Bugged on Delta flight

[BroadwayHermione5]

This must be a delta thing. When we were on our flight last year a woman was not happy (it was 2 and 2 with an aisle in between in terms of seats) that my dad was next to her. She had already claimed what was her seat as a section for both her personal item and carry on and had started to make herself comfortable in my dads seat and the aisles. Thankfully it was a short flight that we had another connecting flight to, but she was not happy she had to put stuff overhead and that she didn’t have 2 seats to herself. Made everyone including the flight attendants and my dad miserable

 

[sam_gordon]

This must be a delta thing. When we were on our flight last year a woman was not happy (it was 2 and 2 with an aisle in between in terms of seats) that my dad was next to her. She had already claimed what was her seat as a section for both her personal item and carry on and had started to make herself comfortable in my dads seat and the aisles. Thankfully it was a short flight that we had another connecting flight to, but she was not happy she had to put stuff overhead and that she didn’t have 2 seats to herself. Made everyone including the flight attendants and my dad miserable

That's not a delta thing, it's an "entitled passenger" (I was going to use a different, not so nice word, but elected not to) thing.

 

[RedHead0186]

I was on a flight recently in an aisle seat. A man and woman came down the aisle and they were taking the window and middle seat on my row. I stood up and stepped back so they could get in. The woman said to her (I assume) husband "do you want the window seat?" He said "no" then noticed me standing there - I guess he thought they were going to have the entire row. He said "ahhhhhhhh" as he looked at me. His wife laughed and said "I told you! That's why I offered you the window!" She sat at the window and he sat next to me in the middle.

But the thing that annoyed me was he flew the entire flight with a large backpack in his lap. It never went under the seat. I was annoyed a flight attendant never told him he had to put it away. When the flight attendants missed it as they checked the flight for take off I thought surely they would see it when they checked for landing. Is it not a rule anymore? I am a big rule follower in life in general so it really bugged me. For landing his tray table wasn't even fastened. The only reason it wasn't totally flopped open was because the backpack was leaning against it. When we landed his wife had to close the tray table to get out.

This was a big backpack stuffed so much it wasn't even zipped close. Would you have said anything? I wasn't about to say anything and figured it's not my place, but it did annoy me and I couldn't understand why the flight attendants let it go (unless it's not required to put it away anymore and I am unaware.) I didn't watch or stare at them the whole flight. I even fell asleep for a little bit.

I'm a rule follower too and this sort of thing bugs the heck out of me. Especially people not putting their seats back up for takeoff/landing. I honestly never say anything because you don't know how they're going to react (sad state of affairs, isn't that?), but I will give them the stink eye. It really never does anything, but I guess it makes me feel better.

(Also people who don't put their phone in airplane mode when told to, though I don't know if that really needs to be a 'rule' anymore or not. But it still bothers me that people ignore direct instructions).

On a recent American flight, I had a mom with a young kid (probably around 1 1/2?) in front of me; it was the kid's first flight. The kid wouldn't keep his seatbelt on and the mom just sort of gave up on trying. We had landed but were waiting for our gate to clear, so we were told to all remain seated with our seatbelts on. Kid is not only not buckled, but sitting/walking up and down the aisle. I get he's a kid, but rules are rules for a reason, so they should be enforced (and if they really don't need to be enforced, then why are they still rules?). Maybe I was extra annoyed because the mom reclined the kid's seat back right away, then the kid proceeded to face backwards and put his hands all in my 'bubble' and kept playing with the window shade (which was in my space, but he could reach it because he was facing backwards and had his seat reclined).

 

[sam_gordon]

(Also people who don't put their phone in airplane mode when told to, though I don't know if that really needs to be a 'rule' anymore or not. But it still bothers me that people ignore direct instructions).

How do you know the phones aren't in airplane mode to begin with? Couldn't they have turned it on while walking down the jetway?

