Just for fun...

[Disney st8 of mind]

Most annoying or entertaining person you've sat near on an airplane.

I'll start off with the guy that sat directly behind me on my way home from MCO last year. Apparently right after takeoff he decided that he was hungry. Luckily he stopped in the airport to pick up a snack for the plane ride... a BLOOMING ONION Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy a blooming onion as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure a greasy stinky onion would be my first choice in an enclosed space at 35000 feet with a hundred and something other passengers! My DD7 (at the time) and I joked that this year we were bringing tuna noodle casserole.

 

[ironz]

LOL....I'll see your onion and add in some fish smell!

My last flight out of Alaska, I was first rather put out by the strong smell of raw onions...the guy in the aisle seat of my row (I was at the window) brought on a huge onion covered hot dog. He tucked it away to be eaten later, so the smell lingered. As the plane filled up, then the guy in the middle seat finally showed up. He at least apologized, as he knew he smelled bad....he had just come from a fishing charter trip, and had been cleaning fish and didn't have time to shower or change clothes because they were running late to catch the flight!

Oh, my heavens! So the fish stink....well, I sort of became immune to that, just about the time that the guy on the aisle decided to finally eat his oniony hot dog...there must have been a whole chopped onion on that thing! And he took his sweet time adding relish and mustard and ketchup, and then was so busy talking to someone across the aisle, he took forever to finally eat it and contain all the odor in his stomach!

These two guys added together made for almost a worse experience than the time a totally unshowered/unkempt guy sat behind me on a flight and took off his shoes and put his stinky feet in the aisle even with me. I finally had to turn around and tell him to "put your shoes on; you REEK!"

 

[ls3015]

What I find annoying on the plane is when the person right in front of me, decides to recline the seat back as far as it will go right into my lap, most times blocking my little window I like to look out of, there isn't much room to begin with, than if I wanted to use my tray I can't, than if I want a little more room I have to recline my seat into the person behind me, for the price of a plane ticket you sure don't get much comfort.
The next thing that is annoying is people that stuff their overhead bags in the compartment above my seat, why can't they put their bag over their own seat. They rush onto the plane ahead of everyone else so they can stick their bag in where ever they like. There needs to be signs and announcements telling everyone to but their own bags over their own seats.

 

[DebbieB]

One time I was on an evening flight PIT-LAX. I had the window seat. An older man sits down next to me and after takeoff reaches under the seat for his McDonalds bag. 2 big macs & a large fry! Yikes! Heart attack ready to happen.

My worst experience on a flight was MSP-PIT I think. I had had window seat and was dozing off after takeoff when I hear everyone yell. I jumped up and here a guy who was sitting in the front came running down the aisle and proceeded to throw up over 3 rows of seats as he was running. He kept going to the restroom. I didn't get hit but the guy next to me did (I think it was just 2 seats on my side). The FA's cleaned it up the best they could but it was not pleasant. A little while later the guy walked back up the aisle shirtless and reached into his carryon for another shirt, felt bad for him, I guess he thought he could make it to the restroom rather than trying to use the little bag. Those who got hit got free drinks!

 

[kaytieeldr]

The most entertaining seatmates I ever had:

Good: a six year old traveling unaccompanied from Chicago to Las Vegas on Southwest. I was in the second row on the aisle and a FA asked if she could seat him next to me. A man in his thirties had the window seat, and I ended up feeling bad for him because the kid wanted to play and talk with both of us, and I knew the man had to work that night.

Other than that, he was just absolutely so nice and well-behaved, he could have been giving lessons on how to act when you fly. He was experienced at being a UM and did better than most adults I've seen. Which brings me to...

Bad: Coming back from Las Vegas on JetBlue, a woman in my seat asked if I'd mind switching to hers across the aisle so she could sit with her family. I will never do that again. The woman in the middle seat was up all night. Not just awake up, but standing up, moving around, exercising, climbing over me, walking two steps to the front of the plane, climbing over me...

I understand about DVT, I really do. I won't sit still for five+ hours either. But when you're on a redeye flight and climbing over someone wearing a sleep mask, using a coat as a blanket, leaning on a pillow, do you think MAYBE you're causing problems? Possibly see a Flight Attendant to see if there's an aisle seat, or exercise IN your seat?

 

[pat fan]

It was my first time flying, and I was nervous. So of course the guy who sits next to me whips out his rosary beads and proceeds to pray,cross himself and count the beads during take-off and most of the flight. From Hartford to San Fran! For the first bit I thought I would lose my mind, but eventually I calmed down. FYI, I was praying too, but quietly to myself so as not to freak out other nervous flyers, guess he didn't get the memo

For my DH, we were on a flight to WDW (of course) and the boys and I were in one row and he was behind us in the middle seat. Two Spanish speaking ladies were on either side of him and he asked if they wanted to sit next to each other and they said no. They then proceeded to converse all the way to Orlando, leaning over him to better see each other etc....and I guess they missed a bit on the hygiene also. He was not a happy camper!

