Air passengers behaving badly

[dvcgirl67]

That's one of those weird unwritten rules where the seats recline, but no-one wants you to actually recline your seat. They should just remove option from all seats, if the person behind you is gonna get ticked every time you recline your seat.

I agree, nobody actually wants anyone to recline at all. But....should be common sense *not* to recline when meal service is taking place. The other thing that always happens when seats in coach are reclined....someone inevitably has a hard time getting out of their row to use the rest room and holds onto the top of seats in front of them.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I agree, nobody actually wants anyone to recline at all. But....should be common sense *not* to recline when meal service is taking place. The other thing that always happens when seats in coach are reclined....someone inevitably has a hard time getting out of their row to use the rest room and holds onto the top of seats in front of them.

I have seen meal service take a very long time though with extreme variation from one row to the next in timing.

 

[Smugpugmug]

The bad behavior I'm noticing nowadays is people stealing or demanding another passenger's assigned seat. Then they have a meltdown when the rightful passenger wants to sit in their seat.

I had this happen to me once. I was flying from Frankfurt to DC and the woman next to me asked me to swap with her son so they could sit together. Her son was sitting in the last row right next to the bathroom. I said no (was in a window seat). Later when I went to the bathroom, I saw the woman talking to her son and he was around my age. I expected a kid or even a teenager, not some grown adult.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I had this happen to me once. I was flying from Frankfurt to DC and the woman next to me asked me to swap with her son so they could sit together. Her son was sitting in the last row right next to the bathroom. I said no (was in a window seat). Later when I went to the bathroom, I saw the woman talking to her son and he was around my age. I expected a little kid, not some grown adult.

yeah, that's a big no for me also...........no one wants the stinky seat next to the restroom!

Airplane restrooms are utterly disgusting anyway, and no way I want to sit by one the entire flight. On international flights I have watched people walk into the restroom with no shoes on............

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I had this happen to me once. I was flying from Frankfurt to DC and the woman next to me asked me to swap with her son so they could sit together. Her son was sitting in the last row right next to the bathroom. I said no (was in a window seat). Later when I went to the bathroom, I saw the woman talking to her son and he was around my age. I expected a kid or even a teenager, not some grown adult.

This happened to me once on an international flight. I was in the middle of 3 seats, and had just had a tight connection, had gotten my carry-on up top, had gotten situated in my seat, and the lady next to me asks if I would mind switching with her friend many rows ahead and on the other side of the plane. (It wasn't any kind of demand, just a request, which I don't hold anything against someone asking). I didn't want to get up and fight against the oncoming passengers and move my things, so I said no. The other guy in the row also said no. After take-off when we were able to move around, friend came back to our row and told person beside me that there was an empty seat next to her. So person beside me moved. The guy in the aisle seat and I just looked at each other super happy at our luck that we now had an empty seat in our row!! I got to move into the window seat and lean against the wall to try and sleep. That was a great flight!

 

[tigertides]

Recipe for bad episodes:

1) stressful event where passengers have absolutely no control over the flight schedules.


2) an infinitesimally small, but real chance of violent death every time

3) confined space

4) access to alcohol


5) increasingly high rates of mental health illness (anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia) that has been untreated for decades


The question we all need to be asking is why are we taking airplanes for a short 500 mile flight in this country. Most of these flights should be served by High Speed Rail. But what do I know

 

[kymom99]

I saw a guy being taken off a plane a couple years ago before we took off, because I believe he was drunk.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Recipe for bad episodes:

1) stressful event where passengers have absolutely no control over the flight schedules.


2) an infinitesimally small, but real chance of violent death every time

3) confined space

4) access to alcohol


5) increasingly high rates of mental health illness (anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia) that has been untreated for decades


The question we all need to be asking is why are we taking airplanes for a short 500 mile flight in this country. Most of these flights should be served by High Speed Rail. But what do I know

6) Increasing resistance to complying with any kind of direction from authority figures .. the 'no one's going to tell me what to do' kind of mentality.


Totally agree some high speed rail infrastructure is way overdue here. We are so far behind other countries in that regard it's ridiculous. China's high speed rail could do NYC to Chicago in under 5 hours. Compared with 20+ hours that we have.

 

[fly girl]

I wondered how many have witnessed bad behavior, and how recently?

Too many to count. I should write a book ... but with my grammar skills?? LOL, not happening.

I had to shut down a lot of confrontations in my 20 years. You learn quickly what you are dealing with and how to diffuse. Some you go in gentle and easy, others abrasive and brash to stop the situation. Crazy how I learned what tactic to use within seconds of the witnessing the bad behavior.

Most ended really well. I am a petite woman, I am not coming in as a threat, so I do believe that helped. Yes, I have had passengers removed. Never diverted for disruption, but I have had authorities meet on arrival several times, which always was a total pain in the behind. Anything that wasn't resolved quickly lead to a whole lot of paperwork afterwards which irritated me even more. (And yes, as the lead flight attendant even if I wasn't the first on the scene, I was ultimately responsible for how the situation was handled.)

*sigh* I don't miss those days. Some people are just horrible.

 

[mikehn]

Planes, trains, or autos, people’s behaviors have badly deteriorated since Covid. Because you know, it’s acceptable now.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

6) Increasing resistance to complying with any kind of direction from authority figures .. the 'no one's going to tell me what to do' kind of mentality.

I've flown many flights and the staff is usually very nice, but I have a seen a few who crossed the line into rudeness.

I was once a flight where someone had an allergy to peanuts. The FA took to mocking that person over the PA. Nobody deserves that, but I especially hope it was not a child who was mocked for having a food allergy. It was years ago, but made me very uncomfortable to hear someone mocked for simply having a medical condition. The FA was very unprofessional.

