What's the most annoying passenger you've encountered?
Oct 22, 2014, 12:34 pm
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: ORD
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 16,901
The French couple who got reseated next to me on a CDG-JFK flight a couple years ago. I can only assume their house burned down the night before because they smelled like a bonfire and had clearly lost their deodorant. Oh, and their friend the flight attendant who thought it was perfectly acceptable to have long conversations with them where she leaned from the aisle to rest her lower arm on the back of their seats, meaning that her arm pit was repeatedly within a few inches of my face.
I spent the entire flight holding a scarf across my face.
My mother, who was sitting across the aisle from me, would tell you that the passengers next to her were even worse. Loud, drunk, Russian couple in their 60s who wanted to talk to her the entire time, and she repeated had to remove his hand from her arm, etc.
We couldn't get off that plane fast enough.
I spent the entire flight holding a scarf across my face.
My mother, who was sitting across the aisle from me, would tell you that the passengers next to her were even worse. Loud, drunk, Russian couple in their 60s who wanted to talk to her the entire time, and she repeated had to remove his hand from her arm, etc.
We couldn't get off that plane fast enough.
Oct 22, 2014, 1:03 pm
#17
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 139
JFK-LAX UA flight in econ plus a few months ago. Someone close to me was continually passing gas and refusing the use the restroom to relieve themselves. Every 5 minutes awful smell, after awful smell. I summoned the flight attendants several times and requested an announcement be made to the offending gas passer to use the restroom and spare the entire plane from their smells. FA said they even are smelling it in F/class but still refused to make a basic announcement. It got so bad that I had to hold my nose for most of the flight. Nothing like having to breathe other peoples farts for 6 hours+
Oct 22, 2014, 1:15 pm
#18
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,664
Salesman that either
A: use the time you are captive to try and sell you crap.
B: Seem to think that their job is even remotely interesting and that I want to hear about it for my entire flight.
C: are elites who "know" everything about flying and will explain how the air traffic system works....they are never right, ever.
A: use the time you are captive to try and sell you crap.
B: Seem to think that their job is even remotely interesting and that I want to hear about it for my entire flight.
C: are elites who "know" everything about flying and will explain how the air traffic system works....they are never right, ever.
Oct 22, 2014, 2:12 pm
#19
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Atherton, CA
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Owner, Green Bay Packers
Posts: 21,690
JFK-LAX UA flight in econ plus a few months ago. Someone close to me was continually passing gas and refusing the use the restroom to relieve themselves. Every 5 minutes awful smell, after awful smell. I summoned the flight attendants several times and requested an announcement be made to the offending gas passer to use the restroom and spare the entire plane from their smells. FA said they even are smelling it in F/class but still refused to make a basic announcement. It got so bad that I had to hold my nose for most of the flight. Nothing like having to breathe other peoples farts for 6 hours+
Oct 22, 2014, 5:20 pm
#20
Join Date: May 2004
Location: MSP
Programs: Delta PM
Posts: 215
Oct 22, 2014, 7:08 pm
#22
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: PDX
Programs: AA LT PLT (3.6+ MM), UA 1K LT Gold, Hilton LT Diamond, Bonvoy Gold.
Posts: 1,662
- The seatmate who starts with "have you found god yet?"
- The smelly ones (feet or BO and/or unwashed)
- The chatty ones. If I have my headphones on I probably don't want to talk.
- The flubber guts who spill in all directions
- The seatmate with restless leg syndrome. I had one who jiggled non-stop for 5 hours, even after repeated requests to keep his darn legs still.
- The ones who just don't care about invading your personal space. Including the guy who has a jacket and overcoat on the whole flight and doesn't realize/care that he is invading your space and rubbing against you the whole time.
I could go on but....
Oct 22, 2014, 7:23 pm
#23
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,042
The guy feigned not speaking English, that's why the point was made of his accent, in this case Arabic sounding, guessing Lebanese. So what? It could have been an Eastern European accent, a redneck accent, an Indian accent or a New Jersey accent and the behavior would be equally obnoxious.
Oct 22, 2014, 8:59 pm
#25
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 57
An executive from my then-employer, who happened to be on the same flight as me. Apparently there was some mixup with her reservation, and she was giving the FA a hard time about it.
I was seated three rows back where she couldn't see me, but she may not have known my face anyway. I wish I'd thought of apologizing to the FA after we landed.
I was seated three rows back where she couldn't see me, but she may not have known my face anyway. I wish I'd thought of apologizing to the FA after we landed.
Oct 22, 2014, 9:12 pm
#26
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Very near SFO
Programs: BA, AAL, UA, SW, HHonors, UR
Posts: 51
This 4-year old kid in Business Class who cried all the way from SFO to NRT, even though I had given him the (pediatrician prescribed) tranquilizer and his twin sister was totally quiet and peaceful the whole way. Fortunately (for us anyway), he was standing up in his seat and facing the guy behind us most of the time. Unfortunately for him, the guy behind us was also on the connecting flight. Profuse apologies were declared to be unnecessary....
