Some passengers deserve a special place in hell.
You’ve waited for two years for a holiday abroad. You’ve booked a red-eye flight in the hopes that you’ll sleep and wake up feeling fresh. You board the flight optimistic, happy and calm. However, you exit it feeling cranky and annoyed. What happened between take-off and landing? Well, unruly co-passengers! We feel you. We’ve all been there. We are here to let out some steam—and you readers can live vicariously through this rant…
We get that holidaying and travelling with a large group of friends and family can be a lot of fun, but you don’t necessarily have to chat or talk so loudly as if you’re at your own home! Others have paid for their tickets and seats too. There may be elderly passengers or those who want to get some rest and infants their parents might have managed to just put to bed! Being mindful about your fellow travellers is the bare minimum you can do! while flying!
By all means, go and have a pint of beer or a cocktail before your holiday begins. We also know that most international airlines serve liquor on board. That doesn’t mean you have to drink like a fish! A drunk guy or gal isn’t fun if they’re making a scene and disrupting service and others. Intoxication makes people do crazy things too. Also, people don’t spend ticket fare to watch this spectacle or God forbid, inhale the smell of puke in a closed cabin! Yikes!
Not everyone can fly Business/First Class or Premium Economy for that matter! We absolutely detest people who take up more space than what they paid for! This can seem very basic, and it probably is, but it’s often overlooked: The armrest is for your co-passengers too. People in the middle seat especially suffer the most—when those on either side hog the entire armrest or spread out their legs and sit!
Sure, babies are cute when they’re happy. Not so much when they’re wailing their lungs out, especially during a long flight! Now we know everyone’s not American actor George Clooney—who along with his wife are believed to have gifted their co-passengers expensive noise-cancelling headphones while travelling with their twins. In First Class that too!!! Now, you really can’t blame babies, but the parents need to be aware of their kids’ needs and find a way to keep them engaged and well-fed. The badly-behaved grown-up kids are the worst and only sheds light on their upbringing.
Forget about kids. There are some entitled adults who behave far worse than them. People who keep calling the flight attendants ‘shoo shoo’. They have names! The ones who don’t cooperate with the cabin crew. People who step on other people’s toes while passing over their seats—without saying ‘excuse me’ or even ‘sorry’. Plus, the worst kind: The ones who don’t flush or clean up after using the toilet! Gosh, we can’t believe we’re typing this out, but here we are!
Why do some people have to throw the food wrappers and empty bottles on the floor when there’s clearly a seat pocket allocated for that? Besides, these days the crew comes and collects trash on most flights. Well, we guess these belong to the I-only-care-about-keeping-only-my-house-clean tribe! Ugh!
While the rest of the stuff was applicable across nationalities, we think it’s safe to say that this is an Indian-specific problem. What’s the point of getting up and standing up before the flight attendants have even opened the door of the aircraft? Or before the aerobridge has even been attached? Have you grown wings during flight time or are you planning to jump? This is one of the most annoying AF things you can do on a flight!
What infuriates you the most while flying? Or are you a serial offender of any of the things we’ve mentioned here? If yes, do better!!!
[All Image Credits: Shutterstock]
Eva Pavithran
Vertical Head - Lifestyle