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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To Not understand why people get so selfish at the airport?

305 replies

virilityisbad · 01/09/2019 02:21

I just don’t get why brits on their family
holidays get so stressy. I walk through the airport seeing them flapping about and highly strung. People are hugely territorial of their personal space. The sheer hostility towards fellow human beings in the queue for boarding.

Then on the plane, people up and down, up and down checking/fetching stuff from their baggage in the overhead lockers.

Then when landed, people in the middle
of the plane deciding they deserve to disembark first and so blocking the aisle for everyone else to get their bags.

What is it about airports that make people so selfish/stressed out

OP posts:
SilenceMeansWhatAreTheyUpTo · 02/09/2019 22:43

CF alert ... on our holiday flight to Greece I noticed that the loo was vacant so I started making my way to the front to find the aisle blocked by a woman rummaging around in her suitcase on the floor. I waited patiently for several minutes until she had finished faffing. She smiled apologetically as she lifted the bag back into the overhead locker - but instead of letting me past she proceeded down the aisle ahead of me and straight into the loo! A young steward in one of the jump seats at the front watched the whole thing with some amusement and nodded agreement to my "Some people, eh" rant as I waited. This was followed by a lively discussion about how getting up at silly o'clock in the morning to catch a plane can put you in a very unforgiving mood. Shame she couldn't hear us over the sound of the engines...

Pliudev · 02/09/2019 22:50

It was my son's partner who told me, she's German! Nothing like pulling the MIL's leg....

PrincessConsuelaTheSecond · 02/09/2019 23:02

Flying back from our holiday yesterday. Five hour delay on our flight home.

No seats in the airport (90% of planes delayed because of air traffic issues). Saw some seriously grumpy people (understandable if like us they’d been sat on a marble floor for seven hours!) but despite the lack of seats, it amazed me how many people were using seats to store their bags Angry in the end I moved two sets of bags to get seats together... and the woman who had been saving them didn’t say a word to me but had a swearing rant at her husband about how they’d lost seats because he’d gone for a walk Grin there were four of them, saving six seats!

I tolerated it all despite my intense fear of flying and having four kids to entertain.

I did, however, want to utterly lose my shit after landing when 3 people barged past in the immigration queue. If there had been a fourth I’d probably have punched the fucker.

amandacarnet · 02/09/2019 23:04

Ryanair removed them as it meanscleaners need less time to clean, which saves money. I found it a total pain.

Yabbers · 02/09/2019 23:23

When I travel for work, I hardly ever notice this

Are you kidding? Business people are the worst passengers for all of this. The frequent fliers are so pissy about tourists, god forbid one of them doesn't know exactly what they have to do at every given moment.

Give me an airport full of tourists any day.

cathcath2 · 03/09/2019 00:43

The one incident that really annoyed me was when we had just landed and cabin crew made the announcement "Please can passengers retake their seats to allow paramedics to board" and most people stayed standing in the aisle!!!

angelfacecuti75 · 03/09/2019 02:14

It takes sooooo long to di anything and i akways feel like I'm a criminal at the airport...I get frisjed and have to chuck my toiletries and jump througb a million hoops with my child with adhd and myself with adhd and depression. I get frisked and stared at. I have to put my toiletries in a bag with no more than 100ml in as if my shampoo is going to blow someone up. I have to sit in a confined space with overpriced food and drink and chuck my £10 bottle of suncream away that I can barely afford.
I came back tonight. I didn't push or shove or make a huge fuss. Its just long and ardous and a faff.

angelfacecuti75 · 03/09/2019 02:15

To do anything frisked^ through*

Rubyupbeat · 03/09/2019 06:47

I do business or 1st everytime. There is no stress and I am sorry, But paying the extra is so worth it. Peaceful lounge for waiting in, taken to board, no rushing or crowds and best of all , roomy seats.
Started when my boys were babies and one experience was so bad. Luckily back then my husband work paid for us.

BuzzShitbagBobbly · 03/09/2019 07:36

I bet they had loads of things left in the pouches. Passports etc

Have you ever looked into the guts of those pouches? The amount of manky old food debris is grim. I think BA have a cargo-net type pocket which seems better for visibility and non-mouldy crumbs perspective.

The plane cleaning crew are already working flatout to turn them round, so I think anything that helps them is good.

BuzzShitbagBobbly · 03/09/2019 07:40

I get frisked and stared at. I have to put my toiletries in a bag with no more than 100ml in as if my shampoo is going to blow someone up. I have to sit in a confined space with overpriced food and drink and chuck my £10 bottle of suncream away that I can barely afford.

Um, why do you think the rules - which are for security and air safety - shouldn't apply to you? You have ample time to review them and ensure you don't get your £10 bottle of suncream taken off you, before you go to the airport. Loads of people get frisked and looked at as well, you're not special.

Or maybe we should just let anyone take whatever they want and avoid security, as long as they promise not to blow the plane up? I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

JassyRadlett · 03/09/2019 07:48

I pretty much now only fly long haul with my kids for leisure, which is fine - it sounds like a lot of the budget airlines have created the conditions that make it stressful for a lot of people, especially infrequent travellers with kids.

