Speak with anyone about the pros and cons of travel or ask what irritates them about flying and you’ll be barraged by responses. Travelers complain even before getting on the plane about security screenings. Then complaints abound once aboard. Here’s my whining list of procedures and passengers who bug me.
At security checkpoints:
• Inconsistent security screening standards between airports and in different countries.
• People who take too long to collect belongings. Or seem to be taking their time getting dressed after the mandatory strip act in order to walk through the magnetometer. People should collect their things and assemble them somewhere else so others can pass.
Passengers in general during boarding and deplaning:
• Those who are generally late boarding.
• Passengers who bring too many items on board.
• The clueless who bump everyone in aisle seats with their bags as they enter and haven’t a clue as to how to stow possessions in a selfless and logical way.
• Passengers who spend extra time in the aisle looking for a place to stow luggage.
• When deplaning, these same folk take too long to pull their luggage from the overhead.
• Passengers who take too long to get out of the plane, up the jetway and into the terminal.
• Those who stand in the aisle.
• Anyone who reclines their seat during boarding.
Passengers who irritate me during the flight:
• Those who put their seats back during food service (if there’s any) making it uncomfortable for the diner to eat without someone’s head above (or in) their food.
• Overweight people who should be required to buy two seats rather than occupying half of mine.
• People who hog the arm rests.
• A general lack of respect, courtesy or awareness by some.
• Passengers who walk through the cabin grabbing each seat as if it were a handrail.
• Those who place their knees firmly against seat-backs.
• Travelers who rest their feet on the bulkhead or the armrest in front of them.
• Chatty passengers who insist on talking to the person next to them when not invited.
• Or, aloof folk who are so rude that they don’t acknowledge there’s a person in the next seat.
• People who use airplane lavatories in their socks or bare feet.
• And those who use the lavatories as dressing rooms when there are lines of people anxiously waiting.
• Passengers who don’t take the time to wipe clean the WC before exiting.
• Besides loud cell phone talkers, people who don’t shut them off when instructed.
My airline irritants:
• Flight attendants with an “attitude.”
• Pilots who turn the seat belt sign on and off every time the plane vibrates or talk during a night flight.
• Worn out and dirty seat cushions.
• Late arrivals and the clear “we don’t care” attitude of the airlines about it.
• Pushing away from the gate and sitting on the runway in order to have an on-time departure.
• The lack of information or the total lies that airlines tell passengers about estimated takeoff and arrival times during inevitable delays.
And if the above gripes aren’t enough — don’t get into the subject of children, infants, cats or dogs or people who haven’t taken a bath — or those who’ve used too much perfume or shaving cream.
Why don’t you add what you don’t like about air travel? Or better yet – please list something you like. There must be something!!
Karen Fawcett is president of BonjourParis. Ironically, she loves to fly on long haul flights because it’s where she sleeps the best. One caveat – it should be business class.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Some of your comments are appropriate, but others seem a bit harsh. While I do try to move down the line when putting myself back together after going through security, try as I might to speed it up, it often takes me a while to get my jacket or sweater and shoes back on, my bag of liquids back where they belong and my computer and whatever else put away again. I also do wear my socks to the lavatory because a lot of times I can’t get my shoes back on if it’s a long flight — I cannot figure out why that would bother you, especially if you choose to keep your shoes on. Some people are not experienced travelers and perhaps don’t know how to stow their possessions. Others are old and quite nervous so do use the seatbacks to steady themselves as they walk down the aisle. And you don’t seem to like those who talk or those who ignore you — what do you want a seatmate to do?
The ones that annoy me are the people that wait until they get to the very front of the security line to start taking their things out of their pockets, get their laptops out of their bags, get their toiletries bags out, take off their jacket, etc.
Glamour days?
yeahhh, they disappeared…………..along with my pension. =(
My airline irritants:
• Flight attendants with an “attitude.”
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one of my coworkers, yesterday, watched a man place his carry on in a first class overhead bin and walk back to coach. She pulled the bag, followed him down the aisle and left it at his feet. She said, when you fly first class, you’ll appreciate my attitude, until then, your BAG flies WITH YOU in coach.
