Plane Rant

[LucyDontLockIt]

Why do "special diet" people get all their food about an hour earlier than everyone ekse??

Why don't people think to put their chairs back upright at meal times??

Why do people wait until the passengers finally get moving off the plane before they start getting their shit together in the fucking aisle so nobody can get passed??

Does flying bring out the megabitch in anyone else? I spend hours boiling over with fury on a flight, surely I can't be the only one

Why don't people think to put their chairs back upright at meal times??

Think this depends on the meal times as to whether this is reasonable. I recently got on a 1am flight from Singapore and crazily the airline immediately served dinner! Who eats dinner at 1am in the morning?! Surely everyone would have had some sort of dinner earlier? Bizarrely most people did seem to accept the meal though. I refused it and immediately reclined my seat back to get some sleep. I don't think this was unreasonable. For a daytime flight though I would definitely keep my seat upright through the meal.

I recline on short haul, oops

I see it as I have paid for the reclining chair, so I can use the chair how i wish.
If you want more room / comfort after I've reclined then you're more then welcome to recline yours. But don't complain I'm using the seat I've paid for how I want.

Why don't people know the difference between past and passed?

It also seems that even human decency can be too much to ask. We once had someone who needed to be disembarked quickly into an ambulance after a JFK/LHR overnight flight, so the word went out twice for everyone to stay seated - first when we started the descent and again on final approach

Needless to say it made absolutely no difference at all

It has already been pointed out that some passengers have other connections to catch

Yeah, but it's a few minutes. 🤷‍♀️

It's like the people that drive like maniacs in the morning because they're in such a rush to get to work. There's no point in being a dick to those around you, you just have to sort yourself out to give yourself more time.

"I refused it and immediately reclined my seat back to get some sleep. I don't think this was unreasonable."

I do . Could you not have waited for the half hour or so until the passenger behind you had eaten?

*It also seems that even human decency can be too much to ask. We once had someone who needed to be disembarked quickly into an ambulance after a JFK/LHR overnight flight, so the word went out twice for everyone to stay seated - first when we started the descent and again on final approach

Needless to say it made absolutely no difference at all hmm*

God everyone thinks they are so important these days

Add Rescue remedy pastilles to your pre flight shopping list.

"I refused it and immediately reclined my seat back to get some sleep. I don't think this was unreasonable."

The cabin crew should have told you to put the seat back up. This is common courtesy, and it is pretty much what all cabin crew will ask you to do, if a customer behind you would like to eat their meal. You would be incredibly rude and unreasonable to refuse to do so.

'Why don't people think to put their chairs back upright at meal times??'

Only during the meal service do I ask pax to put their seats in upright position.

Assuming a daytime charter flight

Air travel really is hell. But it's one of those things you just have to put up with to get where you need to go. I guess it's something about hundreds of people in a confined space for hours!

At the airport a few months ago a woman in front of me in security seemed convinced someone was going to nick her stuff (no thanks, don't fancy your smelly shoes!!). Rather than just put her stuff in the grey tray, put the tray in with the rest and go through the body scanner, she WAITED with her tray in the queue. Only going through the scanner as her tray through, eyes bulging the whole time making sure security didn't swipe anything...Keeping everybody else held up!

Also this year on a long haul flight I managed to get a seat in a row of 2 at the back. All the other rows were 3, so it meant I had a nice little space next to me behind the extra seat in front. I purposefully chose it to give myself a bit more room, and of course meant I only had one other person in my row, not 2.
Except...a very irritating woman in the row in front kept coming and standing in my little extra space, leaning on the seat in front! Just standing saying she needed to stretch her back. So I was essentially in a 3 person row after all!

I recline on short haul, oops

You wouldn't with my DH behind you! He usually travels business or first class, but it's not always an option at short notice/on the city hopper type flights. DH is tall and has long legs, the seat in front is thoroughly jammed unless his feet are blocking the aisle. There's absolutely nothing he can do about it - although he has offered to swap seats in the past.

I spend hours boiling over with fury on a flight

This cannot be good for your arteries and your blood pressure. All these seconds/minutes saved through plotting to get ahead will be nothing if you drop dead of a stroke/heart attack before your time.

There simply isn't enough room for everyone to get out of their seats and wait in the aisle to disembark. What I've noticed over the years is that people do wait for those still seated to get their stuff and join the queue getting off. In my experience that's the norm and no one gets het up about it. It's basic, civilised behavior.

