An airplane seat one- not had one of these for a while

[Cheeseandlobster]

Was flying back from holiday yesterday in an aisle seat. There was a mother and daughter on the plane, the daughter being about 14. They had originally been sat in someone else's extra legroom seats at the front and had to then move to the row behind me where there was an empty aisle seat. The daughter was very vocal about being unhappy with how little room she was going to have then insisted she had to have her suitcase at her feet which the cabin crew did not police.

Shortly after take off the woman in the seat next to me started vomiting. I am emetaphobic so as soon as I could I moved to the aisle seat behind.

Well you would think I was devil incarnate
The daughter and the mum made passive aggressive comments for a lot of the flight to each other. They wanted to stretch out and sleep and now they couldn't. The daughter said she couldn't handle this. They both had their suitcases at their feet so the mum's shoes were in my leg space, but no effort was made to move them. Lots of pointed elbowing when I was trying to sleep and just general whinging. I was damned if I was going to react and just ignored them. It was clear this entitled mum was raising an equally as entitled daughter. They must have known there was a strong chance there would be someone else in their space but they were just so annoyed by it.

When they got off the mum pulled a woman's hair quite hard by mistake but I heard her laughing about it with her daughter in baggage reclaim as the woman had pulled her up on pushing in shortly after so this apparently was funny.

I am sure I wasn't unreasonable but it would be great to hear about other entitled passengers. I I have always loved hearing these stories

Some years ago I returned from holiday and saw my experience on MN !! People were saying “I don’t believe you” to the OP, but I was a witness and could verify the whole thing.

Night flight from US, and a very glamorous woman seats her two dcs, probably about 8 and 6, next to us in Economy. The kids are a bit tearful, and the woman beams round and says ,”These good people will look after you.” So another passenger piped up that she will swap with the woman, thinking that they’ve unfortunately been separated. The glamorous woman laughed and said, “Oh, no, I’m in First Class, and need my sleep.”

There was a lot of turbulence and the kids were crying. The cabin crew were furious and actually fetched the mother who was not best pleased.

I’ve seen people put nanny + kids in Economy, but not young kids by themselves.

The flight finished boarding and no sign of him. A flight attendant came up to my row and asked me and the window seat passenger if we were named X - neither of us was. After some consternation amongst the crew, it transpired that X was the man who'd been sat in my seat, and he'd left the plane and gone back into the airport and disappeared! They didn't find him through making announcements, so we all had to get back off the plane and watch while they took it out to the middle of the runway area and surround it with emergency vehicles while they located all his luggage to remove it from the plane. We were delayed by more than two hours, all apparently because Mr Entitled didn't get the aisle seat he felt should have been his!

Can you imagine being married to that? He's sulk for months I'd bet.

DH and I always book aisle and window seats as I like to look out of the window and he likes to stretch his legs a bit. And quite often no one takes the middle seat which means we can spread out a bit. We don’t talk on flights anyway as I’m deaf so cant hear over the plane noise so we don’t disturb anyone who gets that seat. We’ve quite often startled the person sitting between us by suddenly interacting as husband and wife once the plane lands.

I was travelling from Spain to U.K. so short 2 he flight.

Check in in Spain and get given boarding cards. Was a little prettiness after the time because the check in man kept staring at cards, me and ds (13 at time) and then ds passport.

I will add when I make booking I always make sure they register ds js disabled.

Get on plane and they've put ds and I in extra legroom seat in middle.

I knew we couldn't sit there so waited for inevitable.

Then it comes. "You can't sit there we'll have to swap you - wait there until we find alternative seats"

Me acknowledging that I understand. Behind me is seated lady with dd late teens. 2 of them in 3 seats. I ask if they'd be happy to swap and perhaps we could present this to stewardess to save her time. Yes they were (who wouldn't be - they usually cost a fortune!)

Present idea when stewardess returns to say haven't yet sorted a swap.

But she said we couldn't do that. Reason (apparently) because only 2 of us and that row was for 3.

