To: mike_asia
1. You are not alone. This has happened to me several times before. I would rather sit in a quiet plane than being bombarded with redundant conversations. If you could hear it in your row, then it is loud. Often, I have noticed that the most annoying conversations are between a man and a woman who had not met each other before.
2. Yet another annoyance is the head phone that blasts loud music. Again, while it is supposed to be personalized music delivery system, the loudness goes beyond the intended head and blasts others.
3. Worst is a flirting FA who sits on the aisle next to the object of admiration and goes into a babling conversation oblivious to the surroundings.
4. In the middle of a quite plane ride or in the middle of an exciting movie, the captain coming on the air to announce what a great flight it is!
5. Silence could be killing. An aisle seat passenger silently reading a book and gets visibly annoyed when a middle/window seat passenger wants to avail the facilities also could be a nuisance.
What do I do? Carry a lightand small luggage, go to restroom before I board, place the luggage only on top of my seat, get to my window seat, buckele up, smile at my neighbor once and say Hi, keep my hands and legs tucked well within my seat limits, make sure the seat is upright, then close my eyes, and reminess about the days when you got free stop over hotel stays, airline gifts and soveniers, airline bags, food and drink, pillows and blankets, candies, welcome and thanks greetings, etc.