As we all know, flights, especially long ones can be very uncomfortable. So it doesn’t help the situation when another passenger on the plane wants to be extremely obnoxious. These travelers vent about the most annoying passenger they had encountered and I’m speechless. Content has been edited for clarity purposes.
Rules Broken?
“This happened years ago before I had kids. I was on a flight, sitting in the window seat, minding my own business as people boarded. A young woman with a child sat in the middle seat next to me. I figured the child had the aisle seat, but no, someone else had that seat. Now the rules then were that a child could be a free lap-rider up until the age of two, or they were required to purchase a seat. This was the biggest two-year-old I have ever seen or the mother was pulling one over on the airline. Now they require a birth certificate if there is any doubt about the age of the child.
Everything was fine until the plane took off. At that point, the child decided they needed to see out the window and walked onto my lap to see the view. The mother didn’t even flinch, just keep encouraging the child to see the view. She then slipped on headphones and buried her nose in a magazine. Over the next two hours, the child stomped all over me, demanded my attention, and prevented me from eating or drinking anything. The flight attendants repeatedly asked the mother to keep her child on her lap, and she would for as long as it took for the FA to walk away.
The flight attendants kept mouthing ‘sorry’ to me the whole flight.
I decided to suck it up for the child and since it was a short flight to just deal with it. As I stood to disembark the plane, after the mother and child had already left, all of the flight attendants hugged me, shoved extra snacks into my hands, and thanked me over and over. I ended up leaving with a big smile on my face. People like that mother are the reason the rest of us have to deal with so many rules and regulations.”
He Needed To Go
“I was on a flight from Melbourne, Australia to Bangkok, Thailand, sitting next to a 50-something-year-old married couple in the middle seats. The wife and I passed a few pleasantries, while her husband proceeded to get wasted on the free drinks.
About two hours into the flight, the husband started yelling at his wife and then decided to give her a backhander. And because he was wearing a ring, she had cuts on her face and blood started trickling down her chin and onto her clothes. While this was happening, he continued to still scream at her. One of the flight crew and several fellow passengers asked him to quieten down but that had little effect. Then all of a sudden she clutched her chest and said she couldn’t breathe.
The husband, who knew she was probably having a heart attack, yelled, ‘Die, you freakin’ old hag! Die!’
She managed to tell me she had some tablets in one of the bags at her feet, at which point I asked the husband where they would be, but he was still busy yelling insults at her and refused to help. By this time, her lips had turned blue and I was frantically rummaging through her handbag for the tablets.
Finally, I find the right one, put it under her tongue, and slowly her breathing returned to normal. Unbelievably, her husband was still abusing her in between trying to find one of the flight crew to order another drink. Then two male attendants showed up, handcuffed him, and moved him up to first class. That was when things quieted down.
After thanking me profusely, the wife fell asleep and the rest of the flight passed uneventfully. When the plane finally landed, two security guards boarded the plane and he was moved into a room in Customs. I suggested to the wife that she would be welcome to come with me and we could share a room, at a nearby hotel, while she sorted out what she wanted to do. She politely declined my offer and one of the saddest things I’ve seen, was her with an overflowing luggage trolley, patiently waiting for her husband to be released by security and allowed into Thailand.
I’ve often thought about her and wondered if she ever developed the courage to leave him.”
“She Didn’t Respond To Our Requests”
“Back in the ‘90s my (now ex-) wife and I were flying out of Amsterdam with our three-year-old daughter on the New York leg of what would eventually be 16 hours in the air.
The flight was crowded, and before we’d even left the ground, the woman behind my wife put her nasty, dirty barefoot on my wife’s armrest. The woman appeared to be middle eastern (judging by the way she was dressed) and didn’t respond to our requests to move it. Then her son (I assume, aged about eight) started kicking the back of my seat.
I grabbed his legs and turned around and gave him a nasty look. He thought it was a great game and kept it up. The stewardess got her to take her feet off the armrest long enough to take off, but as soon as we were in the air, back they went. Our polite request to the stewardess to change seats if possible was unnecessarily rudely rebuffed, so we were stuck with the situation. Eventually, the stewardess came back and told us there was one empty seat at the back of the plane, so for the balance of the flight, we switched off getting a few moments of peace before having to go back to the nightmare. It was our longest flight ever.”