 

[goofy4tink]

Hmmmmm, let's see.
I've been seated next to a largish guy, on a JB flight, he was in the middle seat, his youngish son had the window. Well, I had to jockey for position on the armrest the entire time..he kept putting his arm on the arm rest in between us. Wouldn't normally be an issue, but that was the rest that had the tv controls on it. He was using both of the rests since his son was asleep against the window.
Or, the woman in front of my dh on one flight. He is 6'4'', and takes the aisle seat every flight so he can stretch those legs out. After we got to altitude, the woman in front of him slams her seat back against him....crashing into his knees. She keeps slamming it back, trying to fully recline it. Well, it isn't going to fully recline unless my dh stretched his legs down the aisle or cuts them off completely!!! She keeps it up for about 5 mins. Finally, my dh leans aroud the seat and tells her that if she continues that behaviour, her newswpaper is going up her nose!!!! She snidely says 'I want to fully recline and you're in the way...do something.' to which he responds..'Would you like me to cut off my legs???' She wasn't a happy camper.

Or, the traveler beside me on one flight down to MCO. As we started our ascent, she starts waving her arms around like she's on a rollarcoaster...same thing as we were landing..what a nutcase.

But, there have been nice people as well. The gentleman who had brought his lunch on board...a very nice looking sandwich. As we reached cruising altitude, he pulled it out and looked over at me and asked if I would like half. I declined his offer but thanked him profusely.

For some reason, flying seems to bring out the worst in people..must be that stress of being in a plane thousands of feet in the air.

 

[BabsBunny]

These are funny. The blooming onion made me lol.

I've been pretty lucky with seatmates, but I've heard some eye rolling exchanges between other passengers.

One was a flight from Las Vegas to ATL. There was a big group of rowdy men from what had to be (going by their accents) Manchester, UK. They. were pretty funny. Anyway, the captain comes on and tells us he's about to take off and to turn off all cell phones, electronic devices, etc. Well an American woman in her 30's continues to talk loudly on her phone for quite some time. Finally one of the Manc's across the aisle from her reminds her that the captain said to turn off devices. She said something back to him, and he told her that he didn't want us to crash on the runway because of her selfishness. She retaliated and he yells "Get off the *$&#in' phone ya bloody cow!"

The second exchange was one that made my husband and I turn and look at each other like "did we just hear that?!" There was an elderly lady in the seat behind us, and she had oxygen. This big, tall southern man takes the seat next to her, and he is trying to help her get the oxygen out of the way so he can sit down. Then he says "Oh, you're on oxygen? You're not gonna go and die on me, are you?!" and starts laughing.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So it appears this was only amusing to me.....on a flight home from MCO on SW there was a man that had his A1 boarding card very intentionally displayed in his shirt pocket. He stood in his A1 position in the line for a good 20 minutes before they even called for people to line up.


On another trip with a friend and our kids again on SW....my friend sat with her DS in the row ahead of me leaving the aisle seat open. The last people to board was a very large family of 4....when I say large even the kids were over 250lbs...so the teen son(approx 15yo) sits beside my friend, the dad beside my DD and I. The teenager clearly did not fit in the seat and he lifted the armrest and then moved his leg over and foot under the seat in front of my friend. She kept turning around and whispering things to me about it but I couldn't hear all that she was saying so I didn't really understand what was happening. Somehow the flight attendent didn't notice what the kid had done and my friend had to share half her seat with this kid for the entire flight. When we talked later and I told her that it's not allowed she said she felt stuck anyway as she didn't want to upset the kid but she was very uncomfortable in her own seat as a result. I told her she should have either asked the kid to stay on his own side or else she should have gotten up and talked to the attendant to have her speak to the kid.

Funny, at one point my friend got up to take her son to the washroom and the teen actually moved over and filled both his seat and hers. His dad leaned over and told him to move back. I think that if his dad knew how much space this kid had taken he would have told him to stay in his own space.

