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

Ona flight from Dubai to Heathrow about 15 yrs ago a man in the row in front of us became aggressive & abusive towards cabin crew. It started because his screen in the back of the seat in front of him wasn't working but quickly escalated. At one point my DH was making meaningful eye contact with several other men indicating that they would assist to restrain the man of it came to that point. We overheard the cabin crew discussing that the captain was considering a divert as the abuse to the cabin crew was so bad. We made it to Heathrow & were met by 6 heavily armed police officers who escorted the abusive twat off the plane. I saw him on the terminal, face against a wall being patted down by the police

@ripples101

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?

I once had a rice cake (gluten free) that had a bite taken out of it and rewrapped and sellotaped on my tray. I mean, who and why would someone have actually re-wrapped and taped it up??? I complained. The flight attendant was shocked but mumbled something as she whisked it away. I complained in writing to BA and never heard back.

Nothing very exciting here, but these are my stories:

Years ago I booked an evening flight from Naples to Gatwick, needed to sleep as working in the morning (no ones problem but mine I guess!). I would have been able to sleep easily but for the baby behind me being allowed to kick my seat through out - being held by parents in a position to allow this - Mum is sat behind me holding baby and Dad sat behind a middle aged man. I was in my 20s. Really, really politely, starting by saying “I know it must be difficult etc” I asked if they could try to stop the baby constantly kicking my seat. They apologised and seemed to be repositioning baby. Man beside me, who I’ve never seen before in my life, turns round and says “oh no, don’t worry about it, it’s fine”. The baby wasn’t kicking him! Perhaps he was hoping the baby wouldn’t be moved into the Dad’s arms behind him... I ended up moving down the plane to another seat, but the cheek of the man beside me!

Better story:

Once I was travelling with exh. I get a bit anxious about air travel, and it helps me to have a booked seat to minimise surprises. Plus I need an aisle seat because I’m claustrophobic- causes anxiety if this is in any way left to chance. Exh always refused to pay to book seats - so when we flew to Spain on one occasion my seat was booked and he’d left his unbooked - didn’t bother me not to sit next to him! But he made a massive fuss about me going to the expense of booking mine and spending the money. When we got on, my aisle seat had two empty seats beside it. He was in the middle of the back row, which had extra small legroom. No I didn’t let him move to the seat beside me - I left him there and lay down across my three seats! Brilliant snooze!

I also once got the four seats across the middle of a flight from NY to London to myself.

Have also had air crew kindly move me to the front row when I’ve seemed anxious!

This is funnier:

Once when exh had a broken leg, when easyJet was all free seating (many moons ago), we were allowed on first because of his leg, but not allowed the extra leg room seats. So we’re sitting patiently in the row just behind the middle extra legroom seats, and two youngish men get on soon afterwards. Plane almost empty. They approach the air stewardess with barely disguised glee and self importance. “Excuse me” they say “my brother and I are both over 6ft. We really need the extra legroom seats...” Stewardess has to point out that these seats were still completely free, no one was in them, and it’s free seating, so they can just sit down. They were so keen for a big fuss to be made of them, and people asked to move for their all important 6 ft ness, that they were really disappointed just to be able to sit down!

On the second leg of a flight back from Australia my plan to stay awake to Singapore, then sleep from Singapore to the UK was not working because a teenager kept punching the back of my seat and flicking the light on and off. I asked him to stop nicely twice but he didn’t. I was seriously weighing up whether it was worth the pleasure of punching him in the face and being arrested on landing!

I’d been awake about 36 hours at this point and was seriously losing it. Fortunately the third time I turned round the dad was awake and understood the international language of crazy sleep-deprived facial expression.

The next time I did that trip I took sleeping tablets and an eye mask. Much better experience.

Coming back from Cuba a few years ago the woman who was in the window seat next to me and dh put her seat back as soon as the plane took off (it was daytime).the woman behind her was fuming she kept kicking her chair to try and get her to put it up but the woman was having none of it.The kicking woman then offered her a fight after landing

Not a bad story for me but funny!

Use to live abroad. When visiting U.K. I always booked a night flight. So fly at 1am and land 6.30. Visiting family so I could catch up on sleep and they'd have time alone ds who wasn't sleepy and grumpy!