Attitude can be all about PERCEPTION.
People who take too long to collect belongings. Or seem to be taking their time getting dressed after the mandatory strip act in order to walk through the magnetometer. People should collect their things and assemble them somewhere else so others can pass.
The TSA (or the airport administrators) are often to blame for this rather than the passengers themselves. First, many checkpoints don’t have adequate facilities for passengers to put their shoes back on. So they balance precariously on one foot rather than walking some distance over a filthy floor in their stockinged feet to the nearest place with available chairs. Second, checkpoints lack adequate space for passengers to collect and re-pack belongings that the screeners have required them to “separate.” Passengers understandably want to avoid forgetting or losing something in all the stress and confusion of the checkpoint, so they may not exit the checkpoint as rapidly as others might want.
The design of the checkpoints thus encourages log-jams at the end of the screening process. Or would it be more accurate to say “the lack of design of the checkpoints”? Airport security is a patchwork of reactions to previous failures shoehorned into spaces never intended for them. And even when there is space, the “security” officials surely didn’t consider passenger comfort and efficiency in their focus on reacting to threats and failures. So passengers are left to balance precariously while re-packing their “separated” belongings after screening. After all, once passengers are screened and determined not to be a threat what happens to them is no longer the TSA’s concern.
So put the blame for the congestion where it belongs, on the TSA (which doesn’t care about what happens to passengers after screening) and on airport officials (who haven’t provided adequate facilities), not on passengers who are merely trying to get themselves sorted out after screening.
I can put up with a lot of the behaviors that are listed, even though they irritate me. But my main irritants are:
Those that haul overly packed, heavy carry-on baggage onto the aircraft and then look around for some kind soul to help them dead lift their rock collection into an overhead bin. It is dangerous for the good Samaritan and for the passenger sitting beneath this activity. For those of you that like to play the good Samaritan – think about who is going to get blamed if the item injures a passenger or if the bag itself is damaged while you are handling it – YOU, that’s who.
Lap children. I can tolerate hollering and active children because that is just what they do and we have probably all done as children. But I do not see the rationale for allowing a passenger of any size or age onto an aircraft without a place to sit. The small child should be in a seat with a car seat. In an emergency, rough air, or evasive flying, there is zero way a parent can safely hold on to their lap child.
Wow, you are way too picky. Most of these are common human behaviors by people who are not that experienced in flying. When you have 18″ worth of space to be comfortable in, some people do what they can to maximize it, and it may not be preferred, but it’s what people do. In case you haven’t noticed, people everywhere are self-absorbed and don’t think too much about what’s going on around them, until they’ve had the shoe on the other foot a couple of times (such as the people who stop to talk directly in the middle of walkways).
But since you asked, what do I like about travel? I like the excitement of knowing I am about to be transported somewhere different today, whether that be somewhere new or a familiar place. And knowing I will likely never see my fellow passengers again, the insignificant things that irk you are not the things I dwell on when I fly.
So, what are tall, long-legged, non-elite coach passengers supposed to do with their legs? Sit in an upright fetal position with their knees pressed to their foreheads?
I agree with Karen C, Ms. Fawcett. You don’t like it when your seatmate talks to you and you don’t like it when your seatmate doesn’t talk to you. That makes no sense. Care to elaborate?
Hi – I am a 75 year young retired naval officer. The snapnel and other additional metal (hips and knees) set off the machines everytime. I volunteered for a chip similiar to that put into dogs so I did not hold up the line but the TSA only said Thank You for your letter. I walk with a cane so I do hold each head rest to ensure my vertical stability. As to going slow getting off the ramps I stay on the right and let others pass me as I have two speeds left – Slow & STOP. I do not want STOP as someday I will be stopped for a very long time.
So – in summary – cut others some slack because someday you will be me!
Have a wonderful day – Cliff
I just can’t handle the guys who think that a sleeveless shirt is appropriate attire for flying, and reach up to make countless adjustments to the air vent while seated next to me.
