Things that annoy you as an airline passenger
Things that annoy you as an airline passenger
Author
Discussion

Ayahuasca

Original Poster:

27,580 posts

308 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
1. People in the seat in front, who feel more comfortable reaching their hand over to grasp the top of their headrest, not caring that their fat greasy fingers are about to insert themselves in my nose. I am still working out how to deal with these and am leaning towards grasping the hand as it comes over and shaking it vigorously.

2. Cabin crew who do not rigorously enforce rules like 'turn off all electronic items' and 'return seat backs to vertical', leaving some tts to play around on their ipads and iphones and whatnot, as we make a tricky approach through a thunderstorm in the dark. I appreciate that this won't necessarily lead to fiery death, but still.

3. Arriving in the lounge about a minute and a half after checking in and being given my boarding pass, to have to wait as the lounge border control nazi searches for the flight and tells me what my gate and boarding time are. Yes, I know, they just told me that when I checked in. Even when I sometimes say, 'don't tell me the time and gate because I already know' they persist in doing it. tts.

4. People who are seated somewhere in the back, who leave their hand luggage in the overhead bins up front so it saves them the effort of taking it to the back with them. tts.

5. People who, having stowed their hand luggage behind them for whatever reason, make their way back through the press to retrieve their luggage, and then believe they have the right to make their way forward again to the front of the queue. No, tt, I am in front of you now.

6. People who play music to themselves through leaky earphones so you get tst, tst, tst, tst all the way home. tts.

7. People who, when there is a spare seat between you, try to claim it by putting something on it or raising the armrest between them and the spare seat. tts.

8. When you are first off the plane and preparing to make a dash to immigration and beat the queues, you see that there is a bus to take you from the aircraft to the terminal and that you will be engulfed by the plebian hordes.

9. When on said bus you try and work out which door will open first and maneuver you way into an advantageous position, only for the bus to make an unexpected turn that means your door doesn't open. ttty tts.

I am sure there are more.

wiffmaster

2,622 posts

227 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Babies.

There are very, very few excuses for taking a baby on a plane (emigration or family emergency being the only ones that spring to mind).

If you have a baby, then just accept that you're not going on a holiday involving planes for a few years. Don't make the rest of us endure hours of screaming and whinging from your little bundle of misery.

[Can you tell that I've just got off a plane that was full of screaming babies?]

TheHeretic

73,668 posts

284 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
The numpties who cannot leave their seat without grabbing the back of yours in the row in front, and using it as some sort of springboard.

tezzer

984 posts

215 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Other passengers.

Badvok

1,867 posts

196 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
The economy passengers.

TheHeretic

73,668 posts

284 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Badvok said:
The economy passengers.
People who don't have their own jet...

Pothole

34,367 posts

311 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
The fking morons who clap when the plane lands.

The fking morons who charge and barge past you to get to the baggage carousel only to see you wizz past with your hand luggage while they wait for the plane to be unloaded

Pilots who have a pilot accent and intonation.

Cabin staff who make unintelligible announcements ALL THE fkING TIME!


Bradgate

3,200 posts

176 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Selfish, ill-mannered, inconsiderate tts who recline their seat back without asking the poor sod in the seat behind if it's ok to do so.

yellowjack

18,408 posts

195 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
When flying 'CrabAir', or a charter on their behalf, their propensity to fly you for hours and hours in abject misery with only a brown paper bag of sandwiches to entertain you. Then they open the doors and kick you off into an environment that resembles the fireplace of a country pub on 'log fire night' (having departed UK in a howling blizzard), and fly off into the distance leaving you to be shot at and blown up by the locals while their crew retire to a *****hotel in a nearby friendly Arab country.

I don't have a great deal of experience to draw on as a civilian airline passenger, but from my limited experience, and that recounted by friends, it would probably be quicker/simpler to list the things that DON'T annoy you as an airline passenger wink

DoctorX

8,209 posts

196 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Stuffed into an economy seat and the moment we've taken off the seat in front comes flying back to the fully reclined position. I know they're entitled to it but nevertheless they are tts who will receive an very irritating back massage from my knees. Also, people from the back of the plane who won't wait in turn to get off. As if it makes any difference....

Gargamel

16,344 posts

290 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Being told to take my headphones off during take off... why. I take window seats and if the end is coming, I want to be listening to something decent not babies crying.


Swiss air showing Mr Bean episodes form the mid nineties on short flights.

supertouring

2,228 posts

262 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Once made the mistake of taking an aisle seat right in front of the toilet.

Everyone but everyone decided that it would be ideal to lean against the back of my chair while queuing for the toilet.

The looks I got when I told them to clear off.

Oh, and apologies to those on flight back from south Africa when I had a bladder infection and had to visit the toilet every 30mins for the entire 11hr flight.

pherlopolus

2,189 posts

187 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
TheHeretic said:
People who don't have their own jet...
People who can't teleport

Ian974

3,198 posts

228 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Being asked to check my small hand luggage case into the hold when a guy further up the queue is boarding with a monster of a holdall and a jumbo backpack.
ETA: being told by BA that I couldn't use my own headphones with the entertainment system during takeoff/ landing as they weren't approved. It's a set of headphones!

Edited by Ian974 on Tuesday 9th July 23:01

MitchT

17,114 posts

238 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
  • Having to arrive at the airport such a long time before the flight is due to leave.
  • Holding patterns.
The above two things being why Leeds to London by plane is slower than both the car and train when, in fact, it should be the quickest of the three transports.

Also...

  • Turbulence, or rather the specific timing of it. Why the hell does it always crop up just as they give me my food?
  • Not being allowed to visit the cockpit.
  • Departure times at some ridiculously early hour.
  • Air passenger duty. Since when did the government have the right to confiscate our ability to move freely about the planet on which we were born and then rent said right back to us at a punitive rate?

Puggit

49,789 posts

277 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
Being told to take my headphones off during take off... why. I take window seats and if the end is coming, I want to be listening to something decent not babies crying.
Seriously?

Puggit

49,789 posts

277 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
TheHeretic said:
The numpties who cannot leave their seat without grabbing the back of yours in the row in front, and using it as some sort of springboard.
This. They are invariably fat.

fiatpower

3,631 posts

200 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
1. Babies. Well not the babies themselves but the parents who don't make any effort to keep them quiet. Some babies are very well behaved and don't make a sound and if they start they are quickly quietened by their parents. However others like the one on my flight home from Malta yesterday did not stop for large chunks of the flight must have been at least 2 hours. The only effort they made was to shout loudly at it "shut up Tyler!"....

2. The people who stand up to collect their stuff from the overhead bins before the plane has come to a stop. Theres no point as they will have to wait for the doors to be opened and people to get off before they can get off themselves.

Gargamel

16,344 posts

290 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Puggit said:
Seriously?
yes really, what is the point. Are you suggesting that in an emergency I won't notice the screaming and panic all around?

davepoth

29,395 posts

228 months

Tuesday 9th July 2013
quotequote all
Gargamel said:
Puggit said:
Seriously?
yes really, what is the point. Are you suggesting that in an emergency I won't notice the screaming and panic all around?
Exactly. I remember one time in a bad storm flying into Salzburg, I was sneakily listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" all the way to the runway. I resisted the urge to air guitar.