Poll of the Week: Foolish Passenger Behavior

[SarahS]

We've all seen examples of our fellow travelers behaving badly. What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen another air traveler do? Vote in our poll!

[Globester]

I saw someone kick a flight attendant earlier this year.

She was stood in a passenger's seat so he asked her to move. Within seconds he got really agitated and pushed past her, before deliberately kicking her once he was seated.

The flight attendant immediately moved away, asked a supervisor to intervene and moved to another part of the plane. It was very well handled on their part. Of course the passenger denied it, but there was no doubt that the attendants knew exactly what had happened.

[jocap]

We were on a 5 1/2 hour flight to the Red Sea, in Egypt, and an hour in, were served drinks.
The man in the aisle seat next to me fumbled with the lager being handed to him, and it spilt all over his jeans.
Furious, he stormed off tothe loo, removed his jeans, which he hung over the ovens heating the meals for later, then stood just behind the pilot's door in his underpants.
The hostesses tried to remove him, and he began shouting that it was their fault for mishanding him the drink.
In the end, the pilot had to come out and send someone for a blanket to wrap round him, and one to put on his seat.
The man spent the rest of the flight wrapped up, with his eyes shut and his headphones on.
Jo.

[sandydlc]

What I cannot understand is the compulsion that passengers seem to have to rush out of their seat the minute the airplane is parked at the gate. They are so busy scrambling for their oversized bags in the overhead compartments that they don't realize that they're bumping into other passengers and then blocking you from getting your own things. Also, the people who won't just be courteous and allow you to leave your row but rush past you so that you get separated from your husband/child while the tide of people push past to be the first out of the plane. I have to admit that i see this behavior much more in other countries than in the US but if everyone would just be a little more patient and courteous, we could all exit the plane in an orderly manner.

The plan empties from the front, so why rush past someone seated in a row in front of you unless it's clear that they're nowhere near getting their things together? Does it really save that much time to push in front of me and almost knock my son down to save that 10 seconds that you might have had to wait for us to gather our things once we had enough room to stand up?

Common courtesy and patience - not nearly enough of either in my latest travels.

[jocap]

The strange thing is that I see this behaviour mainly on holiday flights, where there's no point at all in rushing off, because your suitcases are still on the plane!!
When the aeroplane is mainly for commuters, who only have hand luggage, there doesn't seem to be the same scramble...some continue to read their papers as though unaware we've landed.
Perhaps it's because holiday makers only have one flight a year, and are afraid they'll miss their connections?
I've seen the same behaviour in small airports with one or two gates....the flight is called, and passengers begin to queue by the door....they have allocated seats, and the plane's not going without them....chill, sit, read a book....
Jo.

[soliteyah]

Jo, I laughed so much at your story! People are bizarre.

[Magic50]

Talking about the whole rushing to get off the plane thing - I was once on a domestic flight and as the wheels touched the tarmac on landing a man carrying his hand luggage comes rushing right from the back of the plane so as to be the first to disembark. I had to laugh when the stewardess sent him straight back to his seat at the back.

[DesrtDrmr]

Saw an attractive young woman board the plane, in economy class. Her seat was the middle seat of a row near the front. She was seated between two tired looking business men. She was wearing a wide brimmed straw hat and a bouqet of flowers. The hat hit her seatmates when she turned from side to side, which she did with great animation. She talked the man in the aisle seat into trading seats with her. He moved all of his stuff and she plopped down into the aisle seat, pushed the service button. When the flight attendant showed up, she handed her the hat and flowers and TOLD, not asked, her to stow them somewhere, and flew to her destination in much more comfort than she deserved to! I'll bet she did that every time she was assigned a middle seat.