favorite dumb pax comments
 

So while boarding today MSP-ATL a woman came in less then 5 min before departure and the FA told her she would need to check her bag as all the overheads were full. She kept walking, the FA called out to her and the woman replied that shes not checking it. The FA re-stated that all the bins were full as we were now about 3 min to departure and it MUST be checked. The woman said "fine ill just put it under my seat". Now her bag was a metal 22" roller, no way its fitting, and the FA told her as much. The woman shot back "well pull someone else's bag out and check it, I have an international connection and I'm NOT letting you check my bag". The FA replied that there was no way they were doing that and that if she had a problem with bags to go talk to the GA, the woman stormed off the plane yelling "Your a absolutely horrible airline".

So as I sit here thinking how stupid this woman is to expect there to be bin space on a full flight when you board <5 min to departure and for the FAs to bend over backwards for her because she has a intl connection, I thought I'd post this and see if anyone else has some great dumb pax stories to share!

Last night at SFO we were delayed an hr. Two PAX decided to debate putting a backpack in the overhead when the bins are full. After one yelled at the other to go .... himself, I thoug we were gonna have a serious situation. Luckily they calmed down.

Here's my favorite: a while back I took a flight in Y, and the two guys sitting next to me obviously hadn't flown much and were very excited. They were also very flamboyant and kept talking about what they were going to order to drink once we got up in the air. As the plane was finishing boarding, one of them turned to the other and said, "I don't get it...how are they going to back the plane away from the gate without a rearview mirror??"

I really wish I wasn't making this up...

One older passenger on a LGA-FLL flight (in November - 90% of the pax onboard were over 70 years old...) insisted that her little purse take up a whole overhead bin, and she refused to move it for other passenger's bags. A while later, the FA came over to me and said, "In my 30 years of flying, I've never seen anything like that, ever!".

Haven't posted on here in quite some time, but this thread reminded me of a really funny story. Sitting on the plane and a girl across from me is reading the Sky Mall catalog. She asks the FA when she comes by "when are we getting to the Sky Mall?" :p FA didn't quite know what to say before finally just laughing and explaining it to her. Everyone that heard it was having a good laugh for a few minutes.

Last night's comment from a GA about a "congenital boarding process" is still making me snort-laugh.

(I know the question was for dumb pax comments. But that trumps anything I've ever heard a pax say.)

I'm afraid to ask this, but how old was the girl?

"But I'm picking someone up from US Air. Why can't I wait in there?"

-Guy in Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts at DFW, pleading with the TSA officer to let him through security without a boarding pass.

I'd say probably early 20s...old enough that she should have known better!

That's no good :( :td:

The two women in Nashville who pushed thier way onto the plane and then started yellling at everyone to hurry so "we can take off early" Yeah, right and circle ATL for an hour!

But the baggage check is a standard. There was a young lady on my last LAX flight standing in the front crying that "we can't check my bag" The reason? SHe had overslept and hadn't had time to apply her makeup and wanted to do that on the plane and it was in the luggage. No one was moved by this crisis!

A TSA comment
 

Maybe slightly off topic because it was a comment from a TSA agent at JFK, not a pax;

TSA agent taking my bottle of cologne off the plastic bag and telling me it's too big and I can't take it with me unless I check the bag. The volume content on the bottle is in ml, not ounces. I tell the guy, this bottle is less than 100 ml and it's fine. He responds he does know metric so I should check it. I go:
"but look at the size of the bottle, it's obviously less than 3.4 ounces"
He responds very seriously:
"Sir, sometime you can fit large volumes in small containers"

:eek: I gave up at that point and abandoned my bottle of cologne...

Coming home from PIT last weekend on another carrier (rhymes with US Scare), saw a girl (20ish) coming up to the next gate over, about 5 minutes after the equipment had pulled away. "Is this the gate for New York?" "Yes, but the plane has already left" "But doesn't it leave at 4:15?" "No, it leaves at 4:01 and left on time" "But I wasn't on it" "The plane doesn't wait for late passengers, you're supposed to be here at least 10 minutes before departure".

This went on for awhile, and the GA even offered to try to put the girl on the next (last) flight to New York at no charge, if there was space. "But what if there isn't space?" "Then we'll get you on the first flight in the morning, it's pretty empty" "Will you pay for my hotel tonight?" "No, we can't do that" "But it's not my fault, my parents told me the flight was at 4:15" "I'm sorry, we can't do that".

Followed up by a tearful call home with lots of finger pointing and a refrain of "But I don't want to sleep in an airport".

