our line failed. I was at that point second in line. I picked up my trays, walked around to the new one that was open.

A young lady behind me in line had ducked under the tables as quickly as possible, and almost shoved me as she came out from under the table to get in front of me. Stay classy!

Posted by: gavin at August 31, 2010 6:06 PM

I had a guy on crutches behind me in line at McCarran once who got totally pissed off that the x-ray line wasn't moving fast enough. The guy in front of me got stopped to be wanded, and Mr. Crutches kept trying to shove my stuff forward through the machine.

Hey buddy? First of all, moving my stuff forward isn't going to make the line go any faster, and I'd rather not have my laptop down at the end of the conveyor while I'm way the hell up here.

Second of all, standing behind me being all huffy and sighing loudly to yourself is also not going to move things along either. STFU before I take one of your crutches and beat you to death with it.

Posted by: Ann at August 31, 2010 7:16 PM

Nothing is worse on a long flight than the ridiculous amount of in-flight instruction transmitted by the flight crew. I get that some of this is safety information and mandated by law, but I see no reason for the Captain to tell us any of the following: a) cruising altitude, b) names of the flight attendants, or c) natural landmarks visible from the sky. And its always at the beginning of a flight, when its otherwise easiest to fall asleep.

And I especially hate the public announcement of a flight attendant's birthday, anniversary, or other personal noteworthy event. I've never had a bus driver or subway engineer tell me they just got engaged. Why would you?

Flight crew, please stick to the script.

Posted by: snakeman99 at August 31, 2010 11:29 PM

Hey! You! In the aisle. You're jamming up a line of people clear back to the gate in your desperate quest for a precious pillow in the overhead bin.

Move into your seat area and let people get by.

Oh, and when they're announcing they're boarding rows at the rear of the plane first? That's not Row Six, mkay?

Also, that tray attached to the back of my seat? It'll fit back into place just fine. No need to give me whiplash while slamming it.

Posted by: jimg at September 1, 2010 3:38 AM

I understand that need to be released from the confinement of the economy class space, but what do people accomplish by pouring into the aisle the minute the jet comes to rest? I was on one flight that was EPIC late -- just about everyone had missed their connection, but I still had 5 minutes to catch mine. In spite of the instructions and pleas of the air crew to stay in their seats and let those of us who still had a flight to catch get out, people still poured into the aisle and blocked my way. I had to resort to shoving through and shouting "Coming through! Please excuse me!! I gotta catch my flight!!" I still can't believe how physical and rude I had to get just to disembark -- it was a nightmare!

Posted by: broncochar at September 1, 2010 5:55 PM

I'd like to give a swift kick in the pants to the people who stow their luggage in an overhead bin way in front of their actual seat. My last flight, I was in the exit row, which being the first row in that section of course has no under seat space. The overhead bin was already jammed full when I got on. They put my bag in another section for me, which was inconvenient.I was glad it was just a 3-hour flight and not one between Japan and the US.

BTW, HOW do those people with huge rolling bags get past security? They are obviously over the size limit! Or people with three carry-ons each? The TSA can bully my mother and take away a jar of jam but they can't enforce carry on size??

Posted by: crella at September 2, 2010 12:56 AM

'My last US domestic flight'...sorry, I obviously flew after that to get back to Kobe... :-(

Posted by: crella at September 2, 2010 12:57 AM

On a flight last year, I had an aisle seat. I had my laptop out, doing work, like I usually am on business flights. My aisle-mate asked me to let him by so he could get to the bathroom. I had to pick up my laptop and move out into the aisle for a moment to let him out.

As I stepped into the aisle, an impatient guy came up and forced his way in between me and the seat. And as he did so, he knocked my laptop out of my hands. It fell on the floor. When I picked it back up, the hard disk had crashed. I lost the work that I had done that day, and another day getting a new drive installed and restoring everything from backups.

Posted by: Cousin Dave at September 2, 2010 2:01 AM

Why do I always sit behind the person who doesn't understand that a "touch screen display" isn't a "poke really really hard over and over again all during the 10 hour overseas flight."

Posted by: Lesley at September 2, 2010 6:08 PM

The worst flight I ever had was from Dallas back home to Vancouver. I was seated in the middle of the plane, on the left side. There were 3 seats in my row section and I was in the window one.

