Originally Posted by
Pascoe
Actually I have quite often found the delineation to be on destination. If the LH flight is to / from a 'bling' destination then I tend to see plenty of instances of bad / thoughtless / self centered behaviour.
DXB / LAX spring to mind as examples. Basically a cabin (especially J) containing various people imagining they're on TOWIE / Made in Chelsea etc.
Last DXB flight on BA was particularly bad. However, in the spirit of this thread and the OP, I would say that if you'd quizzed me about specifics immediately after flying that day I'd have struggled to put my finger on quite why so many people irritated me quite so much on that flight. Loud talking doesn't make you the devil incarnate, and nor does ordering one too many G&Ts in F / J. It was just something about the number of people with a certain level of entitled smugness, tendancy to use their 'outside voices' inside the cabin, and overly whitened teeth (ie clearly all younger and better looking than me) desperate for everyone to know they were travelling in a premium cabin, all frantically tweeting, or, let's be honest, as they were young, presumably instagramming it. And I am sure as they checked into their hotels and 'Did the Burj' etc it would have been the same.
But did I (and my other half) head off to some hermitage when we landed? No. Course we didn't. We headed off to a less blingy but very nice hotel on the Palm and sent our mates photos on Facebook (as we're relatively old people). So I am aware that in failing to prevent myself looking down my nose at people I am rapidly becoming not only a grumpy old man but a grumpy old hypocrite (for whom, we are told, hell's fires burn hottest). But doesn't change the way I felt, and if I got on the same flight tomorrow I'd quite possibly feel the same.
So in the end I reckon I am definitely becoming a grumpy old man. At times.....At times.....
Well, that's exactly right and I have always said that the city pair determines the sort of people you are going to get onboard. So on my FRA-ZRH flights, it's a totally different dynamic to what you're going to get on MAN-IBZ.
I really identify with this post actually, because I too often can't identify what it is that annoys me about certain people in the Business cabin (I had it on Moscow-Paris 2 nights ago). It's probably better not to dwell on it here, but the smugness and hard to describe attitude (without writing something stupid) is something I find vile. Just to elaborate on my recent Russian experiences (to take one example), I found traveling on Russian domestic flights (S7 crediting to BAEC) an incredibly civilized process. Everybody is very nice and respects the other's space, boarding and deplaning are very courteous processes, and so far no-one has behaved like a prick. But that's probably because S7 simply doesn't serve alcohol, period, a very good idea IMO. And places like Samara and Ekaterinburg are not exactly bling destinations (although Moscow almost is, in a certain way).
Most of my flights are pretty jolly good, although I expect somebody will eventually puke over me one day.