The drink story above reminded me of this one . . . .

Flying in F to somewhere in Florida. Young collegiate type guy wearing floral board shorts and flip flops - obviously never flown in F before . . .

FA: What would you like to drink?

PAX: What do you have?

FA: I have beer, wine, vodka, rum - - - well, I can make pretty much anything you want!

PAX: OK, I'll have an Alabammer Slammer.

Nuff said! :D

I'm sure I'll have others - as my signature suggests! :)

Standing Ovation! ^:D

I was able to get a companion upgrade for our new hire team member.

On board, she was similarly offered a choice of drinks
she didn't go with the slammer, but an old fashioned. oops, should have briefed her this ain't no mad men flying :D

I always enjoy watching the kettles during IRROPS. Seems a favorite line is"i'll never fly this airline again".

Reality says that if it's the cheapest, they'll probably book it!

Also TSA.

Once in TSA line and lady in front of me has a stroller. Needs to get a few last things out and tells me to go ahead. I put my stuff on the belt walk to the scanner. Agent tells me that I can't just break in line. I explain that she told me she had to get something out of her stroller and told me to go ahead. She told me that she didn't care what the woman said. I simply said, "My bad, I was just trying to be efficient."

Her response was priceless. In a very loud voice she says, "Sir, being efficient is not one of the goals of the TSA!" Dude behind me said, "NO SH!T"

Whole place erupted in laughter.

:D:D:D GREAT!!!
Made me LOL

I've heard that a lot too, and I'm sure you're right about their next booking.

Back when Ted was around I had boarded my flight, and there was a girl (~20yo) next to me talking on the phone. One of her comments was that "there was no first class because we were flying an air bus".

I was seated in Y and watching a young man with a Starbucks Coffee in one hand and his rollerboard in the other. When he realized he couldn't put the bag overhead with one hand, he took the hot coffee and put it in his front pants pocket (cargo pants). Needless to say, when he hefted up the bag, the coffee lid came off and he had hot coffee running down his leg.....priceless! Some things can't be made up!

Once on a US flight a while back, the door was about to close when a woman walks on and notices the overhead bins are all full. She then got a FA and asked if she could put her second carry-on under the seat in front of me. :rolleyes:

Thankfully, this FA was seemingly the only PHL-based one that had sense, and flat-out refused and made her check the second bag before I could chime in. ^

Had one of those last week in MEM. He was rebooked on my flight and his ticket was near the rear of the plane. He insisted on his original seat from the IROP. GA politely told him that it was occupied by another pax. He stormed away telling him what a horrible person he is and stood right in the boarding line on the phone with his "assistant" telling her to remove delta from his preferred traveler list. He boarded with zone 3...

The GA in ATL a few weeks ago was a classic insisting that the pax in my seat 1C on the CR2 was in fact neededing assistance. She deplaned first with her three carryons and down to baggage claim to pick up two more bags and haul them out on her own in flip flops...

I think it's fair to say that most of us have joined FT to help us find solutions to situations to make our travels easier - - -I think I just found a new one! :D

I was on a flight from Singapore to Brisbane 6 months ago. When i boarded the bin above my seat was full. The one across from me had a couple of things in and all pax below that bin where all strapped in and sat down. I proceed to but my bag in the bin only to be shouted at by a lady sat below it.

I was sitting in 10A on an A-330 DTW-LGW watching everyone board. A fairly blackpoolish Englishman boards and starts heading toward the business cabin. The FA stops him and asks to see his boarding pass, then points him down the aisle to row forty-whatsis. He looks at the vast sea of narrowly-squeezed seats in front of him, then says indignantly, "So THIS, is SILVER-class?!?!"

"I'll never fly this airline again" in response to weather delays or being forced to check an oversized bag always cracks me up.

Another one I seem to hear pretty frequently, in a seemingly travel-savvy voice: "well, I've NEVER been on a plane this small." Last time my seat mate said that I responded with "fourth time this week I've been on a plane this small." It was a CR7.

MANY years ago, when you could get to the gate without a BP, I was meeting pax at the gate, and some people were standing near me waiting for family as the plane pulled up and said - - -

Hmmmff!! I'll never fly THAT airline! That plane was FIFTEEN minutes late!!!

All of these references to the phrase, "I'll never fly this airline again," drive me nuts.

Our society has been conditioned to hate airlines. This conditioning is due in large part to the media, who manages to vilify a bunch of companies that rarely turn a profit, offer a tremendous value, and comply with some of the strictest regulations anywhere.