For a long time no one sat in either of the seats beside me. Then a large man ... a VERY large man stopped in my aisle and plunked himself down in the aisle seat. I was thankful to not be directly beside him for his girth clearly took up about 1.5 seats. But I was foolish to think I had escaped unscathed.

We started talking before the plane took off and he told me he was originally from Montreal but had been living in Vancouver for several years. He then added that he found Vancouverites to be very unfriendly.

As the flight progressed I quickly discovered that he wasn't interested in a "conversation" but simply enjoyed hearing himself talk. So I told him I was tired and proceeded to put headphones over my ears. About this time the in-flight movie began. To my astonishment, even though my eyes were closed and my head was leaning towards the window, he kept poking me in the shoulder to add his own "insightful" commentary to the film. Eventually I just turned my back to him and he got the idea.

The worst part of all though was the smell! This man clearly didn't use any deodorant and to this day I'll never forget the sweetly-sour stench that emanated from him.

A worse flight I've never had!

Posted by: Robert W. (Vancouver) at September 3, 2010 5:50 PM

Wow.

If someone were to poke me in the shoulder like that, I'd have given him the patented Frosty Stare of Death and said, "Don't ever touch me again. Ever."

And then he could have written me off as yet another unfriendly Vancouverite, which would have been fine with me.

Posted by: Steve Daniels at September 4, 2010 6:05 PM

The thing I don't understand these days is "lap children". Apparently there's a policy in place that lets you fly with an unbuckled child under 18 months old on your lap, no matter how big the kid is or how long the flight is. This essentially means that there are two people in one seat.

Last flight I was on, I had the misfortune of being seated next to one of these. The kid, who could have easily passed for a 4 year old in size, climbed all over me, squirming and knocking toys and food around, and PULLED ON MY HAIR. No help from his father, and to top it off he had a whole bag of toys that make annoying sing-song noises. Ugh. One middle seat is simply not enough room for an adult and a child.

Posted by: Sarah at September 5, 2010 6:11 AM

Also, it doesn't happen that often, but it happens: Planes take a dive and people and objects go flying for the ceiling. Nobody can hang onto a child in those circumstances. And your child shouldn't die or have brain damage because you're cheap.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at September 5, 2010 7:38 AM

I witnessed this last Thursday (9/2/10) on my 6:00 flight from Atlanta to Cincinatti.

Gate attendants make the initial boarding call - for anyone needing assistance with boarding. Before the announcement is complete, the passengers flying elite status and first class have lined up, expecting to board first.

Not One Single Person moved aside to let the passengers with wheelchairs or strollers through. Those non-elite passengers had to go around the people lined up and waiting to board at their announced time.

And the gate agents, Delta Airlines, BTW, did absolutely nothing.

Posted by: Dorris at September 7, 2010 9:34 PM

People who put their seats back all the way on short or day flights. Fine, if it's 11pm. Not fine during the day without checking whether the person behind you is using their tray table.

Posted by: Mike at September 8, 2010 1:08 AM

I hear you, Mike, but I just flew from MN to RI and had to put my seat back on both flights. I have back problems. If it makes you feel any better, I felt pretty guilty about it.

Posted by: Kimmy at September 8, 2010 4:12 PM

I know I'm slow adding to these threads, but I'm doing them when I have breaks in the day - I think they're all awesome and horrific at once.

Regarding rudeness at airports - this one is a TSA story that I may have shared on previous blog entries, I can't remember.

In 2006, my father, with whom I am very close, ended up in the hospital with massive heart failure. He was 53 at the time, and it was completely unexpected. A result of years of high-maintenance lifestyle, yes, but seemingly out of the blue nonetheless.

I was completely numb with grief when I arrived at the Lubbock, Texas airport to fly to San Antonio, where Dad was in intensive care. As I went through "security" the "officer" (I put all this in quotes to illustrate my utter disdain of the entire charade) told me I had to undergo a strip search and demanded I disrobe immediately. Well, guess what? I'm not modest, and all I could think about was my Dad and whether I'd get to see him alive again. So without even thinking, I complied. Took all my clothes off except my underoos in the middle of the damned airport. The "officer" didn't offer me a room or anything, and I was too stupid and sad to ask.

Later that same year, TSA settled a huge class action lawsuit for the Lubbock airport. Apparently I wasn't the only one who received such treatment, and someone was smart enough to do something about it. The entire staff of TSA at the airport was fired.