 

[pooksma]

I'm sorry I don't have one to share but these are great. (Now that I've said that, I'll probably have one to share after our trip )

 

[goofy4tink]

Or, that family that took up about 3 rows of seats on a SW flight down to MCO. They had all sorts of 'stuff'...electronics, books, candy, the list goes on and on. They were up and down, all the time. It was an extended family (I assume anyway)...mom, dad, 4 kids and grandparents. As soon as they were able to, they took out every electronic toy known to man...iPods, gameboys, dvd players...the whole shooting match. Then, the huge candy bars came out. One entire row was just 3 of the 4 kids. And of course, that was the row across from me. Okay...so now it's time to put everything away and get ready to land. Ah, nope. They kept their stuff out...FAs came along to tell them the electronics needed to be stowed, we were getting ready to start our final approach. THey put the toys into the seat back pockets. Not what the FA meant but ah well. So, we're at the gate....much commotion from that family, much scrambling around and such. Major production getting their stuff together. Thank heaven I got out before they did.
Well...there we are, at baggage claim, about 20 mins later. One boy, about 13, starts looking around frantically. He starts going through all the bags they had on the plane. He is going nuts. Seems he can't find his gameboy. Ah, idiot boy...you stuck it in the seat back pocket!!! When he finally figured it out, he went crying (literally) to his mother. She went over to some official person at the baggage area..and quite huffily told them that they had to get back to the gate since her son had left something on the plane. Well, that plane was now loading!!! The mother went nutty...screaming at everyone in sight.
I heard the official person tell her that he would call SW gate attendents and see what could be done, but there really was no way the mother was going through security again and onto that plane!!
I got my bags and left...so have no idea how it ended. But, perhaps, if that mom had spent a little time keeping an eye on her kids rather than chatting it up with dad at the gate, ignoring the kids rather than helping them get ready to deplane, they wouldn't have had this issue.

 

[CPT Tripss]

The guy on the overnight flight to Munich that kept opening and closing his briefcase. Annoying because it had a velcro fastener and the ripping sound kept me from sleeping. Could he have refrained from fastening it that many times.

 

[BabsBunny]

Just thought of one that really annoyed me. I was on a flight that arrived at MCO late. FA gets on PA and annouces that there are four passengers onboard who have to catch a flight to the Bahamas which they are holding for them. She says "Everyone please remain seated so that they can disembark first." The plane gets to the terminal and don't about 15 people in the front of the plane stand up and start to grab their stuff? She got back on the PA and in a scolding voice told them to sit down.

Sometimes you just want to cuff some people upside da head. lol.

 

[wdwrich]

DW and I were flying cross-country from east coast home to west coast non-stop. One of the passengers in the row immediately in front of us had a bad gas problem. I mean a *really bad* gas problem if you know what I mean. Every 10 minutes or so we were hit with a wave of terrible air, all the way across the country (5 hour flight). It was bad enough to wake you up if you could even doze off for a bit. Ugh!

 

[seashoreCM]

... even the kids were over 250lbs...so the teen son(approx 15yo) sits beside my friend, the dad beside my DD and I. The teenager clearly did not fit in the seat and he lifted the armrest and then moved his leg over and foot under the seat in front of my friend. ... Somehow the flight attendent didn't notice what the kid had done and my friend had to share half her seat with this kid for the entire flight. When we talked later and I told her that it's not allowed she said she felt stuck anyway as she didn't want to upset the kid but she was very uncomfortable in her own seat as a result. I told her she should have either asked the kid to stay on his own side or else she should have gotten up and talked to the attendant to have her speak to the kid.

Your friend needed to get up and kibitz the flight attendant, before departure and preferably out of earshot of the teenager. And be willing to accept a switch herself to any other empty seat. Ask for a meeting with the captain and the ground complaint resolution officer if the FA can't find some empty seat. In some cases the FA will ask for volunteers to be bumped (a quite desirable resolution) before it gets that far.

...he was behind us in the middle seat. Two ... ladies were on either side of him and he asked if they wanted to sit next to each other and they said no. They then proceeded to converse all the way to Orlando, leaning over him to better see each other etc....and I guess they missed a bit on the hygiene also. He was not a happy camper!

A newspaper would have come in handy. Just open it and pretend to read it. However I dare say the FA would make one of the ladies trade places with him if he had wanted to go that route.

... The woman in the middle seat was up all night. Not just awake up, but standing up, moving around, exercising, climbing over me, walking two steps to the front of the plane, climbing over me...

I understand about DVT, I really do. I won't sit still for five+ hours either. But when you're on a redeye flight and climbing over someone wearing a sleep mask, using a coat as a blanket, leaning on a pillow, do you think MAYBE you're causing problems? Possibly see a Flight Attendant to see if there's an aisle seat, or exercise IN your seat?

She (either the woman next to you or the FA) might come up with your (aisle) seat to switch with! Or you might offer to switch with her.

Clawing back your orginal seat is certainly possible but will not solve the problem. The family member across the aisle might still converse profusely, across the aisle and you.

OT: Once some eons ago I was on a flight and got flatulent. But when I got up to go to the restroom the flatulence went away. Then I simply came back and sat down. A few minutes later the flatulence returned. Repeat. (I'll let someone else finish the story* beyond this point and let someone with a Ph.D. in English figure out how to remove the "OT" designation.)

