alexj7

Last night I was on a United 737-800 with DirecTV from EWR-LAX. I enjoyed the flight - skipped the meal but had ice cream and watched live TV. The gentleman one row forward and across the aisle from me was typing an email. The screen was basically pointed at me and I couldn't help but catch the first line of text. Once I saw it I had to read the rest.

Hard to read so here it is:
"I'm on a s****y old plane with an old-school first class. I mean that quite literally as you'll soon learn. The man in front of me just reclined his seat and I barely have room to type this email. We all know I am not a large man and my hands are not big, and yet I struggle with every key stroke. To make matters worse his wife is sitting next to him and they brought their young infant who is sitting on the mother's lap. The child was screaming (?) prior to take off, but calmed down once the plane finally took off. The aircraft was quite turbulent, but all the jostling put the baby to sleep. Shortly thereafter the child took a huge dump in her diaper. Neither parent has made any attempt to render the problem. If it's not the child, it's the man next to me who was quite nervous as the turbulence got worse. After closing the window blind he must have crapped his pants. None of this is a joke. The flight has only been in the air 20 minutes and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to breathe. When and if you receive this email, my torment will be over because to add insult to injury...the plane has no wifi.

XOXO"

I never noticed any baby in the cabin, but I couldn't see that row easily. I never noticed a smell either. Maybe it was me? Anyway just thought I'd share some of our fellow passengers' thoughts. Like I said, seemed like a perfectly fine flight other than the rough turbulence at the start

Any other great stories of spying on your fellow travelers' emails?

ajGoes

I wasn't spying on her emails, but the extremely attractive young blonde sitting next to me on my last flight kept holding her iPhone up to read, meaning it was just a few inches from my face. She was looking at some kind of chat app, I think, that featured a full-screen picture of herself between pages of text. I probably wouldn't have noticed had she not been nude in the picture.

euslaner

If this passenger saw what you were doing by taking a screen shot of his computer and he contacted an FA, this could have caused major problems for you. I would hardly brag about such behavior if I were you.

milepig

Not an email, but I once sat next to a guy who was working on a power point presentation.

The title slide was "Why it's good to be Chuck"

What followed was slide after slide of things like "Women are turned on by Chuck." "Chuck is handsome." etc. (along with things that I can't repeat here as they'd violate FT rules.)

I quickly figured out that the guy next to me was "Chuck."

Miles Ahead

Which route? Maybe I can catch her on the return.

jewels421

Agree with this. I know if people really want privacy they should use a privacy filter. But still. Taking a photo of someone's screen is a little creepy.

Pat Plus

Amusing, but while I don't want to be judgmental, I do find taking a picture of someone's private property and correspondence highly inappropriate. And posting it in a public forum to boot is definitely crossing a line.

I wonder how I'd react if I spotted someone doing this to me. One the one hand I'm all for peace and getting myself and my fellow passengers to our destination on time, on the other hand I can't exclude over reacting and getting you kicked off the aircraft. Or at least into some kind of trouble.

tomsundstrom

Yahtzee!

alexj7

okay

What would have happened? I'm curious. There is nothing wrong with taking photos in public of anything. I was a photojournalist a long time. You absolutely can piss people off, but they have no legal standing.

Technically United sets the rules, but I don't think they have an official policy on taking pictures of other people/things.

Doc Savage

"Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail."

nachosdelux

My wife an I were at a San Diego Padres baseball game, and the guy sitting next to her was pretty drunk, and was sexting some woman (I presume).

My wife could read it all and she said it made the game entertaining (she hates baseball!)

edcho

They do have a policy. Ask Matt...

http://upgrd.com/matthew/thrown-off-...-pictures.html

mgcsinc

They do, actually. Famously.

But I don't think anything would have happened to you.

CDKing

Just having a camera within a 1/4 mile of someone can set them of as I've experienced recently. I have since learned the phrase "There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place". I'm curious as to whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in a plane?

blug

This gentleman had no idea what he was talking about. Doesn't every domestic first seat have 38'' pitch?
And from the picture, the laptop opened at a wide angle and there should be no "struggle" at all typing the email.