Posted by: Jessica F. at September 14, 2010 12:27 AM

This past spring break, my sister and I were able to go on a trip of a lifetime with our high school to Europe. We needed to take two flights. I must say, the second, 9 hour flight on the way home wasn't so pleasant. The two of us sat in front a mother and her little daughter who didn't speak english. Okay, so the first few times the cute little bugger kicked my sister's chair, is was cute. The rest of the time during the 9 hour flight? Not so pleasant. The little girl was kicking so hard that I could even feel it against my chair, and it wasn't even my chair she kicked! I mean, we clearly were unhappy about it. We kept on looking back and this evil child would just smile at us and laugh while the mom laughed with her. I'm not one to judge parenting since I'm normally very tolerant of little kids and I'm still pretty young, but this was clearly bad parenting. The little girl did a numerous of other things, including throwing food, that annoyed us. And we couldn't tell them off because they didn't speak English! Plus, the fact that we were mere "teenagers" didn't help the cause! It was really annoying. And honestly, if we were to argue with this foreign speaker lady, who would take our sides? We were a bunch of sixteen year olds. Just because we were young did not mean we deserved to be mistreated.

Posted by: A-mere-teenager at October 23, 2010 7:23 PM

Sarah wrote on September 5 about “lap children.”

The last flight I was on was over-sold and because of my previous connecting flight I did not make it to the terminal with much time to spare. As a result, my fiancé and I would not be finding two seats together. Luckily at the back of the plane we found two aisle seats only 2 rows apart. I sat down next to a woman who was carrying her infant in her lap. Next to her was her husband who was holding their 2 yr old in his lap. Obviously sharing a row with a family of four was not going to be a fun flight for me.

To my surprise the flight attendant came over and explained to us that there were only 4 oxygen masks for each row (of three chairs), and the mother & baby or father & daughter were going to have to move to another seat. Both adults just looked at me until I stood up and walked to the opposite end of the plane.

So this “family” saves money by flying both kids in their laps, but still takes up a seat because of the oxygen mask limitation. I was happy it was a short flight.

Posted by: Miranda at November 30, 2010 5:14 PM

Pet peeves:
(1) the SOBs who take up overhead storage space for their small laptop bag and jacket, ignoring the flight attendants' clear instructions that it's a full flight, please stow smaller items under your seat, hang onto your coat, & leave room for rollaboards... like mine, which I will now have to climb back 20 rows to retrieve, after paying primo to sit up front in the hopes of making my tight connection
(2) The idiots who design men's room stall doors to open into the stall, not out. Did it never occur to them that some people at the airport have rollaboard luggage with them?

Posted by: Mr. Teflon at March 15, 2011 6:22 PM

Now that we can pay a nominal fee for WI-FI on most airlines, I was privy to the guy sitting next to me with his I-PAD looking to use the face-time application! Nothing like listening to the guy holding his i-PAD up to his face and yelling "can you hear me now?????" incessantly for the next 3 hours!

Posted by: moneyplays at September 7, 2011 7:55 AM

Given that the airlines give you so little space that when the flight is full (and these days, it's always full), your seat neighbor and you are in each other's pockets, let's all try not to exacerbate the forced invasion of one another's personal space.

By, say, carrying a little paper cup on board with you and SPITTING YOUR TOBACCO JUICE INTO IT EVERY TEN MINUTES FOR THREE HOURS.

Mmkay?

Posted by: Beth at February 28, 2012 10:05 PM

Whomever it was that decided they needed to freshen up their manicure as the aircraft was loading at the gate. The smell didn't dissipate due to the canned air flowing through the cabin, and we had to smell acetate during the 2 hour flight.

Posted by: jilligan at May 30, 2012 7:18 PM

Took our first flight with our kids recently - ages 3 and 6. One of the people in front of us didn't realize there were kids there until getting off the plane (compliments were paid). However...

one of the adults in front of us had a real issue with following the rules. Whenever the fasten-belt sign went on, she got up. When they said to raise you trays & put your seat up, she lowered and reclined. BUT, she expected everyone ELSE to follow the rules. My husband saw the most of it (I'm short and slept through some of it). But at one point when she was supposed to be sitting, and was meandering around the aisle, she decided to go back to her seat. However, the attendants had the cart in the aisle so she couldn't pass. Instead of waiting, she tried to climb/push past it somehow. There was a bump or some turbulence or something and she got bumped by the cart. She then went off on the flight attendant - how dare she be in her way sort of thing.