Hmmmmm, let's see.
I've been seated next to a largish guy, ..he kept putting his arm on the arm rest in between us. Wouldn't normally be an issue, but that was the rest that had the tv controls on it. He was using both of the rests since his son was asleep against the window.

IMHO resolving this is within the duties of the FAs. It's okay to get up to talk to them instead of pushing the call button. You would have to be prepared to move to another seat (with working TV).

* One possible ending: "See preceding reply."

 

[plutolovr]

I was on a flight last year and was sitting in the window seat and didn't take too much notice on who was on the plane or in my area. During the entire flight (about 2 hours) the person directly behind me was munching away the entire time. All I could hear was "munch, munch, munch," quite annoying. After we landed and were getting up I noticed that the person munching away was one of the former contestants from "The Biggest Loser" , not looking like they were still "losing." Not sure what she was munching, but apparently she's been doing lots of munching since the show.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Your friend needed to get up and kibitz the flight attendant, before departure and preferably out of earshot of the teenager. And be willing to accept a switch herself to any other empty seat. Ask for a meeting with the captain and the ground complaint resolution officer if the FA can't find some empty seat. In some cases the FA will ask for volunteers to be bumped (a quite desirable resolution) before it gets that far.

My friend had never flown SW before....they usually fly business class or better because of her DH and his business travel. So she had no idea that the kid was not allowed to lift the armrest and overflow onto her seat. She was trying to whisper to me through the gap in the seats and I just couldn't hear all of what she was saying. If I had realized what was going on I would have talked with the FA on my friends behalf.

The flight was full so there were no empty seats. She had a 4yo with her so having her switch seats would have been difficult.

 

[dizanimator]

My friend had never flown SW before....they usually fly business class or better because of her DH and his business travel. So she had no idea that the kid was not allowed to lift the armrest and overflow onto her seat. She was trying to whisper to me through the gap in the seats and I just couldn't hear all of what she was saying. If I had realized what was going on I would have talked with the FA on my friends behalf.

The flight was full so there were no empty seats. She had a 4yo with her so having her switch seats would have been difficult.

I thought with SW the rule was that if you didn't fit in your own seat with the armrest down you had to buy a second seat. It might not be fun, but everyone should be allowed to use all of the seat they paid for. I think that exceptions for family or close friends traveling together are fine, but someone just taking the extra space is not. Even if I don't physically take up all of my seat, I'm still entitled to the personal space that the seat allows me. Your friend was entitled to her seat, and to me if anyone was to be moved, it should have been him, as he didn't seem to have been booked an extra seat.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I thought with SW the rule was that if you didn't fit in your own seat with the armrest down you had to buy a second seat. It might not be fun, but everyone should be allowed to use all of the seat they paid for. I think that exceptions for family or close friends traveling together are fine, but someone just taking the extra space is not. Even if I don't physically take up all of my seat, I'm still entitled to the personal space that the seat allows me. Your friend was entitled to her seat, and to me if anyone was to be moved, it should have been him, as he didn't seem to have been booked an extra seat.

Yes that is the policy and I totally agree with you. I am fairly sure the FA missed seeing that he lifted the armrest....or else she thought they were together.

Everyone makes fun of me and my personal bubble....I can not tolerate strangers touching me. So I would have had to say something either to him or the FA. My friend was pretty grossed out....she said he sat and ate almost non stop, down'd 2 cans of Coke and he was a bit sweaty.

 

[mom2brooke76]

Once on a flight from Birmingham to Las Vegas I chose an aisle seat and there was a larger lady by the window when this plus sized man (should have had two seats) chose to sit in between us. I'm not big and he literally was taking up 1/3 of my seat which didn't make for the most comfortable flight. More than halfway through the flight when the gentleman went to the bathroom, the FA told me that there was an empty seat elsewhere, but at that point I couldn't bring myself to move. I just didn't want the guy to think that I thought he had done anything wrong, etc. I guess I'm just too nice of a person and never want to hurt anyone's feelings We were more than halfway there anyway, so I figured a little while longer wouldn't kill me. It ended up being neat anyway. I had never been to Vegas or seen the Hoover Dam, etc, and they had, so they pointed all of this stuff out to me (hotels, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon)


My coolest experience was about a month ago. My mom and I were flying to Chicago. A big African American guy sat next to my mom (she was in the middle seat, I was by the window). My mom will talk to ANYONE and asked if he played basketball (due to how tall he was). He said no, that he played football. It turns out that it was Michael Bush who plays for the Oakland Raiders. I don't follow football so had no idea who he was, but my daughter's father is a big fantasy football person and he is one of the players on his "team", so he was really excited about it.