Is the behaviour of passengers on airplanes getting more demanding?

[SailingOnAWave]

Hello. I fly several times a year and one thing I've noticed in recent years is that the behaviour of other passengers on the planes seems to be getting worse and more entitled.

On one flight a passenger started to demand that one of the three toilets was for her use only.

In another a passenger demanded that she is given a seat in the emergency exit rows for more leg space (they were already filled and she said she had not paid for this, but was expecting her wishes to be fulfilled).

On another a passenger wanted the pilot to read out to the whole plane a personal message.

I could go on and on.

I would be really interested to hear other stories!

Yep, agreed. Also my route is a popular hen destination and they can get a bit lively.

DD was flying out to meet us and rang to say they were stuck on the plane because the crew had had to call the police to remove a passenger. It all sounded very mysterious and dramatic.

Turned out he’d been caught smoking in the toilet.

We saved for several years to fly business class to visit family. It was a night flight and we wanted the bed style seats.
the whole experience was ruined by two people standing up and yelling/shouting to each other across the cabin, switching their lights on and off, demanding food and drinks so loudly that they could be heard despite nc headphones.
The cabin crew did nothing.

The worse are middle aged women cackling very loudly at each other as they fly to package holidays affected laughter hideous

I can imagine this as my family would be the same. They don’t expect their children to do ‘anything that they are not emotionally ready for’. Fortunately, they do not fly as the children would not be able to manage and the parents would not be insisting.

A recent cafe trip was enough. Discussing ‘big feelings’ whilst the children rolled around the cafe floor, all because the salt pot was moved away!

They would have ‘big feelings’ if they had been scalded with a hot drink!

Behaviours and expectations have slipped, working with the public shows me that.
On a recent flight a young couple refused to move from the seats that someone else had booked. There was a stand off between them, the steward and the couple who had booked the seats. Steward handled it poorly without calling for assistance. She threatened, generally, that the flight would miss its slot and would be delayed. Couple, still standing, whose seats had been taken, gave in and sat separately elsewhere.

Self fulfils doesn’t, young couple got away with it, no need to book next time! Just get on and sit where you want, with no costs!

I don’t know. Jerks will be jerks wherever they go. And some people are jerks.

But very recently I was in a charter flight of Brits that didn’t make it off the tarmac for nearly 6 hours after boarding due to technical issues. It was unpleasant and a miserable experience but passengers were all very well behaved as far as I could see and trying hard to keep the irritation in and not take it out on crew or fellow passengers. I suspect some other nationalities would be different.

On a recent flight a young couple refused to move from the seats that someone else had booked. There was a stand off between them, the steward and the couple who had booked the seats. Steward handled it poorly without calling for assistance. She threatened, generally, that the flight would miss its slot and would be delayed. Couple, still standing, whose seats had been taken, gave in and sat separately elsewhere.
Self fulfils doesn’t, young couple got away with it, no need to book next time! Just get on and sit where you want, with no costs!

Maybe they should let people who have prebooked their seats on first. Then the non-bookers get on and sit where they can on what's left.

That is a very good and easy to implement solution! Just have a specific code on the boarding pass.

It might help but there is a flaw.

It won't stop people who have booked seats, maybe late, and who are unhappy with what they have got from boarding early and staging the sort of sit-in that has been described.

That's a helpful bit of info. When I read that comment I thought "do we?", I think I say both interchangeably.

The madness of it was that the female in the young couple started by repeatedly saying ‘we can’t move, he is too frightened to fly’. (Before shutting down completely and both ignoring anything that was said to them).

However, the ‘very scared’ young man proceeded, mid - flight, to order, be served and eat a large pizza!

On a a long haul flight, before we'd even set off, the man behind me kept pulling on my chair then dicking about knocking my chair constantly. I gave him about a minute thinking he was just getting settled in/maybe dropped something then I snapped. Turned to him and abruptly asked if I could help him with something. He mumbled something then didn't bother me again. Do folk not realise people are sitting in the seats around them... 😐

On a flight to Turkey, the man infront of me kept trying to recline his chair, thinking if he barged his back into it hard enough, it'd eventually allow him to fully lie back. After a minute or two of that, I purposely put my big bag on my lap and leaned on it so he couldn't push back anymore. We were actually in battle of wills at this point and I was finding it amusing. After another minute of pretending I was asleep on my bag, he finally gave up and ordered yet another drink.