Everyone is human.

I'm not condoning rude passengers; we should all try to be cooperative. Just pointing out that airline employees are also human.

 

[Travel60]

It's not just airplanes. It's our society.

It's all about "personal freedom".... Since the sixties, we as a people have all but abolished faith because someone might be offended. We said etiquette is old fashioned and out of date and no one can tell us how to act. We said parents can't discipline children, teachers aren't allowed to teach. Coaches can't sit a kid who mouths off and everyone gets a trophy. There's no personal responsibility. Then those folks had kids and it just got worse.

We went out to eat with another couple last week. The table next to us was so loud we couldn't talk. They knew it bothered us and that just seemed to make them louder. We could not hear the waitress and she couldn't hear us. She apologized multiple times but there were no other tables. The other DH is a safety engineer and had an app that measured decibels... It was way over 100. He said in a job site, we would be required to wear ear protection. No one ever taught those people about inside voices. If the restaurant tried to get them to stop yelling they would have probably claimed some type of discrimination.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

It's not just airplanes. It's our society.

It's all about "personal freedom".... Since the sixties, we as a people have all but abolished faith because someone might be offended. We said etiquette is old fashioned and out of date and no one can tell us how to act. We said parents can't discipline children, teachers aren't allowed to teach. Coaches can't sit a kid who mouths off and everyone gets a trophy. There's no personal responsibility. Then those folks had kids and it just got worse.

We went out to eat with another couple last week. The table next to us was so loud we couldn't talk. They knew it bothered us and that just seemed to make them louder. We could not hear the waitress and she couldn't hear us. She apologized multiple times but there were no other tables. The other DH is a safety engineer and had an app that measured decibels... It was way over 100. He said in a job site, we would be required to wear ear protection. No one ever taught those people about inside voices. If the restaurant tried to get them to stop yelling they would have probably claimed some type of discrimination.

This is a serious issue in my area, and I simply won’t go to certain restaurants at night due the potential for this noise pollution. A child occasionally is understandable, but it is often adults being the disturbance.

 

[dcassetta]

There's always at least 1 person per flight that blasts music or a movie/show from their device at max volume without headphones. When I flew last May a guy sitting next to my sister and I was watching a sports game without headphones. We kindly asked him to put on headphones. He looked up at us, told us that he didn't speak English (in perfect English) and then continued watching the game. It didn't help that it was 10 pm....

On a flight last month, we were not far off the ground when someone started to play a movie with the volume turned way up. I figured I would just have to deal with it. But then, thankfully, the flight attendant came over the intercom and said as a reminder, you have to listen to movies with headphones or earbuds. And the noise went away!

 

[Travel60]

This is a serious issue in my area, and I simply won’t go to certain restaurants at night due the potential for this noise pollution. A child occasionally is understandable, but it is often adults being the disturbance.

Yes, these were def adults - late 20s/30s. And this year as not a party bar - historical, small town local place

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

It is just a sign of the times unfortunately. Years ago, someone would have simply asked them to keep it down or they could leave, but today much more is tolerated. Everyone is afraid of backlash or getting cancelled today. Our forefathers did not tolerate disrespect like that, but it was indeed a different time though.

I was at a carnival / fair many years ago where my mother placed some trash in what she assumed was a trash barrel. It turns out it was a ball bin for a carnival game, and the Carny got mad and called her a pretty nasty derogatory name. My father calmy walked over, bear hugged the Carny, and put him into the said barrel. He then politely asked the man to apologize to my mother and told him her name, and explained it was an honest mistake as it looked just like another trash bin close by. The guy apologized and everyone went on with their night. You would rarely see something like this today, but that was pretty commonplace 30-40 years ago. There were potential consequences to behaving badly back then. My father did not tolerate disrespect towards him or my mother, period.

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Last time I flew, some kids were bounding around and refusing to put on their belts. The co-pilot had to come out and threaten to taxi back to the terminal and forcibly remove them to calm them down.

 

[dcassetta]

I was at a carnival / fair many years ago where my mother placed some trash in what she assumed was a trash barrel. It turns out it was a ball bin for a carnival game, and the Carny got mad and called her a pretty nasty derogatory name. My father calmy walked over, bear hugged the Carny, and put him into the said barrel. He then politely asked the man to apologize to my mother and told him her name, and explained it was an honest mistake as it looked just like another trash bin close by. The guy apologized and everyone went on with their night. You would rarely see something like this today, but that was pretty commonplace 30-40 years ago. There were potential consequences to behaving badly back then. My father did not tolerate disrespect towards him or my mother, period.

I am not saying the employee should have called your mother a name, but your father's response was to physically assault him? I am not sure who behaved worse in this story.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

In 2012 I was leaving Turkey from Istanbul with my children. A woman started going off about Americans and calling me names in particular. She didn't know that I speak Turkish. I wasn't very pleasant when I turned and spoke to her.

The indirect past tense is one of the coolest features of the Turkish language.

 

[Smugpugmug]

On a flight last month, we were not far off the ground when someone started to play a movie with the volume turned way up. I figured I would just have to deal with it. But then, thankfully, the flight attendant came over the intercom and said as a reminder, you have to listen to movies with headphones or earbuds. And the noise went away!

That's good that it was stopped. It seems like even outside of planes, people have no issues listening to audio at max volume without headphones. I also hate when people have phone conversations with the speaker on so everyone can hear the person on the other end. I'm almost tempted to add in my commentary since I was suddenly being forced to listen to the conversation.