The closeness of the seats these days is crazy but you just have to remain cool / calm otherwise it’s too grim

I had enough points for business short haul to Italy the other day, I can see why people do it

As we flew Ryanair here - Stansted is so grim. The whole thing is. Even the plastic yellow seats give me the the heebies

KLM work on very tight connection times through Amsterdam Schiphol. Last year we were inbound on a delayed flight, and the lovely Dutch cabin crew moved us, and a few other people who were likely to miss connections, to the front of the plane. They told us the gate number to aim for, and said “As soon as we open de door, start running!”
It meant we didn’t get stuck in the scrum of selfish passengers in the aisle, who ignore requests to let connecting passengers off first.
I wish all airlines did the same.
Mind you, KLM failed to get our luggage connected, and we were stuck in Edinburgh for four hours waiting for it to come in on the final flight, so we still had airport rage....!

People saying just recline your own chair of the person in front reclines, this doesn't replace the lostblegroom, it just gives you more space for your upper body. If someone in front of me reclines their chair hits my knees. The back of my seat moving back doesn't fix this.

I'll suck it up on long haul overnight flights as people want to sleep. But I will get grumpy on short haul day flights. I won't deliberately jab my knees in your back but don't give me evils if my moving in an attempt to relieve discomfort annoys you.

I used to be cabin crew. Doing that job will make you hate people! So much rudeness and stupidity. But I suppose it’s the same in any customer facing role.

At least as cabin crew, passengers have to obey instructions as that is the law onboard aircraft. They still argue over sitting down and not stowing baggage though!

I've got to the point now that I just don't enjoy flying at all, and avoid it at all costs. Being in a confined pressurised space just brings out the worst in human behaviour.

I flew to Canada last month and was amazed at the way some people behave on a flight!! Firstly the 'hand luggage' - some of which was bigger than my checked case! Secondly the queues to board - if the staff on the gate announce that they are boarding Zones 1-3 and you are zone 5 - dont block the gate just waiting for your chance to sprint to the aircraft! Sit down and give those in the relevant zones the chance to board! Then the was the seat sharer - heavy man in the middle seat (I was window) pinching both armrests!

On the way back, overnight flight - I didn't recline my seat but just put my head to the side and snoozed. The main reason I stood up as soon as possible when the plane stopped was to get some feeling back in my body as I hadn't moved for 5.5 hours . Was all ready to do my usual striding off to arrivals at warp speed 10 but got stuck behind a Very Slow family of 4 spread across the whole corridor. The man beside me got very irate and pushed past them - they still didn't move single file.

I think people in general are less tolerant than they were 10 years ago - in all areas of life, not just travel. And that this isn't going to improve and we will see more plane rage and road rage and school playground rage.

I think people with no patience or consideration for people slower than them make it hard for everyone. People with kids, older people or people who don't fly regularly and aren't sure where they are supposed to be going etc might need a bit of help rather than anger.

I’ve never been anything other than patient towards families, anyone with a disability or the elderly. They aren’t being inconsiderate and I think it’s totally reasonable for them to take the time they need.

But the people who just don’t know any better I am impatient with. There are signs everywhere - and not just in English, but in other languages AND in picture format, multiple times before you actually get to security. Most of the time people are just being lazy and disorganised, or they want to wait for the convenience of standing at the conveyer belt to start unpacking their cases.

And I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen totally able bodied people just ignore the very clear instructions, both written and verbal, that they should move their tray from the belt before packing up because they don’t want to be even mildly inconvenienced. I don’t think people who prioritise their own convenience over that of many others because they’re entitled should be looked upon with patience!

@SerenDippitty it was in the US, from one side to the other then another flight across the Atlantic.
The clang as hundreds of seat belts unbuckled all at once was astounding.

Took us another two days to get home as we had to fly to another state to get a different connection and our luggage arrived another 2 days after that.

Maybe wouldn’t have made our connection anyway but we’d have had a fighting chance and the cabin crew said they’d get a message to the next flight crew to say we were running to them and in a previous experience the crew have had everyone else ready to go and literally shut the doors behind us as we’ve ran on.

Makes it sound like I’m always late for flights but it’s just in the US I seem to encounter bizarre scenarios.

5 minutes in the aisle isn’t going to make any difference!

It is literally the difference between making my Thursday night Zurich connection, or not.

I HATE it when people are slow getting on-off the plane, and you're stuck behind them in the aisle! Just shove your cases in the overhead and sit down!!

On a delayed plane last week - and the cabin crew were making announcement for people to hurry the F up because if we weren't ready to depart in 13 mins we were going to miss the slot and be delayed further... people still wander on, THEN start fannying around with their hand luggage. Shove it up, or put it down at your feet but STOP FAFFING and blocking the aisle preventing people from boarding.

I was confused by the reference to chairs.