How Did They Pass Security?
“A couple of years ago, I was on a flight from Helsinki, Finland to Munich, Germany. I boarded the plane and went to take my seat but instead, there was a woman sitting in my spot. Next to her was a guy presumably her husband/companion. I realized they were both 30-something Russians (Helsinki is a common departure hub for Russian people from nearby St. Petersburg, Russia) and they were dressed like parody characters from comedy movies: she had a flashy dress and matching jacket with leopard prints, heavy makeup, lots of rings and large earrings. He instead had a big gold chain necklace, open leather shirt, and some lame neck tattoo. Basically the stereotype of a ‘Gopnik’, or in other words, a Russian hillbilly. You got the idea.
I told her she was seating in my spot but she was speaking very broken English and she didn’t get why I wanted to sit there since she was sitting next to her companion and from her point of view, it was normal to swap seats. I realized they originally didn’t sit next to each other but only in different rows.
I turned around and asked the steward that she took my seat and if it was ok for me to sit in the row behind them. No problem. So I sat down and minded my own business. Nothing too remarkable so far.
Then we took off and later, we got the belt-off signal. So the hostess began the tour with the drinks. As soon as the drinks arrived next to us, the guy asked for several drinks for him and his wife. They drank it all pretty fast so when the hostess was returning back, they ordered more drinks.
Moments later, I heard the woman making some weird funny voices but I thought she was flirting with the guy. But with great shock, I realized she had a small dog hidden in her purse. The dog was a Yorkshire or chihuahua and she clearly didn’t declare it. No idea how it was possible to pass all the controls and x-rays without the security noticing that.
The dog was happily yapping while she was petting and talking to him. Other passengers started to notice it and someone called the hostess. The hostess came and the following dialogue was surreal.
Hostess: ‘Excuse me, madam. Did you declare that dog? Your flight information doesn’t mention it.’
Lady: ‘Sorry. Me no speaks English.’
Hostess: ‘Do you understand that you cannot bring a dog on a plane without registering it first? He also needs to be in a portable cage.’
Lady: ‘Yes. My dog. Good dog. No problem.’
Hostess: ‘Excuse me but I have to tell the airport authorities about it. Where are you going?’
Lady: ‘We going holidays! Red Sea! Sun!’
Hostess: ‘Well, I’m afraid you will not reach the beach.’
Lady: ‘Yes, beach! Holidays!’
Hostess: ‘I have to call the police.’
Lady: ‘Police? No, no. We go holidays! Good dog.’
Hostess: ‘Do you actually understand what I’m saying?’
Lady: ‘Yes, yes. All good.’
Hostess: ‘Whatever…’
The couple proceeded to order more drinks. Then we finally landed in Munich. The captain announced that disembarkation would take a few minutes extras. Meanwhile, outside the plane, there were two police cars and soon two pretty large German police officers boarded the plane and went straight to them. Some people were filming the whole scene.
The police asked the couple to follow them, but they still didn’t have a clue what was going on.
Lady: ‘Me don’t understand. We need go holidays. Dog is good dog.’
They couldn’t grasp what they did wrong and why there were police removing them from the plane.”
Karen On The Plane
“I was on a flight to Las Vegas from the United Kingdom, I think it was flying from Gatwick Airport at the time, traveling alone. I got on the plane, sat down, and said ‘Hi’ to the other people in the row. I was in the center set, aisle seat. I have broad shoulders, so I tend to go for an aisle or window seat so I don’t give everyone an uncomfortable flight.
I digress. Anyway, a group of Northern Irish ladies got on the flight, found their seats – which were not together, and almost immediately one of them seated in the row just behind me, got up and started asking everyone around her if they were traveling alone. I had pre-booked my seat and ordered a vegetarian meal option. When she got to me, my row-mates, complete strangers, saw the expression of murder on my face at this woman’s approach and told her we were all flying together so couldn’t move. Basically, her entire hen party had booked a flight, then not sorted their seating out, and were all over the cabin. No big deal, and frankly I couldn’t care any less about it.
But she went on, and on, and on. Eventually, her party was all together around her (she wasn’t even the bride), and this woman then sealed her status as a genuine arse-breather. You know the type of person who must be breathing with their arse because they somehow talk without pause. For hours.
