Obnoxious seatmate - what's your experience?
 

Was on ORD-SEA flight last night in 5B (757).

A gentlemen in his 50's/60's in 5A placed his computer bag in the shared middle floor storage space and a very small plastic bag in the floor area in front of him. I placed my computer backpack in the small floor storage space in front of me.

Thinking about the 4 hour flight ahead, I politely asked if he could place his bag underneath the seat in front of him and he aggressively replied, "Why don't you put your bag in the overhead - you're allowed to put one item up there."

Somewhat stunned, I told him that I liked to stretch my legs during the flight and pointed out that his bag was sitting right in front of my feet. He replied, "I have a computer in my bag. Why don't you put your bag up?"

I just politely asked again if he could move his bag and pointed to the empty space in front of his feet. Reluctantly and grumbling he moved his bag over.

The FA then just happened to stop by and ask if she could hang his coat. He shoved it towards her and in a loud voice said, "PUT IT IN THE FRONT CLOSET. DON'T HANG IT BACK THERE." Somewhat stunned, the FA didn't reply right away and he snapped, "ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT? BECAUSE IF YOU WON'T, I WILL."

Wow.

Oh, and to add to the ambiance, he was smacking his gum and snorting his nose every minute or so...

Thank goodness for noise canceling headphones!

+1

But why did you think he should move his item to his legspace from the shared space so you could clear your legspace :confused:

I'm glad I always bring my seatmate along with me, so I don't have to suffer this kind of a-hole.

Moving this to the TravelBuzz! Forum, as this is more topical there.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

Very annoying!
 

HKG - ORD (business class)---apparently the two guys in front of me were together as every 10-15 minutes throughout the flight one would try to speak to the other (both were wearing headphones) which would invariably be followed by a very loud "What....What did you say???....What???" I'm thinking after they do this 4-5 times they will learn to take off their headphones. No such luck, this happened the whole way. Not to mention the guy next to the window apparently needed to double check that the sky, sun, clouds (whatever) were still present outside the plane as he would open his window shade every 20-30 minutes resulting in bright sunshine blasting all of us seated behind him. (It wasn't the most restful of trips home.):td:

I think that it's polite to keep shared space clear - or to use only the shared space in front of your feet area. The way that United configures F on the 757 gives the aisle seat only a small floor space area (about half a seat width). The rest of the floor space is the common shared area. The window seat floor space is much larger.

That's my humble opinion on plane etiquette...

My most recent memory was PHX-CLT a week ago. Gentleman shows up at the last minute and see's that the seat next to me was open (exit row) and grabs it, without having a ticket for it.

He then proceeds to take this enourmous camo'd backpack (like one you take hiking) and shove it under the seat in front of him. He was kicking and pulling on the seat, I felt really sorry for the lady sitting in front of him. Finding his backpack was too big, he then tried to shove things under the seat in front of ME, but stopped only when I told him my stuff was already there.

Finally as we are taking off, he takes his shoes off and I see he's wearing these disgusting crusted camo'd socks (Really, I mean are you trying to blend in with the plane?). That was a long horrible flight haha.

A few years ago I was flying IAD-SEA on an A320... I was seated in seat 2D. After boarding the entire front row was empty... just prior to closing the door 2 women ran in with 2 young children (I would guess age 3-5). One woman and child sat in 1 A/B and the others in 1C/D. shortly after take-off the the women moved to sit together- while the 2 young children sat in 1 C/D. The children were very "active" for most of the flight... as young kids tend to be and the women (mothers?) could not have cared less.

The real problem started shortly after the meal service (thank God), when a distinct smell was coming from the front seat... shall I say it smelled like crap! One of the women noticed it and grabbed the young girl... placed her on the F cabin floor and popped the diaper right off... as you can imagine the smell became intense and was quite revolting. I was shocked that 1. a child of that age pooped their pants and that 2. the mother was so rude to change the diaper right their in the aisle of the cabin!

After that, the rest of the flight was fairly quiet... the kids continued to be very "active" and the poopy girl tore up an entire Hemispheres magazine and kept the shreds in her seat and floor area. When we were preparing for landing the "mother" came up and began getting her kids ready and she proceeded to toss the shredded paper to the side of the seat... where the vent caught them and blew them all over my seat area. Needless to say I had had enough... in a rather loud tone I said "you are the rudest flier I have ever encountered... get your garbage out of my seat and control your kids!" 3 or 4 of the other F pax clapped and laughed...

I just wish I had called her out earlier.:eek:

He who claims the space first gets it

Gotta agree.

But who are you to enforce politeness?

Your behavior didn't seem that humble.

Thanks for the comments.

If I'm understanding correctly, the prevailing opinion so far is that the shared space should belong to the first person who claims it (and not shared). On this particular plane then and following that line of thinking, one of the two persons will take/own 75% of the floor space...

For what it's worth, the person next to me and I did share the space during the flight.

Being an FTer, you can't really complain about this, as the collective thinking in FT seems to be "he who sits in the window seat controls the window shade" ;)

I can immediately see that most here are not old enough to have traveled frequently in their youth aboard 'Hounds/Trail-a-ways or school trips by bus (nor aboard "basic class" bus in furrin lands, the old 3C railcoaches of sunny Italia, the Cold War era train to Berlin, or any of the long distance flights operated by MATs or individual US military services).

You can't begin to appreciate real "obnoxity' until you've experienced it.

Always remember the maxim: "This too shall end!" You ain't married to'em and are unlikely to ever be. Simply accept the fact that now and again, the luck of the draw is not yours today, and become an acute observer of the human condition, able later in life to recall the humor of it all and to recount that which seemed so ghastly at the time.

After all, as bad as it may be, it doesn't match Steerage on the MAYFLOWER....

I see nothing wrong with this, anyone who sit by the window have the right to control the shade to be up or down, not to mention HKG-ORD is a day flight. :confused:

Get yourself a window seat next time or simply take out the eyeshade from your amenity kit.