Annalisa12

the entitled people

corporate-wage-slave

Alas I'm not the youngest one in this forum, but have I got this right? We are hurtling through the skies 7 miles above sea level at 550 mph, able to get from sea to shining sea, crowning thy good with brotherhood, and you're all moaning? It's not like you're a packed broken down Sprinter train halfway train between Milngarvie and Hillfoot.

We are the first generation to have this privilege, affordable travel across the entire globe. OK we may occasionally be a few Lynx short of fragrant peregrination but by the grace so fortunately given to us I would suggest it is incumbent on us to be in awe and just keep smiling.

nivsy

Blimey...do trains still breakdown on that route and single track still ? Between Westerton and Milngavie? Oh sweet memories from a time long ago now!!

HIDDY

Indeed....and very affordable at that even in premium class. ^

It's the wife that occasionally makes me grumpy not BA. By the way there's no 'r' in Milngavie.

corporate-wage-slave

Thank you, mine was the phonetic version.

Sealink

For many years, I was obsessed with being BA and VS Gold. I don't know, it was something that evaded me for years and then suddenly it was achievable. In no small way thanks to Flyertalk and VFlyer.

That was a few years ago. Now, I'm so over it. I now don't care about status or in-flight champagne.

I'm actually going to go to Silver next year as the quest for Gold feels less important than having great nights in the pub with friends.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I will miss Group 1 etc. Grumpy Old Man or Man Who realises that my amazing, fantastic flying hobby doesn't cut the mustard anymore?

Stormbel

So
I felt much less grumpy reading your comments.

I do use bose in ear noise cancelling headphones but even they aren't enough to mask the higher frequencies of children. I find that it's the short haul flights that seem to have more of the "unwashed / couldn't care about anyone else / don't tell me off as I know what I shouldn't do so I will" people. Probably the long haul flights have people who think that they better try and get some sleep or watch a film.

I tend to be in WT+ as we two like to be able to communicate side by side. ba's Club seats mean that communication is at a distance. In a few weeks it's in CW for the 'novelty'! For those of you in F, am I missing out on the peacefulness of that cabin? No toddlers, no misbehaving adults?

These days I have left 'real work' behind and moved on to present a local radio magazine programme. I deal with so many lovely people on the ground I now feel that the difficult ones must be those who are in transit up above.

Sorry that I can't join you in the CCR. Silver in my usual status so I usually head for Galleries South or the lounge in T5B. I could go off on one about Galleries North ... but no, not today!

tedcruz

morges1

But that would be Miln-guy!

Pascoe

Every day truly a school day. I had to go and look up 'peregrination'.

Chapeau!!!

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.....

cupsandsaucers

Interesting that typically old ladies become sweeter and sweeter and old men become grumpier and grumpier.

technical_bob

In my experience, there's a hump of irritability where things get worse, and then ultimately get better.

As I got more experienced and accustomed to travel (especially luxury/premium travel), my standards went up and I would tend to get pretty annoyed when things went wrong. If flying J once a year is your treat, and it's bad, you're going to be upset. However, as premium travel becomes completely routine for me, it's much less significant when something goes wrong. In the long run I'm become more indifferent to the downsides, safe in the knowledge that most of my flights/hotels are perfectly fine, even if the one I'm in right now has a problem.

On the other hand, I also started taking a light sedative pill when I fly, so that might explain a lot of my increasingly sanguine attitude to issues in flight...

PUCCI GALORE

I sit in the FLounge and watch people as I sip the Champagne that everyone moans about, wonder about which the lumpy old men are secretly GOMs. I do not have to wonder about the ladies as I can just tell. However, as we live with men we are used to holding the picture and drowning out the sound. I imagine that they sit there wondering who that Champagne Sipping Beauty is in equal measure, and how they can beg me for a date (Unless they fancy each other that is) . They may even wonder if that Goddess in Chanel and Jimmy Choos is the Legendary Pucci Galore. Maybe they fear my Hair Brush too much to ask?

Dear OP - the world has become so self-obsessed and self-important. Sadly one element of all this Point and Mile collecting is that it makes one hugely solipsistic. Branded on every Boarding Pass should be the words "It's all about me". People do not control their children and any old behaviour will do - but no one in the History of Flyertalk has ever raised a child that was not perfect. People and their wretched phones are the bane of my life, until I want to use my own phone that it.

One thing that makes me love my retirement so much is that I no longer have to be agreeable to people that I would not have over the threshold of my home for a cup of tea. Grumpy? Definitely. Old? Just say that to my face, i dare you.

Sealink

Probably all from the seven million trip report blogs available these days! 🤣