So would bath ds, give him bottle and he'd sleep in way too airport. Buggy and sling and so he'd stay asleep.

Always travelled out of season so planes often not full.

I often got 3 seats just ds and I but didn't expect it.

Ds was 2.4. Get on plane. Have the 3 seats. Nice thinks I. Ds alseep in his. Take off and gets a bit turbulent and ds stirs so I lift up arm rests and lay him on me. I must have dozed off.

Someone then decided they didn't want the middle seat they were in and moved. Fine.

But they came up to sleeping ds and me and literally pushed my feet off the seat announcing he was sitting there and how selfish was I. Did I think this was first class or something.

Gaining consciousness I was a little stunned but wasn't fully awake enough to be scared.

I just sat up and sat over the 2 seats.

He continued the abuse.

This lovely cabin crew came up with the sweetest charm and all smiles personified and said to the man "I understand you want an aisle seat for comfort sir, who wouldn't, come with me and I'll move you to another one - I have a space with 2 adjacent spare seats"

Man all smug thinking he'll get a great place and me scowling thinking why are you rewarding this arse.

Turns out they weren't! He did get 2 seats to himself in the bulk head seats at the back right outside the toilet where someone had obviously been after eating something dodgy.

As cabin crew walked back down aisle he have me a huge wink

I once had a woman that took my seat then tried to eat my special meal. She wouldn’t budge because she pretended she didn’t speak Finnish or English. When the meals turned up and my dusty vegan meal was handed to her, she objected in finish. I objected to this meat platter being handed to me in English! Lol!

@Lepetitpiggy - the form and all the relevant info is on here - travel.gov.gr/#/. I notice it now say it must be done 24 hours before flying at the latest. Easyjet kept sending us reminder emails from a week before we flew. You fill it in and they email the form with a barcode on to you the evening before you fly or just after midnight. You then open the form on your phone or tablet to show at the airport (both ends). You have to do the same before you return to the UK (via the gov.uk site). That one was much more complex and they wanted the flight booking reference which I didn't even have as I didn't book the flights! I had to phone my sister in the UK for that info as she booked it all for us. Once the UK form was completed I got an email straight away containing the link to the form you have to show, no waiting for it as there was with the Greek one.

As for how the got past check-in without it - Easyjet staff checked every person or group had a completed form as we checked in, but they obviously didn't scroll down to check that the additional passengers had been noted on the form too. You do one form per household. They really should have checked, but the family would still have been screwed.

When we got into Manchester there were a couple of old guys who hadn't done the form. Border force were a bit brusque with them, but could see they didn't understand or have the tech to sort it. So they sat down with them and helped them complete it, before letting them in. Greece won't do that, they are being very strict everywhere with masks etc too in our experience as they don't want to be put on the quarantine list.

Just remembered the time that my sister snored so loudly on a long haul flight that several people complained and asked to be moved. Apparently the people next to her kept trying to wake her up, but she'd taken a valium and was dead to the world, mouth wide open, snoring away

We've had no communication at all about it! it was only because was checking though stuff about covid rhat I found out there was such a thing. Hoping that the pp who said portugal was different is right. I have forms printed and ready so fingers crossed

Flight back in 2008. YYZ - LAX - SYD

The flight from Toronto to LA was fine. On time. But the leg to Sydney was coming via Montreal who had had an ice storm that day. We were due to take off around 10pm LA time (so 1am in Toronto.). We finally got off the ground at 3am in LAX. So DH and I had pulled an all nighter.

Additionally, we found out in Toronto that the travel agent had buggered up our seats and we had the two middles in the block of 4 on a 747.

So we get on this plane and DH is sat next to a nice, small lady. I get an All Black - a professional rugby player built like a brick shit house. So I'm wedged between him and my DH who is 6'3" and about 16 stone.

Now, my DH never sleeps on planes. Ever. Except for this flight. He went to sleep on one shoulder and the big dude next to me on the other. For ten hours.

Big shout out to the Qantas cabin crew who gave me straw for my beer and picked it up for me to drink as they walked by. We couldn't wake either of them no matter what we tried.

