Yeah, I have a “thing” about feet. Feet go on the floor. I also, maybe due to my Scandinavian background, have a thing about shoes. Shoes are either outside or inside. Me, personally, only wear socks inside my home. My shoes stop at the door to my home (in the garage).
So when it comes to flying it makes me beyond nuts to see feet where they should not be. A reader recently took this one and said I can use it any way I want. First I wanted to yell at it (so I did and yes, I felt better). Then I showed my wife and she made an eeewwww sound! I so feel for the poor guy who just about had feet on his head.
Then we have the next two things that drive me crazy and that is behavior in clubs. These are PVT clubs (well sorta private anyway). A certain measure of decorum is expected in a civilized world. There are just things you do and do not do in a Sky Club or other clubs along the way.
The first thing you don’t do is carry your dog around to the buffet and up to the bar to get a drink. While I am a cat person, I would not bring my cat to the buffet or bar either. Both ideas just make my skin crawl.
Then we have yet one more. I think clubs are to be a quiet spot to enjoy between flights. I hate loud cell phone talkers but what is even WORSE is those who get on Facetime or Skype and have the loudest conversation imaginable for all the club to enjoy. Really folks? I don’t care what language you are yelling back and forth with, but you don’t have to share it with me. When I do Skype in a club I just use my phone app and call just like a normal call and keep it as quiet as I can. If I want video time I do that at home or in my hotel where I will not share with everyone else.
Anyway, what do you think? What is your most frustrating act by your fellow passengers when you fly? – René
EDIT: Had to edit the post and insert the shot below from reader Ed. Just WoW is all I can say 🙁
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The most “what the” moment that I have experienced was the fellow first class passenger clipping his fingernails on final approach into MSP. He was letting the clippings fly all over he seat and the floor.
Dogs. I absolutely cannot stand dogs. On a Delta Connection (SkyWest?) CRJ-200 from RDM to SLC earlier this year a woman was seated in the front row (bulkhead row) and she had a dog with a leash she was holding loosely. However there was no kennel. Fortunately the dog behaved or there would have been issues. And I saw no sign that dog was a service dog which I would understand as service dogs are well trained and well behaved. If there is no kennel and the dog is not a service dog are the rules being broken?
Rene
Just off a flight to Beijing. Had exit row seats with plenty of legroom BUT the person next to us in the aisle bulkhead seat not only took off his shoes but had stinky feet – no socks. Even the best Delta food can’t overcome that. My wife had to cover her nose for 10 hours. Flight attendants tried to get him to put on socks but it did not help. BTW – I tried the Kosher special meal – not for religious reasons but just to be different – and it was great.
Sick people with communicable virii in a confined space with recycled air for hours…cold, flu, ebola or otherwise
Going down a pilot in flight (too soon?)
Not knowing whether the C+ seats are going to get the basket
@Dale to me whether service or ES or not doesn’t matter. Whether canine or homo sapien as long as it behaves in the seat and hasn’t come between me and an upgrade I don’t care. I’ve seen dogs more well behaved than adults. And several flights where i would gladly have swapped one for the other.
That being said I guess Delta needs to make it easier to indicate allergies in profile and adjust flights accordingly. I sure wish I could put a list of human allergies too. Might be post fodder @Rene regarding how airlines handle pax allergies (peanuts, dogs, shellfish, cats) as anaphylaxis would be crucial on a flight.
One frustrating item that comes to mind is inconsiderate operation of the window shades. IMO shades should always be open on takeoff and landing and generally in flight. On early morning flights especially, all of the window shades are closed when passengers board. Many times people leave them that way. That is frustrating because I like to know where we are on the airport during taxi, and it is almost disorienting for me to be hurtling down a runway and climbing out without any outside references. During cruise, it is also nice to see outside unless there is strong sun or people are watching IFE. Although I prefer aisle seats, on short flights I often pick the window seat just to control the window shade.
It should also go without saying that when opening air vents, passengers should make sure the vents are directed at themselves and not the passenger next to them or across the aisle.
I can’t believe no one has listed my #1 peeve: The chatty seatmate. Other than a smile and maybe a sentence of pleasantries, I do my very best to indicate that I am not interested in chatting, most of the time. Most fellow passengers agree or at least follow my cue, but once in a while you get that oblivious person that just wants to be your new besty. I’ll take feet and dogs over her/him any day. (I’d love a dog, but that’s just me–I totally respect that I am not in the majority there.)
I fully agree with everything already mentioned, and I’ll add two things: having anyone near me (especially sitting right next to me) pull out stinky, messy food and eat it for the duration of the flight. Last week I sat next to a woman with a tuna salad sandwich that dripped all over and smelled to high heaven. Unbelievable.
I also hate having whoever is sitting in front of me recline their seat. About 50% of the time I’m in coach (ugh!), and when the person ahead of me decides to fully recline their seat (often), it is misery. I’ve had to ask the offender to put their seat back up so I can let the person in the middle out to go to the bathroom. Then they immediately recline again. Zero concern that they are making a fellow passenger physically miserable. I never recline my seat; I won’t do that to someone else.
Window shades should be closed (or mostly closed) when at altitude. Especially when there is IFE.