Share your inconsiderate people on planes tales…

[LittleTalkingMan]

I flew today for the first time since lockdown and I think I can safely say that lockdown has definitely made people less considerate of others.

We had a kid with a slide whistle. Both parents had headphones on!!

And a father and son who kept play fighting behind us. Why do grown ass dads insist on riling up kids play fighting!

I had someone in front recline their seat as I was being served a meal. Cabin crew were literally handing it to me so luckily nothing got spilled Got a very sharp "Oy, put that back I'm eating" from me.

Flying to America years ago and the fasten seatbelts sign came on as we were starting our descent. A little boy opposite started crying as he needed a wee - rather than calling the cabin crew and explaining the situation his mum said just go then. And so he did, right there on the seat.

The woman who thought it OK to read a broad sheet newspaper by resting it on my head on the seat in front of her. Ashamed to say that after asking her to stop it twice, when she did it for the third time, I reached up, pulled it forward and screwed it up.

That reminds me of the time that we got the extra legroom seats on the emergency exit row for free because we checked in late.

Thought we'd had a bit of luck until someone decided it was the perfect spot bring their toddler to stand in to distract them a bit and said toddler had clearly filled their nappy and they were there for about half an hour before they disappeared again.

Of course, the inconsiderate people are also in the airport prior to getting on the flight. The last time we flew, a family of 4 were somehow taking up at least twice as many seats with their bags and lounging and there wasn't really anywhere for us to sit down. DP was preparing himself to sit on the floor but I stood in front of one of the seats occupied by a bag that had an empty seat next to it and said to him in, there's two free seats here that we can use, which of course got me a dirty look from the man who thought his bag was more deserving of a seat than I was.

Frequent ultra long haul traveller here. I actually find people on ultra long haul extremely reasonable. Not sure why. And yes we all recline except at meal times. My bug bears.
People who keep their seat lights on for 14 hours so it shines in your eyes but they sleep the whole flight
People who book an aisle seat but take knock out drugs so cannot be woken for love for money so you cant visit the loo (on a 16 hour flight that's quite annoying)
IFE screen prodders
People who seem to need something from one of their 15 bags in the overhead bin every 10 minutes.
Aisle yogis

We were on a recent flight to Cyprus and there was a row of 3 empty seats next to us. A large party of 2 or more families had booked in but the 2 families were about 20 rows apart so they thought it would be a great idea if the 5 year old from one family and the 3 year old from the other used these seats. They were scrambling about all over the place, kicking seats and screeching very loudly for hours. Ocassionally the mother several rows in front would stand up and shush them but that's literally all they did, leaving surrounding passengers to pick up the crayons, ask them to stop kicking seats and generally quieten down a bit.

DH is very tall - 6ft 6. Flying JFK to UK we could not get an exit row for him so tried front row of economy hoping it might have a smidgin more legroom. Unfortunately economy plus person in front insisted on reclining their seat fully so it was literally crushing DH knees. He ended up standing in the aisle and then swapping with me as the person refused to adjust their seat and cabin crew would not intervene. I think reclining seat is an option not a right if you are actually hurting or endangering the person behind you. Delta Airlines, never again.

The main problem, definitely worse since COVID is people watching things, particularly letting children watch things on phone/tablet/laptop, without headphones. I don't know why they don't announce on flights that all music, audio and films/TV needs to be listened to with headphones and if you don't have a pair the cabin crew will ask you to turn it off. I have asked crew to deal with it before and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it would be good to just lay it out as a ground rule that it is shouldn't be done.

Bloke next to me drank copious amounts of wine and kept talking to me and spitting red wine at me .... I had my air pods in and he kept saying "oh sorry I didn't realise you were listening to music" ... but still fecking carried on every single time.

A young traveller, teenager, fell asleep with her head on my table once ... her dirty dreadlocks hanging everywhere. I had to wake her up and she did a few more times.

Another thing confused me. They weren't irritating or annoying, a couple with a baby, prob 8 months old. Got to their seat and the dad had the baby in a carrier on his front, he lifted baby out, gave it to mum, folded up the carrier and put it in the overhead locker, all fine. But every time they wanted to go the loo to change the babies nappy, they got the carrier out, she'd put it on the dad, faffing about with all the straps put the baby in it and off he'd go. Why not just carry the baby there, was I missing something 🤔

This. I’ve got kids, and they watch screens when needed, but there is NO EXCUSE for sound on, no headphones. Ever. For anyone. Particularly not when the kids are left watching it and their own parents stick headphones on. Adults and children do it, and it’s supremely antisocial.

Schools and some parents are not teaching children to think of others any more and the effect that their actions can potentially have on others for good or bad.

Childhood has become a competition to get the best grades and don’t give a stuff about anyone else as long as you are ok.

Completely agree that airlines should have a blanket rule for no screens on out loud - fucks me off every single time.

Have had a very smelly farter in front of me recently - both ways.

People who are incapable of finding their seat, putting their stuff away and sitting down promptly. Stop fucking around in the aise for 5 minutes - you're holding up the entire line.

I had a seat kicker behind me a few years back - I turned round and politely asked the parent to stop her child from kicking my seat. I got an aggressive glare and 'he's only 4' in response. Cool - perfect time to teach him some manners then.