When was the last time you heard any of these:

1) After a bad movie "I'll never see a film from that studio again."
2) After being told the kitchen has sold out of the special "I'll never go to that place again."
3) After having to wait an hour for the Doctor "I'll never see that guy again."
4) After forking over 200$ to take the kids to the ballpark where the home team gets beat 5-0 "I'll never support this team again."
5) After the weather man tells you at 8am it won't rain, and then it pours at Noon "I'll never watch that station again."

People seem to tolerate less then perfect experiences from almost any industry, but yet airlines are afforded no leeway.

+11111:D

And the choices are getting FEWER and FEWER!!! Where's everyone gonna go when they run out of choices?!?!

I think the one that bothers me the most is the passenger talking loud on their cell phone while waiting for a gate that says "well we made it to Atlanta, but we're just sitting here on the RUNWAY". Seriously? Like ATC is letting us tie up 26R for a half hour.

This doesn't count as the dumbest, but it is one of the most memorable -- back in my single days, was sitting in a window seat on a full regional jet,and the attractive young blonde sitting to my left keeps surreptitiously glancing in my direction.

Everyone boards, and we start to taxi, and she turns to me - I'm waiting for a conversation starter of some kind.

She points to the pocket on the seat in front of me, and says -- "Are you going to need that airsickness bag? I always get sick when I take off and land, and I'm not sure one will be enough."

Ok now, finish the story...........

I boarded a CRJ-900 flight toward the end of FC for my 1A seat. This is an aircraft that has just a little enclosed bookshelf for coats and purses on the A side but a full-sized overhead bin over seats B and C. The elderly couple across the aisle from me in 1BC were already settled with their belongings stored when I started to put my wheeled bag--perfectly legal and small enough to fit into the bin wheels out without any issues--into the empty bin space over 1BC without disturbing anything already in the bin. They immediately called for the FA and demanded to know whether I was allowed to put my bag there. When she said yes, they didn't believe the answer and demanded to hear the same response from the captain.

Another TSA story
 

Several years ago, when they were checking if cell phones were not wired to be (I guess) an explosive device, I had been asked on a few occasions to press a key and/or turn the phone on. Wondering how smart they were, I tried this:
TSA Agent: Sir, please press number 5 in your phone
I stared at my phone, and with a puzzled look said: "my phone doesn't have a number 5"
TSA Agent: Oh, then press another number
I had to refrain from laughing when he believed what I said.

silence...
 

I like the "silent" pax!

2 weeks ago I flew US from DFW to CLT. At check in, I noticed a lady with five bags. She was checking four and planned to carry one bag on (and a large purse too). One if the checked bags weighed 64 pounds, and the agent told her that it would cost extra unless she could "loose some weight". She then pulled up her (already) stuffed carry on, and started transferring things to it. Once she got the checked bag under the weight limit, she sat on the carry on and managed to get it zipped up. If was about to burst at the seams. I didn't think much of it but laughed. I get to the gate, and board in zone 1. I'm sitting in my ER seat, reading my Kindle, and I see her coming down the aisle. The bins are pretty much full but she finds "space". She stuffs the bag I. The overhead right in front of me, and sits down. The only problem is that about 1/4 of the bag us hanging out cause it is too full to fit. The FA pics up the mic and says for the pax that stuffed a bag that would not fit in the bin to remove it Bd she would check it for her. The lady looks around and says " that is my bag". Trouble is, she doesn't claim it when the FA walks back and asks again. It took the FA asking 4 times before she stood up and said, "it's mine, but you can't check it, cause I don't have any cash on me to pay for it".

Priceless

On the same flight, the GA wAs very vocal. We were looking at a 20 minute delay, and he announced it was due to "crew rest". He told us that 3 times. There was a crew already on the plane. Ad we were boarding, everyone was making comments to the pilot about it being an early flight and they had to get up for it so why couldn't the crew.... About half way through the boarding process, the pilot came on the mic and said "I don't know what that GA told you guys, but this crew was not late... We were not supposed to fly out until 4 hours from now, but we were called in early. He obviously doesn't have a clue what he is talking about."

I was LMAO!

...CVG - LAS pax asks FA "how can we be in the air for 3 hours and 37 minutes....My tickets says we are supposed to take off at 9:05 and land at 10:10....that is 1 hour and 5 minutes".....

Wonder what she would think if she was going from CVG to BNA....would she be thrilled about the 4 minute flight?

I always get a laugh when boarding an RJ and the roller bags get pink tagged. On almost every flight there is at least one clueless passenger who says "but it fit in the overhead on my flight coming in from (mainline)"