That's right. She didn't want to swap us with people behind. She was going to wait until full and find a couple in a row of 3 to swap with us but needed everyone to take their seats first.

I just giggled and said it was insane and would create more movement and time than necessary.

Lady behind by this point had me in hysterics making suggestions like her swapping with my ds and her dd babysitting him as studying childcare in college! So me and her have a few drinks in peace etc.

Anyway. 5 minutes later she returned and asked me/ds and lady/dd behind to swap rows and acted like she was doing me a huge favour!

But lady brought me a coffee to thank me for her comfy seats so all was well!

@Newfornow

Kindly asking a woman if the seat was free next to her and her child so I could sit next to my child from across the aisle. She refused, I later noticed a very large passenger was seated next to them anyway by cabin crew. Oh how I smiled on my way past of the toilet.

That’s made me smile too!

Why weren't you allowed to have the seats, itsgettingweird?

@Nandocushion

I had booked an aisle seat for my 9 hour flight. Got on and found a middle-aged man sitting in it (I was 20something female). He explained to me that he didn't like sitting in the centre seat; I said I didn't either and that's why I'd booked the aisle seat, and asked him to move. He did, grumbled and fidgeted, then while the plane was still boarding got up and walked off down the aisle - I assumed to speak to a flight attendant.

The flight finished boarding and no sign of him. A flight attendant came up to my row and asked me and the window seat passenger if we were named X - neither of us was. After some consternation amongst the crew, it transpired that X was the man who'd been sat in my seat, and he'd left the plane and gone back into the airport and disappeared! They didn't find him through making announcements, so we all had to get back off the plane and watch while they took it out to the middle of the runway area and surround it with emergency vehicles while they located all his luggage to remove it from the plane. We were delayed by more than two hours, all apparently because Mr Entitled didn't get the aisle seat he felt should have been his!

This is the worst one hands down

I always always book an aisle seat. I have IBS (d) which is exacerbated by anxiety, plus very long term motion sickness.

So many times I've been asked to move to a middle seat, or have found someone in my seat refusing to move.

I no longer have and shame, and loudly inform them I will both shit myself and vomit on them, and will actively aim for them if they don't get the fuck out of my seat.

8 of our family members who had paid to sit together, so not a inconsiderable amount of money, i wouldn't have bothered personallyfound a couple of ladies and their dc, in our seats who wanted those particular seats to be together. Ended up with a stand up row as they refused to move. Having paid 8 x £6 or whatever the going rate was at the time, we were adamant we were going to have what we paid for.
They were quite scary and the cabin crew weren't very assertive, but no way were we going to waste £48 just because some tight arses wanted to be together but weren't willing to pay out. It actually got quite heated.

[quote Newfornow]@FaffingForEngland.. that’s not funny actually.
Also either they tools off their trainers or your friend removed a shoe, can’t be both.[/quote]
They took off their trainers (which are shoes) and friend took one of them to the loo. So of course both can be true

^^. I thought it was funny...

After dropping bags off informed that for the second leg of the flight we’ve been assigned new boarding passes. Husband and I are totally separated for a 12 hour flight. I end up in premium economy, he’s in economy. Get to my window seat to find a woman sitting there and her husband in the aisle. Politely told her she was in my seat - completely ignored me, eventually looked up and barked ‘no English.’ By this time I found a member of cabin crew who made her move. An hour into the flight produces a cold McDonald’s from her bag, offers me chips in perfect English then proceeds to chat to her husband in english. Cabin crew then come round with complementary drinks, woman is absolutely disgusted at the alcohol, I ask for a wine. The cabin crew who assisted me earlier then passes, sees that I have wine then came back with champagne for me with a wink - the woman had been rude to her too.

@Thisismytimetoshine

Why weren't you allowed to have the seats, itsgettingweird?

The exit seats at centre of plane which are extra leg room cannot be occupied by anyone under 16 and also anyone with a disability.

Ds was both!