He was a nightmare, telling his son, probably aged about 10, how he knows his son doesn't think he loves him, but he does. His words slurring worse and worse. Announced loudly later after a toilet break, that he'd just had a massive, stinking, shit 🤢
When it was time to put belts on for landing, he decided that was the perfect time for another toilet break. The other passengers back behind us told him to sit in an empty seat next to them, as he couldn't find his way back to ours when the steward tried to tell him he needs to sit down. Was glorious but really sad to see his wife absolutely berating him as we were getting off. Saying he does this every time and he's an embarrassment...

Can't believe the stewards kept serving him alcohol when he was clearly in a state half an hour in to the flight. I tried to let them know he was being a drunk nuisance by rolling my eyes and shaking my head when he was asking for yet another whiskey but didn't expect them to act on my passive aggressive signs 🤣

I book wheelchair assistance. I can walk and look like a normal healthy person when I walk and can also walk fast. i often don’t bother with disabled assistance on arrival because it adds sooo much time to the journey and I am champing at the bit to get off the plane and out of the airport. I have a fatiguing illness and always regret my decision to walk tor the next few days because I feel absolutely awful due to overdoing it in the airport. The man you saw may be like me.

FWIW I've still got some books from my time at a very much British company where "airplane" is used frequently, so I can't get too fussed TBH.

It's the general air of entitlement everywhere these days.

'People want 1st class on cattle class prices.'
And true of everything in life: cars, houses, furniture, clothes.

So many people regarde themselves as the main character and if the world doesn't acknowledge it, there's an issue.

I don’t honestly know how anyone would have the cheek to sit in a seat that they knew wasn’t theirs. Or ask other people to move.
Everyone knows you have the opportunity to book and reserve your seat ahead.
Had that on a train once. I got her to move. She tried to get me to sit elsewhere but I told her she could do that.

No the staff at the gate can police this and only allow those with the paid-for code pn first.

Recently with BA we witnessed a man who was swearing and also boarded topless. The very young cabin manager told him he needed a shirt which made him swear more. She came back and said he wouldn’t be flying if he didn’t put a shirt on and watch his language. He could tell she meant it and apologised and we didn’t hear another thing from him all flight! Hats off to her.

Yes, but maybe I explained it badly.

For example we leave seat booking late and get crap seats (e.g.26A and D)..but nevertheless we.have booked seats and will have the magic code on the boarding pass.

On the day we make sure we get to the gate and board early...and camp out in, e.g 3B and C....

@dizzydizzydizzy - but it’s always the case that these people need assistance to get through the airport and onto the plane (first) but experience a miraculous improvement at the other end when it’s last off.

People who don’t book seats together with their kids then expect you to move to accommodate when you have paid to sit where you are sitting. Been asked to move a few times for this reason. Always said no.

Nah.

i book assistance both ends and I wait.

so you saying that every single disabled person does this is not true because I don’t

I did get pissed pff the time they lost my wheelchair though, got a lot of free coffees on the airport while they tried to find it.

My parents (who need assistance) find they may get off last, but they get through security dtc quicker so get to luggage reclaim first.

(No miraculous improvement for my mum who cant do the aircraft stairs, or for my dad to regrow his missing half a foot)

I’m not sure why you have inferred that I am saying every single disabled person does this. I gave my very specific example - fatiguing illness, able bodied and impatient.

Obviously many/most disabled people do not do this.

I haven't flown for years. However I once joined the first/business queue at a boarding gate for a long-haul flight with a major flag carrier. The besuited business chap in front of me grumbled that the queue was growing, and some economy pax must have joined it to jump their turn (which wouldn't have actually worked). Eventually he decided to police the situation himself and turned to his scruffiest neighbour - me - to demand "Well, are you flying business?" I casually raised the printout in my hand so he could read the letters 'F - i - r ...' before he crumpled into a red-faced heap. Not another peep out of him.