Probably the worst example is flying home from Spain with food poising - I had the middle seat and I told the woman in the aisle I would probably have to get up a lot and would switch with her if she wanted to save her getting up all the time. She said no which is fair enough - her perogative. But then she huffed every single time I had to get up to use the loo. Sorry, shall I sit here and shit myself instead?

@judgementfail If I understand you correctly I think I am an aisle yogi - in that I am under strict medical instructions not to sit still for too long on any flight due to a combination of various conditons so getting up and doing some stretches and lunges in the aisle every 30-45 minutes is the only way I can get through a flight healthily. I feel a bit self-conscious but I don't believe I cause anyone any inconvenience (obviously I get back into my aisle seat if someone needs to pass by) - what is it about doing this that you find infuriating or inconsiderate? Or have I misunderstood you?

@FrenchandSaunders I imagine that they read some advice to only carry the baby around the plane in a strappy carrier in case turbulence hits while you are going along the aisle and you need your hands to grab onto something to save yourself from serious injury. Given the awful injuries from that recent Doha to Dublin flight that was in the news, this would seem sensible - but if it was me & DH we would have just both worn a wrap-sling and not bothered taking it off in between uses.

You’re doing stretches and lunges every 30 minutes in the aisle? I’m with @judgementfail that must be very annoying for everyone sitting in the seats next to your exercise area.

I’d like to nominate the cunt sitting in front of me who banged his seat into recline during the meal service and knocked an entire glass of wine over me. He didn’t apologise and refused to acknowledge either me or the cabin crew.

Pre covid flying virgin from SF to Manchester - 3 youth teams from a certain Manchester football club that plays in red - flight took off all the coaches bar one moved forward leaving one coach with 40+ youth. entertainment wasn't working and then the hosties came round with the duty-free trolley - all sweets purchased as they all had money to spend. you can guess the next few hours till the sugar worked off - who needs 40+ bored, unsupervised kids full of sugar

Not inconsiderate to me but to his wife. Family came onto the plane with three young kids, including a baby in a sling and the others about 2 and 5. Father was carrying his bag, stowed it and sat down in his seat and put his headphones in. Lay back, closed eyes. Mother was struggling with sling baby, the other two, a travel buggy, two bags plus the kids' rucksacks. With some help from the other passengers, she managed to get everything stowed and everyone seated in the row opposite the dad. Kids were moderately well-behaved, a bit of yelling and seat-kicking, which the mum managed to deal with. Toddler had a meltdown at one point while the baby was also crying and she was breastfeeding, at which point the dad took out his earphones and hissed loudly at his wife "Will you keep the kids quiet? They're disturbing everyone around us!"

It's pretty rude to recline your seat anytime you aren't actively trying to sleep actually, we were taught from children this was bad manners on day flights. Expanding your living space at someone else's expense and making it a lot harder for them to use their tray table comfortably in 'awake' hours on a flight is selfish and inconsiderate. If the person behind you has an infant on their lap it is incredibly uncomfortable for them. I know people are all 'I'm all right Jack' about this and 'it's my right' and don't give a damn but it tells me a lot about who a person is that does this.

@CrispieCake the fucker. I would have kicked his seat!

My worst was during a long haul flight with my 3 year old (which I had obviously prepared for). This was before tablets etc. I had a steady supply of colouring, stories, little toys etc, we flew a lot and I knew how to keep him quietly entertained.

A family behind me had nothing for their similarly aged child - NOTHING! So what did they do? Sent him across the aisle to sit with me and my ds, pulled on eye masks and tried to go to sleep! They steadfastly ignored their little one every time I sent him back, and I felt bad for him so wound up essentially babysitting a stranger's child during an 8 hour flight while they slept!

Flight to Lanzarote last year. Young couple and toddler in the seats opposite side of aisle to us in a row of 3. They changed the toddler's nappy on the seats no less than 5 times in a 4 hour flight. Why fgs? Nappies should be changed in the toilets, but why so many times in that timescale?

DH (6ft 4) has also suffered from the selfish, seat reclining passenger. Midday 2 1/2 hr flight and DH spent most of it pushing the seat in front upright every time the woman tried to recline it. She either didn't speak English or pretended not to, but she couldn't have failed to understand why DH didn't want his knees crushed either way!

I would love to be this brave!

Emirates flight out of Gatwick years ago, still on the tarmac and no one would just take their seats. The kids were running up and down the aisles and so many men were kicking off at the cabin crew about seating arrangements. Missed the take off slot. On landing in Dubai the kids had trashed the place. Pillows ripped open with stuffing thrown about, food stamped into the floor. It was disgusting.

In the return leg I had booked an aisle seat specifically following a very quick transfer from the Australian leg of the journey, and I was shouted at nearly the entire way by a male passenger for not swapping with his friend half way up the plane. Bloke was a prick.

The booze ! Like students at an open bar .. people need to get a grip around alcohol

I've had DVT. I have to do the same. I usually go to the back/front of the plane (when on A380s,777s and Dreamliners) where there's plenty of space to do some calf raises. Otherwise I walk the aisles a few times or do some exercises in the loo queue.

I mean the people who decide to bash out a few downward dogs or shoulder stands in the middle of the economy aisle so one gets a arse or foot in the face.