I knew I'd have to move. Why stewardess wanted to play plane Tetris when a couple behind us is anyone's guess

Oh, I see

Not so much a passenger problem, more a problem with service, but one I’ll never forget.

On a flight to the US. An hour or two after take off, the first meals were served in the plastic trays. My meal looked a little mushed up, but didn’t think anything of it. Had a mouthful and it tasted disgusting. Cold and rank. Then noticed that there was another plastic tray stuck underneath mine, so lifted it up and that plastic tray also had food in it.

It was then that I realised what had happened. The food I was served was the left overs from a previous flight. I had taken a mouthful of someone else’s leftovers that had been served to me.

I didn’t say a thing to anyone. I just felt disgusted. Of course, when the cabin crew took it away, they just assumed that it was my leftovers.

Had I spoken up I reckon I could have got serious compensation for that. Maybe even an upgrade for the flight. Whenever I think about it, I kick myself for not saying anything.

@FinallyHere

DH and I never do that, we'd rather sit together than have a stranger sitting between us!

@SerenDippitty how do you decide who has to sit in the middle seat? do you take it in turns ?

DH always lets me have the window seat. He doesn't mind the middle one!

Some years ago Cillian Murphy sat behind me in premier & allowed his kid to kick the back of my seat almost all the way from SFO to LHR. I completely ignored him as he was clearly jealous because I, had the extra legroom 😆. I hadn’t got a clue who he was until MrF mentioned it later on.

BA from Paris. After a couple of hours delay it turned out that the seat directly in front was broken and would not go upright

If this was Paris to the UK, at least it would have been a short flight - I flew from Heathrow to Arizona on another BA wreck with both seats broken, and that was in Premium Economy

The worst, though, was flying back from Istanbul where the only spare seat seemed to be the one next to mine. I thought I'd got lucky until a late arrival ran across the ramp and boarded, literally pouring sweat. Of course he was headed for that empty seat and his BO was so bad that it wasn't just a smell but a taste ... not a fun 4 hours

In many years of travelling (not now of course), I have really only had one issue.

On a flight back we were watching all passengers in the check in out of boredom. I saw this man who was humungously obese and I joked that he would be in in our row.

Sure enough he was. Sweating and taking up my space. But I got on with it and engaged him in convo. Asked him where did he work what did he do etc. and so on. As you do.

Turned out he didn't work at all because of his issues but travelled about 6 times a year. Yikes, his sweatiness and taking over my armrest and nearly all my seat meant a lot of frowning from me. Possibly wrong of me, but there we are.

Had I spoken up I reckon I could have got serious compensation for that. Maybe even an upgrade for the flight. Whenever I think about it, I kick myself for not saying anything.
🤣🤣. It was a mistake! Your fault for tucking into someone else's mushy leftovers. Ffs.

My worst ones have both been service ones, BA and involved the seat pockets in front of me. First time flying business class and find a used baby’s nappy in the seat pocket. I told the steward who was shocked that this would occur in ‘Club Europe’. I asked if it was considered acceptable in economy, he had no answer to that.

The second occasion was flying long haul, 9 hour flight. I found the seat pocket full of blood stained tissues which have leaked into the material of the pocket. I told the stewardess who as we hadn’t taken off gets a cleaner on board to sort the issue. She then indicated for me to sit in the seat which still has a seat pocket damp with someone’s blood. I refused saying I considered it a health risk and suggested strongly they need to find me alternative seating. This is done very grudgingly and much to the annoyance of two men who thought they have got a spare seat between them. I didn’t care and slept the whole flight.

Yes it was a mistake. Their fault for serving it to me. My fault for not saying anything after I realised what had happened.

Had I said something, do you seriously think that I wouldn’t have got some compensation for their mistake?

Compensation for what?

I was on a perfectly nice Virgin Atlantic flight, sitting next to a man that complained about everything and nothing. He exclaimed to the cabin crew at one point, "I don't have this trouble when I fly BA" to which the cabin replied, "WE don't have this trouble when you fly BA"

It shut him right up!

Probably not compensation.