No one's fault really but funny in its way. DH has the best timing...

Another one was Manchester to Amsterdam and we had a connection to Turin. We were sat on the tarmac waiting to go but some passengers hadn't turned up yet. Finally, 45 minutes later the pilot decided to deplane the luggage. Just for the couple to waltz on with about five bags each from duty free and cabin luggage. They then delayed us further by demanding their hand bags be stowed near their seats.

Missed our connection and had to wait 14 hours for the next flight. Thankfully we were on the 6am flight so we got the 8pm flight to Turin. Honestly, I wanted to bash the smug man in the face who officiously insisted he couldn't possibly be separated from his bags

Love this thread

RAF flight. The convention is families at the back, officers at front, Other Ranks middle. We were last family to board, with our DDs aged 6&4. On these flights, children can't sit in aisle seats. (No one knows why!). Also a child must sit with their family group or allocated carer (in cases where children out number parents). The flight loader was insisting we must somehow achieve this, despite the only seats in the family section being dotted around. After several minutes of this, a senior flight loader walked into the family section, and took us and 2 other families into the middle section where there were rows of 4 seats available.
Great for us... We got a flight in the pretty much silent soldier area where they all just sleep. But that one guy just couldn't compute that families couldn't neatly fit into the exact number of seats.

@DazedandConcerned - I am a huge rugby fan, so I’d have paid good money to be snuggled up to an All Black!

*Now, my DH never sleeps on planes. Ever. Except for this flight. He went to sleep on one shoulder and the big dude next to me on the other. For ten hours.

Big shout out to the Qantas cabin crew who gave me straw for my beer and picked it up for me to drink as they walked by. We couldn't wake either of them no matter what we tried.*

^^
I couldn’t cope with this - makes me feel panicky reading it! Not their fault, but would be so claustrophobic!

Some of the other posts up thread just beggar belief though!

Ah so many stories. The man who queried whether I should be in the first boarding group and also a different man who queried whether I should be in business class (both work trips but I dress on planes in leggings and t shirts), the woman who dumped her bag in my foot space and refused to move it. I promptly went to sleep and 'Accidentally' kicked it over with my feet every time she picked it up. The 4 hour passive aggressive arm rest fight with a man who insisted that he should have access to both (the rule is if you are in the middle seat you get both arm rests). I was in the middle seat.

Some of the worst behaviour I saw was before we even got on a flight.
4pm check in for 6pm flight. The staff knew the flight was going to be delayed over 4 hours and gave out vouchers at check in.
As other flights leave and the crowds thin out it's obvious that a lot of our flight are getting hammered. Duty free has been opened and necked neat in the smoking area.
Eventually we are the only flight left in the airport. At midnight we were called to the gate. And then told there would be an update in an hour.
This caused about three quarters of the flight to stampede back towards the bars. Which of course had shut....
The kicking off was horrendous. Screaming at staff. One particular highlight was a drunk woman kicking off with the gate staff that they needed to feed her kids. 8 hours in an airport pretty sure you'd think to feed your kids. They directed her to the vending machines.
The police came and calmed it down. In fact, the police got on the plane once boarding was complete and walked up and down the aisle until the drunks calmed down.
Thankfully it was a quiet flight as most of the passengers passed out.

Nearly 20 years ago I was on a 24 hr Air NZ flight from Auckland to Heathrow and the plane was quite empty so lots of room to stretch out. I was seated next to a 20ish year old Irish lad on his way home. Behind us were a group of 20ish yr old Kiwis. They must have purchased a bit of booze from duty free before boarding as the alcohol was flowing rather freely in the group including my Irish ‘travel companion’. Anyways, that group of young travellers all moved around the plane so I lost track of him at some point during the flight.

About 3-4 hrs before arrival at Heathrow a fairly well built male cabin crew member literally pushed the Irish dude back into his allocated seat next to me. Turns out my friendly Irish companion had got very disoriented thanks to the booze and had been urinating on people and their belongings!

