markraby

I've never been one to complain about the typical airplane annoyances. Crying babies -- that's what noise canceling headphones are for. Obese passengers -- I used to be one so I can sympathize. People who take forever to load/unload overhead bins. Whatever. They're not annoying you on purpose.

But the one thing that has always driven me crazy, as happened today, is when I'm at a window seat and other passengers feel the need to constantly lean into my personal space to look out the window.

Today was especially bad. I was on an ERJ, with the 1x2 configuration. I was in the lone seat, and a mother/daughter were seated in the double seats on the other side. The mom was seated in the aisle and was probably in her mid 50s. Not only did she constantly turn her head to look out the window on my side, she would make a production out of it. She'd grab the seat in front of her and lean over across the aisle to look out the window, as though I wasn't even there. The first time she did it I took off my headphones because I thought for sure she was trying to get my attention for something. But nope; just wanted to look out the window.

She must have done this every 5 minues throughout the flight. Meanwhile the perfectly good window next to her daughter went almost completely ignored.

Am I overreacting? I've never really gotten angry at another passenger just for being a novice and obviously not understanding some of the more nuanced flying etiquette. But this lady really took the cake in my mind. How you can be a middle aged adult with a family and not understand that such behavior would be annoying is simply beyond me. If I was looking out the window myself, or sleeping, or going to the lavatory, then please, look out of the window all you want. Want to glance out? Sure, but don't invade my space. But when I'm facing forward and you practically make eye contact with me to look out of the window, when you purposefully didn't book a window seat, I think that's rude.

Anyway, I've never done a FT rant about another passenger before, so there you go.

danville 1K

You don't own the window, you're just occupying the seat next to it. Chill out.

markraby

Someone didn't read my post... :-/

CKinMD

There's a great existing thread that this can be moved to. Wanna guess which one?

mgcsinc

It's a complicated piece of etiquette, and one I continue to struggle with as someone who's often in the aisle but likes to look and see what's going on outside. It sounds like you're maybe a bit more sensitive about it than most, but it's a fair thing to be annoyed about.

markraby

Lmao. Okay, got it. I guess I did overreact. Like I said, I never get angry at passengers for this kind of stuff. It just seemed more over the top than usual. Maybe I'm just having a bad day. Whatever

mgcsinc

I think maybe you took my post differently from how I intended it...

PDXPremier

I'm the same way...I love looking out the window and use to be a window seat guy 100% but then I developed some sort of weird "bathroom anxiety" where the simple knowledge that I couldn't use the bathroom when I wanted to would somehow make me HAVE to go and I don't need that stress in my life so I became an aisle guy and actually like the more open feeling (ie, less claustrophobic) it provides but I do miss the views so I still look out the window without being annoying

danville 1K

Maybe she was looking for some landmark on your side of the airplane...

bmwe92fan

LOL Nice...

markraby

Actually that was in response to CKinMD. I appreciated your reply. And clearly I know it is not my window (hence why "my" is in quotation marks). I've flown hundreds of times and never cared when someone glances outside. But when other people glare at you and put their head in front of your line of vision? Every 5 minutes? I guess maybe some people think that's totally cool. I don't get it

mgcsinc

I'm looking forward to the future with no windows where the entire wall is a giant screen or whatever.

Doc Savage

She sounds annoying, but it doesn't sound like she was actually in your space, just in the aisle some.


Likely a very infrequent flyer who was excited by the view.

You could have just pulled down the shade.

Kacee

I had a huge altercation once with a guy who insisted I open the shade while we were on the ground. (They were all closed when we boarded b/c it was bright sun and something like 80 degrees outside.)

There are some really strange and obnoxious people out there.

Doc Savage

True dat. I probably would have been a little annoyed by this pax, too. Imagine how the person in front of her whose seat back she repeatedly pulled must have felt.