MOST OF THE ABOVE IS TRUE IN MOST CASES BUT I NOW FLY JETBLUE WHENEVER POSSIBLE–REMINDS ME OF THE 70′S–MOST DOMESTIC CARRIERS HAVE EMPLOYEES WITH ATTITUDES NOT JETBLUE
Let’s face it: a lot of our fellow fliers are just a lot dumber than we give them credit for. Shoulder bags askew; infirm enough to use my seat-back as leverage; playing with the tray table like it’s a Wii ping pong paddle. Malicious behaviour? Nah. Just dumb luck: they’re dumb and my luck.
Please please….
I was reporting what other people’s gripes! Passengers are captives. Not all are guilty and most are very nice and try hard. But air travel is rarely glamorous. I think we are all in agreement over that.
Karen,
In the last sentence of the first paragraph of your article you said “Here’s my whining list of procedures and passengers who bug me”. So, people naturally assume this is a list of what bothers _you_ when flying.
And now you say “I was reporting what other people’s gripes!”
Oh well. :)
Ok, no one has mentioned this one yet. . . .
Physically challenged folks [and seasoned citizens] who take FOREVER to get either on or off the plane and who think that because they got on first in a wheel chair or however, they are also entitled to get off first.
Hello – there is an entire plane load of pax behind you while you dawdle with your little bag, and arrange your book just so, put that used ticket jacket away, then you pull down your bag, and its just too heavy for you, so you struggle for a whlle, and then take your sweet time getting off the plane.
Look, you are NOT the only person in the entire world. There are 130 other people waiting for you to move your sorry butt out of the way. I hae ZERO problem letting you on first, giving you aisle seats and generally respecting behind mobility challenged.
In pay back, you need to stay in your seat until everyone else who wants off is off the plane ahead of you.
When walking up the jetway, please, there is NO reason to hog the entire jetway – move to the right so people who might have a tight connection can walk past you. We are not being rude – we just want to move along. We know we’ll be there one day, and when we are, we will not assume we are the only person on the entire planet and we’ll stay out of the way of the young turks coming up behind us.
“Speak with anyone about the pros and cons of travel or ask what irritates them about flying and you’ll be barraged by responses. Travelers complain even before getting on the plane about security screenings. Then complaints abound once aboard”….
You’re right …. it should have said …. here’s THE list.
more on what The Man Who Notices Things said:
Whose idea was it that those who invariably take the longest, or, as the airlines put, those needing a little more time, should board first. People on crutches, families, and especially single parents with child(ren). I mean, come on. They are barely halfway down the jetway when the hoards are loosed upon them.
People who take a little more time should board last, not first. PLEASE — exercise some logic, Airlines.
People who take a little more time should board last, not first. PLEASE — exercise some logic, Airlines.
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and the first time I have to lift a disabled passenger into their seat. And, inconvenience an able bodied passenger next to them—–I will hear the OPPOSITE.
there’s your logic
Here’s a thought…maybe the miserable people that have no compassion for those less able or those less traveled shoul take Greyhound?
Flying sucks for sure, but you know what, I think the airlines do a pretty decent job of trying to please most of the people. Sure there are people who will gripe, but that’s life. Flights will be missed and yes occasionally, the lack of common sense will delay you from getting off the plane as fast as you would like.
I wonder if some of the whiners on the comments here are also those that immediately spring to their feet upon arrival at the gate and proceed to place their asses in my face for the few minutes it takes to secure the door?
Karma’s a bitch guys, and in the greater scope of things, it is probably better to just let it go.
two further comments:
Yes, Frank, I hear you, but inconveniencing one able-bodied passenger versus the 100+ in the queue down the jet-way, that’s the logic.
And as for John F’s comments, which I take it weren’t directed at me: I carry on one single “man bag” which I keep under the seat in front of me and do not rush off like I’m in a rugby scrum, thank you very much. If in an aisle seat, I often switch places with my window-mate so he/she can get down whatever 3 or 4 items they’ve stuffed overhead….. I sit and calmly wait and watch. After all, I’m going to have to wait for the luggage to arrive anyway ….
Absolutely not directed at anyone. Just a comment that rather than squawk about it all, realize air travel for what it is and just don;t get all flustered on what ultimately is a incident of little to no consequence!