His passport was removed by the cabin crew and he was told very strictly “NOT. TO. MOVE” and I was asked by the cabin crew to remind him of this. About an hour out of Heathrow he starts to come around and gets up to move - possibly to go the toilet, and I tell him he’s “NOT. ALLOWED. TO. MOVE” as per instruction from the cabin crew. Cue some very confused questioning from the lad so I let him know what he had done including the fact that his passport had been removed and the police would be waiting for him at Heathrow (not sure if they were or not - but thought it sounded good ).

When his alcohol infused brain cells finally figured out the enormity of his misdeeds, he turned very pale and replied in a panicked voice “me mam is going to fecken kill me”! I still giggle about it 20 years later.

@FaffingForEngland

A friend was traveling long haul, and there were 2 incredibly obnoxious men sitting in the next row. One of them was so rude to everyone, that he managed to upset every passenger around him, but he saved the worst of his behaviour for the air crew, who were apparently really polite in the face of some pretty unpleasant abuse. Eventually the cabin was darkened and the pair took off their trainers, falling into an alcohol assisted deep sleep. My friend was so incensed by the behaviour, he quietly removed one of the man's shoes and put it in the bin in the loo. For added amusement, he put a glass of red wine on Mr obnoxious' tray. You can imagine what happened when he stirred.... All over a white tracksuit. It was only as they came in to leave that the missing shoe became apparent and he had to hobble off the plane in one trainer.

I bet the police had a few choice words with your friend after an airliner had to be grounded and fully searched by EOD to find the missing shoe..

I do actually have one from the other side.

Use to work abroad.

9/11. Sat in cafe when news broke. Then get call to say flights to Mexico being diverted to us. All in uniform ASAP and get to airport - I was a driver and had company car and we were told to make sure we had all seats full.

Local 5* hotels block booked. Quick briefing that customers full board. Would have luggage. Drop at hotel give details of next updates.

Drivers drove back to resort to be in hotels and others went back and forth on coaches to transfer guests.

One woman caught me in reception. Wanted water. I suggested going to supermarket on road and buying multipacks. Oh no. She wanted it for free. How dare she have to pay for water when she's had her flight diverted.

I apologised but explained obviously when she took off no one knew this would happen and guests are still responsible for their own drinks etc. But that in full board she would get them in used with meal.

Oh my god she lost it totally. Huge rant which ended in her also saying she only had the pants she was wearing and she didn't plan on wearing the same thong for any longer as she'd had it on for 18 hours (their suitcases were being delivered to them)

My response was very unprofessional and basically loaded up footage and suggested she contact family members of those working in twin towers and moan at them over a 1€ bottle of water and wearing the same thing for 18 hours!

Next thing I heard a round of applause - apparently this woman had been a gobby twat since being in the airport before any of this even happened.

We managed to get the guests out and off to Mexico the following day - many honeymoon couples. It was very emotional but they were all so grateful for everything and understanding.

(Gobshite was silent )

@BeingATwatItsABingThing the reason people often book aisle and window is that they hope that if flight isn’t full they will end up with row to themselves, as who would want to sit inbetween a couple. They think they are being clever

When I was about 9 on a flight with all my extended family coming home from greece. A girl about four years old was crying and her dad slapped her hard round the face. My dad and aunty went ballistic at the man and I thought a huge fight was going to happen. I was terrified, it was so horrible.

the reason people often book aisle and window is that they hope that if flight isn’t full they will end up with row to themselves, as who would want to sit inbetween a couple. They think they are being clever

It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. As long as you move over if someone arrives for the middle seat. Or you don’t talk over the person in the middle.

I mean, come on, is there anyone who would actually choose the middle seat deliberately?

On the rare occasions that I am travelling with DH and we’re in economy, we often book two aisle seats next to each other. It works well.

[quote MulticolourMophead]**@damnthatanxiety If there was no allocated seating, that suggests the couple chose those seats, and would likely have turned down the offfer to swap seats.[/quote]
Thank you @MulticolourMophead

Several people have asked me why I didn’t ask to swap seats. Two answers:

1. I was an 18yo and didn’t realise they were a couple straight away.

1. They chose to sit like that. When I came and asked if the seat was free so I could sit down, they could have moved at that point but they didn’t do they clearly didn’t want to move. Me asking most likely wouldn’t have changed that.