On a recent American flight, I had a mom with a young kid (probably around 1 1/2?) in front of me; it was the kid's first flight. The kid wouldn't keep his seatbelt on and the mom just sort of gave up on trying. We had landed but were waiting for our gate to clear, so we were told to all remain seated with our seatbelts on. Kid is not only not buckled, but sitting/walking up and down the aisle. I get he's a kid, but rules are rules for a reason, so they should be enforced (and if they really don't need to be enforced, then why are they still rules?). Maybe I was extra annoyed because the mom reclined the kid's seat back right away, then the kid proceeded to face backwards and put his hands all in my 'bubble' and kept playing with the window shade (which was in my space, but he could reach it because he was facing backwards and had his seat reclined).

I remember we were flying to Disney when DD was potty training. As most people probably know, when they say they have to go, they have to go NOW. We were sitting in the back row of the plane and had taxied, but were in a line of traffic waiting for the runway. That's when DD said she needed to go. The FA seat was right there, so I told her, she ended up calling the captain to get permission to let DD go to the restroom (literally right behind our seats). I'm surprised the FA in your example let the kid go up/down the aisle.

Regarding the window shade, I would have politely told him to stop the first time, and if he persisted, asked the mother to get him to stop (politely of course).

 

[RedHead0186]

On the opposite end of FA due diligence, I was on a SW flight and the FA that was "greeting us" was telling every woman with a purse that she would have to take it off and stow it for takeoff/landing. I had a small crossbody purse, so she told me that as I boarded (having been a frequent flyer I already knew to do that). I heard her tell every person with any sort of crossbody. Never had an FA be quite that diligent.

I also sometimes chuckle at people who don't know that if you sit in the bulkhead you have to put everything up above since there's no seat in front of you to stow things. There are signs telling you that, but of course that relies on people actually reading time. One time a woman sat next to me (in the bulkhead) and she had a very large purse, huge fluffy blanket, and a jacket sitting in her lap. She was not happy when the FA told her she had to put everything in the bin.

 

[RedHead0186]

How do you know the phones aren't in airplane mode to begin with? Couldn't they have turned it on while walking down the jetway?

I remember we were flying to Disney when DD was potty training. As most people probably know, when they say they have to go, they have to go NOW. We were sitting in the back row of the plane and had taxied, but were in a line of traffic waiting for the runway. That's when DD said she needed to go. The FA seat was right there, so I told her, she ended up calling the captain to get permission to let DD go to the restroom (literally right behind our seats). I'm surprised the FA in your example let the kid go up/down the aisle.

Regarding the window shade, I would have politely told him to stop the first time, and if he persisted, asked the mother to get him to stop (politely of course).

Most phones have the little 'airplane mode' icon that will show up. I'll admit that might not apply to all phones, though. That one is more of a nosy assumption on my part.

I too was very surprised the FA let him go up and down the aisle. He was a cute kid and was dressed like a pilot; she had actually taken a picture with him earlier in the flight, so I'm guessing she just thought he was too cute to be told what to do? I dunno.

The mom actually told the kid to stop before I had a chance to say anything the first time. When he kept doing it, I pulled the shade back up and told him to please leave it alone. By that point the mom had checked out, so I honestly didn't bother asking her to tell her kid again to stop it (so yes, I know that is partially on me, but I also hoped she would take care of it since she had already told him once).

 

[SirDuff]

I was a on a flight recently that had some LONG stretches of turbulence with at least some bad enough to stop service (I didn't time but at least one of the stretches was at least 90 minutes probably more than two hours (it was a 13 hour flight, so there were a few of these stretches). Periodically, you'd here the FA yelling over the PA for people to sit down (it was never anyone near me, so not sure if it was always different people or it is was adults or children). And these were at times where we were actively bouncing (not the sort of tail end when you're expecting the seat belt sign to shortly go off).

 

[MsChristy12]

This must be a delta thing. When we were on our flight last year a woman was not happy (it was 2 and 2 with an aisle in between in terms of seats) that my dad was next to her. She had already claimed what was her seat as a section for both her personal item and carry on and had started to make herself comfortable in my dads seat and the aisles. Thankfully it was a short flight that we had another connecting flight to, but she was not happy she had to put stuff overhead and that she didn’t have 2 seats to herself. Made everyone including the flight attendants and my dad miserable

Definitely not a Delta thing...just an entitled and extremely rude thing!