Oct 23, 2014, 12:15 pm
#27
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Western Europe
Programs: Yeah, well, don’t really care anymore
Posts: 845
Well I'm not afraid to put a name on the most irritating passenger I've ever had onboard. His name was (and might still be, if he's still alive) Mamool and he was a thoroughbred Arabian racing stallion, owned by the Godolfin stables (i.e. Sheikh Maktoum of Dubai), jockey'd by Frank Dettorio and one of their most prized horses.
Now Mamool was no stranger to flying, quite frequently being ferried around Europe on chartered cargo aircraft. But he was still a horse, and a racing horse to boot, which made him just about certifiable. To calm the bugger down, he always flew with a mate. The mate was an old knag, who probably couldn't have run 1000 yards if it's life depended on it. But, he was cool about flying, and Mamool would nearly always trundle along behind him and onboard the aircraft.
But not this day.
When the truck carrying the horses arrived, the mate joyfully bounced out and up the ramp to the aircraft, spun around 180 and backed itself into the horse box. Good boy. Mamool, however, was doing his best to prove he was 800kgs of muscles with a brain the size of a walnut and a temper to put Hulk to shame.
After an hour of persuasion, he finally emerges from the truck. But when he's walked to the ramp, he baulks and manages to pull the reins out of the handlers hands. Luckily the area between the truck and the aircraft had been fenced (the handlers knew full well he was a nutter), so he couldn't run away. Unlike another horse I once carried into TLS, which bolted and crossed a runway before taking a dump inside one of Airbus' assembly hangars. Anyway, back to Mamool.
The handlers finally manage to get a hold of the beast, and are trying to coerce/push him up the ramp. Good thing no kids were around, as the language used could make even a sailor blush. In the mean time the skipper and I are fretting over our slot time, but unlike most ofter flights this was not one where you could dump the delayed passenger and potter off. Without Mamool, there would be no reason to go at all. So we stand on the stairs outside, and do our best not to get in the way.
Eventually they get him onboard, but as he's being spun around he decides one of the handlers is not to his liking, and with one of his front legs kicks him right on the tibia. Result: One violent horse smirking as he backs into his box, and one groom with a broken leg lying on the floor uttering a barrage of profanities in the direction of anyone who cares to listen.
Ambulance is summoned while the aircraft is buttoned up and made ready for departure, and the groom takes the ride down the High-loader on a stretcher.
Mamool won the race. And good job for him that he did, as the entire crew (Capt, me, loadmaster x 2) had put money on him. Had he failed to win, we'd agreed to kill him dead and bbq the nicer bits on the flight home.
Now Mamool was no stranger to flying, quite frequently being ferried around Europe on chartered cargo aircraft. But he was still a horse, and a racing horse to boot, which made him just about certifiable. To calm the bugger down, he always flew with a mate. The mate was an old knag, who probably couldn't have run 1000 yards if it's life depended on it. But, he was cool about flying, and Mamool would nearly always trundle along behind him and onboard the aircraft.
But not this day.
When the truck carrying the horses arrived, the mate joyfully bounced out and up the ramp to the aircraft, spun around 180 and backed itself into the horse box. Good boy. Mamool, however, was doing his best to prove he was 800kgs of muscles with a brain the size of a walnut and a temper to put Hulk to shame.
After an hour of persuasion, he finally emerges from the truck. But when he's walked to the ramp, he baulks and manages to pull the reins out of the handlers hands. Luckily the area between the truck and the aircraft had been fenced (the handlers knew full well he was a nutter), so he couldn't run away. Unlike another horse I once carried into TLS, which bolted and crossed a runway before taking a dump inside one of Airbus' assembly hangars. Anyway, back to Mamool.
The handlers finally manage to get a hold of the beast, and are trying to coerce/push him up the ramp. Good thing no kids were around, as the language used could make even a sailor blush. In the mean time the skipper and I are fretting over our slot time, but unlike most ofter flights this was not one where you could dump the delayed passenger and potter off. Without Mamool, there would be no reason to go at all. So we stand on the stairs outside, and do our best not to get in the way.
Eventually they get him onboard, but as he's being spun around he decides one of the handlers is not to his liking, and with one of his front legs kicks him right on the tibia. Result: One violent horse smirking as he backs into his box, and one groom with a broken leg lying on the floor uttering a barrage of profanities in the direction of anyone who cares to listen.
Ambulance is summoned while the aircraft is buttoned up and made ready for departure, and the groom takes the ride down the High-loader on a stretcher.
Mamool won the race. And good job for him that he did, as the entire crew (Capt, me, loadmaster x 2) had put money on him. Had he failed to win, we'd agreed to kill him dead and bbq the nicer bits on the flight home.
Oct 23, 2014, 12:29 pm
#28
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Montreal
Programs: FB Gold; PC Plat.
Posts: 419
Oct 23, 2014, 2:03 pm
#30
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
People who try way too hard to hit on their seatmates. I've been on a couple flights where a man was overly loud and flirty and refusing to acknowledge signals that the attraction was completely one sided and plowed ahead with their attempts at copulation.