What does it take for you to lose your temper with fellow passengers?
In all the years i've been flying, i've managed to remain cool under some frustrating situations....that is, until yesterday, when I lost my temper for the first time.
I was flying BTV-JFK-PWM sunday night on Delta, coming home from an extended christmas holiday with friends. The comedy of errors started at 6:30pm, when the BTV-JFK leg was supposed to depart. 35 passengers in the terminal- but no gate agent, no plane, no status information at the gate, and the flight wasn't even listed on the departures screen at the airport. A call to DL SMS revealed the flight was delayed until 7:40; inbound is late. This cut my connection down to 5 minutes. The plane arrives at about 6:45, passengers deplane and they work on a quick turnaround and we finish boarding at 7:00 pm...and the captain says we will depart in about 5 minutes while they finish loading a few bags. Well, I sat at the window as 1 overweight woman waddled around and loaded the plane by herself in the most inefficient way possible, at an average rate of 1 bag per minute. A few minutes turned into 45 minutes while we sat there watching the slowest baggage handler I have ever witnessed. Flight takes off at 7:45, and we land at JFK at about 8:45, and i'm thrilled, because even with 15 min of taxi time, I should still make my 9:05 flight. But wait, this is JFK - we hold waiting to cross a runway for 25 minutes (15 flights took off, 5 landed while we waited). All this time, I'm frantically trying to call DL SMS on my cell phone to check on the status of the JFK-PWM leg, the last flight of the night, but got nothing but busy signals. We finally cross the runway and get to the gate- and wait another 15 minutes for a ground crew to show up. Door opens, it is now 9:15 and I rush out with the slim hope that the flight was delayed and I would make it.. We were at gate 23 at JFK, with the covered walkways that lead to the terminals. I enter the walkway, only to encounter the entire width of the walkway blocked by a group of passengers standing there chatting, oblivious to the 50+ people they were preventing from getting anywhere. The woman in front of me politely asked them to move aside THREE times, and got no response.
And this is where I finally lost my temper. I yelled "people have connections to make, get out of the goddamn way!" and shoved past them. I rush into the terminal over to gate 24, only to see them closing out my flight. There is one person in front of me arguing with the gate agent, who was telling him that their flight was leaving from 25, not 24, and pointed to the correct gate. The person just wasn't getting it - and was insisting that they were leaving from this gate - and again, i lost it - and rudely said "dude, your flight is leaving from THERE (pointed to 25), get out of the way so I can make my flight".
I know- I was rude and inconsiderate, and when I settled in after barely making my flight, I felt bad about being the jerk - but, I really didn't want to spend the night at JFK because of someone else's lack of common sense.
So whats your story? When have you lost your temper with fellow passengers? Do you feel bad about it?
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I probably would've done the same thing. You gotta do whatchya gotta do. You can't be a spineless pushover in these situations or you'll be the guy who misses all of his connections, all the time.
I can't recall any outstanding stories such as yours but will post if one does come to mind.
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Kuujjuarapik Esquimalt
The comedy of errors started at 6:30pm, when the BTV-JFK leg was supposed to depart. 35 passengers in the terminal- but no gate agent, no plane, no status information at the gate, and the flight wasn't even listed on the departures screen at the airport... I sat at the window as 1 overweight woman waddled around and loaded the plane by herself in the most inefficient way possible, at an average rate of 1 bag per minute...
You should really have lost your temper with the terrible DL / Comair staff at BTV, one of the worst outstation staffs in the whole Godforsaken DL universe if you ask me. I have been in exactly your position, sent down to the gate by the dopes at the check-in desk who claim the flight is on time, and all the terminal monitors say so too, only to discover eventually via DL SMS that the a/c never left JFK and isn't going to for hours. I have missed connections in CVG because the BTV staff is too thin and slow-moving in the early mornings -- by the time they get everyone checked in at landside, then waddle down to the gate to give the crew access to the cold dark plane, departure time has come and gone. I've written to the BTV airport manager and to Comair, but the best thing is simply to avoid DL at BTV by any means necessary.