Sad that my 3 year old was a better passenger!

Posted by: Shannon M. Howell at January 11, 2013 2:52 AM

Too bad your 3-year-old didn't say aloud, "Mommy, how come that lady is breaking the rules?" Kids are sometimes great for those Emperor's New Clothes statements.

And thank you. I always compliment passengers with kids raised like yours are!

Posted by: Amy Alkon at January 11, 2013 2:19 PM

I have a seizure dog and I like to travel. He is a 75 pound golden retriever who loves to fly. If available I will pay for first class so that there is room for him to lay at my feet without feeling scrunched. This started after a very eye opening experience. I had a red eye flight home from a weekend in San Francisco. I always called the airline ahead of time to make sure I was on a flight that would be able to accommodate my dog and I. I had a bulkhead seat but they had oversold the flight so they gave my seat away and moved me to the back in a center seat of a 3 seat section. I went up to the counter and the wonderful ladies took one look at my dog and my ticket and tried to fix it without me having to say a thing. No one was willing to trade seats so I could have my original seat back. After everyone but me had boarded the flight attendants offered free food and alcohol to anyone who would trade an aisle seat for my center one. There was not a single person on that flight that was willing to move and they could all see me standing there in the aisle. The pilot came out and apologized to me and offered a very generous voucher but there was no room for me on the flight I had paid for. They put me on a flight the next day.

Posted by: Karen at January 29, 2013 6:49 AM

I was in the priority check-in line at SFO once and they ran out of plastic bins. So I went over to a line next door and retrieved some for myself and a few of the other people in back of me. This complete harpy insisted--even after I showed her my priority boarding pass--that I was "cutting in line" and I "belonged" in the slow lane. It took a security agent to intervene and my only small consolation was that they selected her for extra screening afterward.

Posted by: Shannon at May 14, 2013 6:49 AM

Once, I was on a flight returning home and the lady sitting next to me fell asleep and instead of staying in her seat, she tends to lean over towards me. I told the flight attendant if I could move to another seat, but the flight was completely packed. After I reported the issue, the lady next to me stopped doing that.
I do not mind if the person was a relative of mine, friend, boyfriend, basically someone I knew, but I did not feel comfortable with the lady's behavior.

Posted by: USC Men's Volleyball Rocks at January 25, 2014 1:30 AM

We travelled to Hawaii last fall with our 2 kids and my parents to celebrate my dad's 70 year b'day. I got a seat behind my kids and wife. There were 2 empty seats next to me. There is this old couple who walked by and took those seats. Seems like they expected a first class upgrade but couldn't get it.. They were pretty upset.. My son (3 year old) looked me between the seats in the front row and said "Hi" to me. The wife in the old couple got visibly irritated and muttered loudly, "This is going to be a fun flight".. I didn't have the heart to confront the old lady but it did put a wet blanket at the start of vacation!

Posted by: michael at February 4, 2014 10:38 PM

I (17f) was in the airport with my little sister (6f) to suprise her with a trip to Disney World. We had a FULL flight. The airport we had a layover in wasn't that big so there wasn't a lot of seats. I let my sister go buy some candy and I sat down near this lady. She took two seats for her stuff even though half the people on the flight were standing. When my sister came back she sat on my lap but slowly fell onto the seat next to me. That lady was on her tablet, phone, and laptop at the same time and had her bag in the seat my sister was falling into. I guess the lady needed something from her bag then she said she could have moved her she needed a seat ( she said it nice enough). Then she began yelling at us about common courtesy is to not sit on someone's bag ( My sister sat on the strap a little) and rolling her eyes etc.. I was going to apologize but she came off as really rude and disrespectful. Common courtesy would be to put your bag down in the first place and to NOT yell at someone for an honest mistake.

Posted by: baggy at June 13, 2014 5:51 AM

"Passengers with small children and passengers who are LIKE small children may now board," was the facetious idea one airline's ground personnel had for dealing with people who get in front of parents struggling with small children. It's not that the kids misbehave -- it's that travelling with small kids necessitates a lot of bags, carriers, strollers, etc. It's been a great many years since my kids were that small, but I remember so many flights in which we were stuck behind able-bodied MEN who would not respect the order in which people were to board. They'll just look through you. Another bit of rudeness is the looks some people will give you if you get on a plane with babies, whether they're well-behaved or not. Some persons just hate children -- period.