When travelling for work it’s usually on flights times for business l and without kids it’s pretty straightforward.

I try only to fly out of Heathrow and City in London though. Not a fan of Gatwick when I’ve had to use it (even though it’s closest to my place) and I’m luckily too far from Luton or Stansted to make them practical. The airports geared to budget travel sound particularly grim.

Travelling out of Australia and Singapore recently we found both had done away with the need to get liquids screened separately and it made things much faster at both.

For Europe we are now trying to go only by train to (slightly) balance out the impact of travelling to Australia to see family.

ChickenyChick · 03/09/2019 07:52

Angelfacecuti75, next time take sandwiches and an empty water bottle , and buy the suncream when you arrive

The 100ml rule has been in place a long time

Lweji · 03/09/2019 08:30

I do business or 1st everytime. There is no stress and I am sorry, But paying the extra is so worth it.

I'm sorry, but do you not realise that most people simply can't afford it?
Do you think people don't realise that 1st or business is, oh, so much better?

Most people won't even pay to travel on regular airlines with better conditions.

TheSandman · 03/09/2019 09:16

I've worked in airports abroad and some Brits in holiday lose all rational thought. It's like they leave their brains back in UK.

Not just Brits at airports.

I live/work in a high tourist area and a lot of people just leave their brains back wherever they came from. Local drivers have learned to recognise hire rental cars - new numberplates is a dead giveaway - and give them a LOT of space.

I will never forget the day I encountered someone reversing round a roundabout because they had missed their exit. And watching people doing three point turns on busy A roads with oncoming heavy goods vehicles is fun too.

manicmij · 03/09/2019 09:25

I absolutely loathe airports and flying these days due to people. Yesterday on a short flight in UK and nearly crowned a woman with the tray at security. Standing picking up her items instead of lifting the tray away as instructed in writing on all the surfaces. She wad causing trays to back up. She did speak English so was presumably able to read. Then there is the queue to board. Don't recall when I have stood so close to a stranger. Folk pile up as if it is the last flight to anywhere. I know the b__ ds want all the overhead storage for their oversized cabin kyggage. If it's that's stressful for them put it in the hold. Then the uncontrolled children. Why do folk take them on planes when they know they will have to confine them to about a couple of square feet and kerp them quiet. They should practise that at home! Sit quietly in a dining chair for an hour and a half, see how that works out! I hate flying!

Nicetablecloth · 03/09/2019 09:31

I get frisked and stared at. I have to put my toiletries in a bag with no more than 100ml in as if my shampoo is going to blow someone up. I have to sit in a confined space with overpriced food and drink and chuck my £10 bottle of suncream away that I can barely afford.

Why are you doing that? Of course you, like everyone else, has to put their liquids in a plastic bag and not take on full bottles of suncream. It's kinda been like that for almost two decades now...Hmm

sueelleker · 03/09/2019 09:49

And that's why Boots have shops after security.

Zaphodsotherhead · 03/09/2019 10:06

Put your sunscreen in your hold luggage. You're not going to need it in the airport, are you?

Lweji · 03/09/2019 10:09

Then the uncontrolled children. Why do folk take them on planes when they know they will have to confine them to about a couple of square feet and kerp them quiet. They should practise that at home! Sit quietly in a dining chair for an hour and a half, see how that works out! I hate flying!

Why do you fly then? Wink

jesuschristwtf · 03/09/2019 10:09

Did you check that everyone at the airport behaving this way were brits? Or did you just see/hear one family and made a sweeping generalisation?

HariboLecter · 03/09/2019 11:57

I get frisked and stared at. I have to put my toiletries in a bag with no more than 100ml in as if my shampoo is going to blow someone up.

Well tbf poster, the rule on only carrying 100ml max of liquids has only been in place for 13 years, so how were you supposed to know about it!?! Hmm

AllBellsNoWhistles · 03/09/2019 12:31

@Pliudev someone is having you on. I'm German, I fly often with Lufthansa and Eurowings and I've never seen my fellow countrymen sit obediently until asked to move. It's a aisle blocking scrum, just the same as on other airlines and nationalities 😂

What I never understand is why people put suncream and toiletries in their hand luggage. Why? You're not going to catch the Sun on a plane, nor are you going to be taking a bath / shower and washing your hair!
Fair enough if your hand luggage is your ONLY luggage, otherwise put it in your case in the hold.

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 03/09/2019 13:35

I cannot wait until we no longer need to worry about liquids in hang luggage...
www.bbc.com/news/business-49447200

Kazzyhoward · 03/09/2019 14:05

Fair enough if your hand luggage is your ONLY luggage

On some flights, the majority of luggage is hand luggage only.

Last year we were on a full flight to Berlin where nearly everyone had a carry-on suitcase - to the extent that the stewards were telling people with soft bags to take them out of the lockers and put them under the seats. (Granted there was a university trip of about 20-30 students, all with carry on luggage). At the baggage carousel, we were literally the only people waiting, and our suitcases were the only ones that came around.