She even told a story about how she herself had refused to move to accommodate a woman who wanted to sit next to her own young child on a flight because it wasn’t her fault the woman hadn’t checked them in on adjacent seats. She recounted this with zero sense of irony. Her sense of entitlement was absolutely staggering.
At some point, another passenger complained about the racket, and a stewardess had a word; this only made her worse as she then started asking everyone around her if they had a problem with her.
She even started claiming she spoke so loud because she was hard of hearing. Absolute nonsense.
Bear in mind, I have quite a deep voice, it’s not the easiest thing to hear on a plane. She got round to asking me, ‘Excuse me, I was just wondering if you think I’ve been noisy on this flight? I think someone complained about me.’
I replied, in my usual voice, and believe me, she heard every word. ‘I’ve been watching a movie with the sound turned up, and I’m wearing noise-canceling headphones, and I have heard every word you have said during this entire flight.’
Amazingly, she then piped down for the last few hours of the flight and looked suitably embarrassed. Yay me.”
His Oversized Suitcase
“I was flying to Boston and the plane was 100 percent full as all the recent flights I’ve taken have been. It was open seating on Southwest.
Sometimes you see someone and just know they’re going to be an annoyance.
This sweaty, large guy came stumbling down the aisle with his huge oversized suitcase. I ONLY mention he was large because his bulk was large enough to cause him to shove by people sitting in aisle seats, bumping them without hesitation or remorse in his hurry to get a seat.
Thankfully my row was full so he stopped two rows ahead of me, intending to grab the center seat as those were all that were left.
He then proceeded to try to shove his huge oversized suitcase into the overhead bin, apparently too stubborn or stupid to realize there was no flipping way that was going to happen. What DID happen was this dope dropped his suitcase – right on the head of the passenger sitting below it. It was a guy in his late 20s who had looked pretty relaxed and laidback, but he was understandably ticked off. The moron barely even mumbled an apology then proceeded back up the aisle looking desperately for a bin that would take his stupid suitcase. In the end, he had to check the bag with a flight attendant.
He could have severely injured that guy. I actually recommended to that guy that he gets the contact information for that moron in case he developed head or neck pain.
In my second story, I was flying to St. Louis, Missouri and in a similar full flight / open seating scenario, I grabbed an aisle seat which is my preference as I like the freedom to move about the cabin. The seats to the right of me were empty.
Along came an anxiety-ridden dude searching for three seats. He spied me and asked if I would please relocate to another seat, pointing to a center seat two rows back. All the empty seats at that point were center seats, only except the window seat in my row. He said he wanted to sit with his kids in the other two empty seats in my row.
I looked at the center seat, then thought to myself, I had once traveled with small kids myself and understood the need for families to stay together. I started to agree, then spotted his kids right behind him. They were in their late 20’s.
‘Forget that, I’m not downgrading my seat to squeeze in between people. He can deal with it. It’s a ninety-minute flight,’ I thought.
I shook my head.
‘Nope, I need an aisle seat,’ I said. The implication was clear: ‘I was here first.’
I don’t feel guilty about that either. He just had to make do by taking that center seat himself and putting his grown adult ‘kids’ in my row.”
“Don’t Say Anything”
“Last year, I was on a flight from New York to Europe, somewhere about halfway over the Atlantic Ocean, a passenger came from Economy Class and sat down behind me. I was falling asleep, and I had my seat reclined. He tapped me on the shoulder and then I saw his head pop up as he told me. ‘Don’t say anything.’
There were lots of empty seats behind me, I really just wanted to sleep. So I did not answer him and just shut my eyes. I think an hour passed, and I heard a commotion behind me. This man had asked for a blanket and several drinks. Apparently, he still was not noticed, it was only after he began complaining about bad service that they figured out he did not even belong in the seat. He was trying to pull a fast one now and stated his seat had been taken by me. Well, the cabin crew never even asked me, as they knew he was out of place. He refused to leave and fastened his seat belt.
Then backup came and they gave him two options, either he complied or they would remove him by force and might get him arrested when we landed. The idea of being arrested did not change much for him. He started yelling, and at this point, we all had enough of it.