Posted by: Susan T. at August 8, 2014 2:02 AM

A few years ago I was flying out of Logan to DC for a get-together with friends. I was sitting in the terminal by the gate with approximately two hours to wait when another traveler arrived and sat down a few seats down and across from me. He looked like a backpacker (primarily because he was carrying a big backpack), dressed in hipster chic: an ironic t-shirt, corduroys, etc. He seemed normal enough, so I didn't really think anything of it and kept on reading my Kindle.

I became aware a few minutes later of some movement out of the corner of my eye, so I glanced up. Hipster Backpack guy had stood up and was kicking off his shoes. Now I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of walking around an airport in my stocking feet is pretty appalling to me, not to mention rude. This guy didn't seem to have a problem with it.

Then he lies down on the floor between the two rows of seats in the terminal where we were sitting. The seats are facing each other, so that I could have a conversation with someone sitting across from me if I wanted. The window that looks out over the airport runways is to my left, the main terminal to my right. Hipster Backpack guy lies down with his head toward the window, his feet toward me, then raises his legs up off the floor and puts his stocking feet down on the seats, one on a seat in my row, the other in a seat in the other row.

So I want you to picture this. I'm sitting maybe three seats down, and I've got this Hipster Backpack guy lying down on the airport floor airing his crotch out for the viewing enjoyment of the entire airport. And I wasn't alone here: a man traveling with his young daughter was sitting a little further up the row of seats across from me, and there were other people milling about. And here's Hipster Backpack guy, chilling out and doing his spread-eagle crotch yoga or whatever without any seeming regard for the people around him. All I could think was that his parents must have raised him in a barn. Even if he'd turned around so he was flashing his corduroy-clothed crotch at the runway out the window it might have been okay. But that apparently wasn't an option for Hipster Backpack guy.

I should have said something. I should have told him he was being rude and should be embarrassed. But I didn't. I still don't know why. I suppose because no one else did, and I didn't want to get into a potential argument at 7:30 in the morning at Logan Airport with some idiot hipster in thick socks. So instead I just got up, gathered my carry-ons, and walked away. When I came back a short while later he was gone.

Posted by: Melissa R at May 3, 2016 3:17 PM

My husband and I were flying from Orlando to Akron. Delta Airlines advertises " guaranteed overhead space" if you pay more for comfort class(which we did). Our flight from Orlando to Atlanta was fine. The flight from Atlanta to Akron was not. We were waiting to board when they started to preboard. This elderly couple with their two teenage grandchildren jump up to preboard. These people were on our flight from Orlando to Atlanta. They walked off of the same plane and caught the same shuttle we did to get to the gate for the Atlanta to Orlando flight. All of a sudden, they need to be pre boarded? The four hard sided carry on bags they had plus their shopping bags must have tired them out? My husband and I boarded the plane and found these self entitled DBs sitting behind us. Not only did they fill the bin over our seats but two more as well. This was a full flight and this had been announced. The bins around us were full too. We asked the flight attendant if their bags could be shifted so we could have some space. We were told " the bins are for everyone". Really? We managed to squeeze our bags under the seats. There were parents with small children who could have used some overhead space too! Delta don't advertise guaranteed overhead space unless you can actually guarantee it. To the couple behind us, preboarding is for people who need extra time to get seated and settled in NOT for self entitled douchebags who want to get as much overhead space as possible. If you are too cheap to pay to check your bags, do your fellow passengers a favor and either drive or take a bus!

Posted by: Beth at June 29, 2016 11:11 PM

Seat Poachers are absolutely the rudest. I paid extra for that primo seat..that is MY seat. I have the BP to prove it. Don't plop your ass down before I get there and act like I am the rude one for refusing a swap..especially if the swap is for some middle seat in the back. I don't CARE if you are separated from your spouse..you are both grown ups and can be apart for a few hours. Sorry. I win, you lose. Get the f out of my seat.

I recently observed a passenger board, open the overhead bin, remove my bag, place it on the floor, and put his bag in where mine was. I was about to put a stop to it when the FA ran up and shut him down. He whined "Well where am I supposed to put miiiiinnnneee?" The FA made him gate check it.

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