PS. Unless you hit it just right, flying BTV-JFK-PWM takes longer than driving. It's only four hours by car over the White Mountains, and a pretty ride too.
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Owing to heightened security you must comply with any crazy fake "regulation" we make up. Thank you sir.
Don't feel too bad. This reminds me of the Stephen Covey Paradigm Shift in which the man was traveling in a subway, a man gets in with his two sons, the sons are running all over the place bothering the people, this continues, so he finally gets irritated enough to ask the father why he doesn't do something to control his kids. The father replies, "We just got back from the hospital where their mother died. I don't know how to handle it and I guess they don't either."
If the folks who may have thought you were the rudest person they had ever met understood your circumstances, all should be forgiven.
And I am sure that if you knew the circumstances of lost guy and the reunion, you may have been a little less short.
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One time I lost my temper picking up luggage. There was one dude who stood right next to the airport worker sorting bags and would not move. I had already seen three passengers struggle to get their bags out of the way. So after those three people were gone, it was like a line and I was next. Well I had checked in an overweight bag and before I picked it up, I kind of motioned to the guy it was my bag seeing if he'd move away/help out, neither. After I had bumped into him picking up my bag, he said, "Excuse me" like he was trying to get under somebody's skin. I told him off, "If I'm such an inconveience why don't you move out of the damn way when I'm picking up my crap?" I hadn't known but there was a cop sitting near the baggage services who overheard it all but I just walked away. I mean seriously.
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20+ yr NW flyer now looking for other options.
The best thing to do is yell very loudly "excuse me" and if they still don't get it push through. You have a flight to catch. I do it all the time. And don't feel bad about needing to be rude to clueless and rude people themselves (can't step aside and let someone who is in a hurry to pass).
That's not rude, it's life. I would've done the same thing as you and I'm a very calm person normally.
Exactly, there's nothing wrong with being a bit vocal in that situation. A lot of people aren't knowingly being rude, they just block aisles, baggage, etc. without realizing that people need to get through. If you don't tell them (or sometimes yell at them), they'd never know.
I flew on Air France B777 a few years ago from Paris to Atlanta. Long-ish flight, obviously. I wanted to relax a bit before the meal was served, so I reclined my seat (sitting in Y). Somebody suddenly taps me on my shoulder. I turn around and it's little old Indian woman who is sitting behind me. I asked her what was wrong and she said that I need to straighten the seat out. Thinking that she was maybe trying to get something from a bag that was perhaps stowed under my seat, I obliged. 25-30 minutes pass, and I recline again. Once again, same issue. This is now getting frustrating, but as the meal is about to be served, I straighten my seat. We all eat, and the flight attendant clears everybody's trays. I go to the restroom and on my way back notice that the old lady's tray is now up as well. I sit down and recline in order to get some shuteye. She taps me on my shoulder and says, rather loudly to straighten my seat. At this point, I turn around and tell her "I paid for this seat just like you paid for yours, ma'am. I'm going to recline and if you have an issue with this, ask the FA to find you a different seat."
I may've been short with her, but there was plenty of space on a plane, especially for a 4'11" lady who was hardly taking up any space. Anyway, I think you have to be vocal about your rights, otherwise people will walk all over you. And this applies to life in general, and not just travel. In travel, people just tend to stress out and be rude more so than at other times.
I was on a flight to one time and behind me sat a mother and her child. As soon as the flight was airborn, the tray table went down in back of me and she gave the child toys which he proceded to pound on the tray table. I asked that she have child to stop. She ignored me. I asked several times. And so did the FA. No compliance. At my wits end I turned around and yelled at her quite loudly. She proceded to shout at me and kept pressing the call button. It turned into a scene with the FA not really knowing what to do and in the end the FA threatened to call security which shut the lady up and stopped her kid from pounding.
...It turned into a scene with the FA not really knowing what to do and in the end the FA threatened to call security which shut the lady up and stopped her kid from pounding.