Two other passengers began telling him to go back to the economy as he would just end up with all kinds of issues if he did not. He now asked for another drink to ‘Think about it.’
A burly, staff member came and then another. They gave him one last chance to get up and go back. He still did not move an inch. He began telling them, there were so many seats empty, and that he should be given one.
It seems the airline did not want to appear to be brutal in front of all of us. They gave in, and gave the man a drink, and backed down. This really seemed to make a lot of people angry in the cabin.
As breakfast was served, an older man would comment to a Flight Attendant that he would do the same thing and never pay extra for Cabin Upgrades if the Airline just allowed people to sit down and make a claim.
The Flight Attendant laughed and said: ‘No you would not do any such thing. Just wait for an hour and see.’
Well, I realized that the seat grabber’s bravado was going to get him into a situation on arrival. He was laughing the whole time, enjoying his larger seat, and was ordering drink after drink. It seems they knew quite well, that his problems were only getting worse. As of now, he was wasted. When we landed, he was the first person to disembark with security guards. It seemed he had a welcoming committee waiting for him.
For a couple of hours of getting his way, he lost far more than he gained.”
Who Would Even Do That To A Stranger’s Baby?
“I was flying from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles, California with my daughter who was 11 months old at the time back in 1968, to spend Christmas with my parents. My daughter was a beautiful baby with very long eyelashes; she is still a beautiful grown lady with long eyelashes.
During the flight as she was sleeping in my arms, one of the female flight attendants complimented and commented on how pretty she was and how long her lashes were. I smiled at her and said, ‘Thank you.’
She then asked me if my baby’s eyelashes were real. I looked at her in disbelief and shock, while proclaiming that they were indeed natural and what mother in her right mind would glue false eyelashes on her baby. To my utmost surprise, she then proceeded to reach down, grabbing my baby’s eyelashes to see if they would come off.
Before I could stop myself, I felt this rage and anger and I cold-cocked her with a right hook as hard as I could, knocking her across the aisle way. Of course, that woke my baby up who started crying, probably because I was very verbal in my protest.
If that had happened today, I probably would’ve been arrested for assault.
The man sitting next to me who saw the whole thing, immediately called out for an attendant while pushing the overhead button for assistance. He was very indignant as well. As it turned out, the supervising (male) attendant was very, very, very apologetic and suspended her services for the rest of the flight, by having her sit in the back where the attendants secure themselves during take-offs and landings. I was seated toward the front of the passenger section, and couldn’t and didn’t want to see her, so I don’t know what happened to her after that. The flight landed and I was glad to get off.
The airlines did give me a voucher to reimburse me for the money we spent on my ticket to Los Angeles, and they comped our return tickets back home to Dallas. The man sitting next to me was very nice and so embarrassed and apologetic as well. He helped me carry my bags/diaper bag, etc. to curbside.”
She Wanted Him To Move
“I was settled into my aisle seat in First-Class, and a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would swap seats with her, so she could sit beside her husband who was in the window seat beside me.
I asked what seat she was in.
’22E,’ she said,
Yeah, a middle seat in the back of the plane in exchange for my first-class seat. I immediately burst out laughing, and when I composed myself I suggested that perhaps the person beside her in 22F or D would be happy to swap with her husband and come up to first class, then they could sit with each other in a row 22.
‘But I want to sit in first!’ She exclaimed.
‘Yeah honey, so do I, and unlike you, I have a ticket for it,’ I replied.”
Her Demands
“The woman sitting next to me had a peanut allergy. She demanded the entire flight be declared peanut-free. The flight attendants informed her six rows in front of her and six rows behind her would be peanut-free. That wasn’t satisfactory to her. She didn’t merely make a scene and her tantrum was epic.
She was informed they were not even offering peanuts for a snack. She wanted all passengers to be searched for contraband peanuts. They continually quoted their airline’s policy, but she insisted other airlines catered to her needs.
Now, I was on a tight schedule once we touched ground in Boston, and we had now been sitting at the terminal for over an hour because of her tantrum. I excused myself out of my seat, opened the overhead bin, grabbed my bag, and begged them to let me off of the plane. I arrived in Boston 45 minutes before my original flight.
Hard to imagine that one person can mess up so many peoples’ day because of their personal needs. What a Nut job!”