Idiots on a plane...
 

Does anyonelse get this type of person on their flights?? On the 07:45 to EDI from LHR on Wednesday morning,as we are boarding there is this guy on his mobile phone,talking VERY loudly,discussing whether a guy on his team was worth keeping or firing,and had to be careful as this guy's wife was a lawyer,was he essential,or a 'luxury',did he keep him on or fire him,'eventually he has to halt the conversation as we were almost ready to depart.On arrival at EDI,there is a delay getting off,the auto sign that allows the plane(767) to line up with the jetty was not ready,nor was the airbridge,anyway,this guy has turned his phone on again,and is continuing the conversation about this guy,and actually names him whilst on the phone,again,very loudly,in the end whoever he was talking to told him the guy was absolutely essential,and thank god the call was at an end, very unprofessional,and an awful bloke,but he was full of his own self importance,sad.

You can say tossers on the internet.

Put on some headphones and roll your eyes...life goes on. Or ask him to politely tone it down, perhaps. It's not out of line to ask someone to be respectful in a small compact place.

Not quite BA related, but self important people who think they rule the world but are probably middle managers doing pointless work are everywhere not just on airplanes!

The world is full of *** people!

I just feel so sorry for the poor souls who have to work with or for a creature like that.

Go on LinkedIn, send the guy who's about to be fired a message with a verbatim account of the conversation?

I have forgotten what the name is now!!!:cool:

When it gets out of hand like that, and goes on and on, just join the conversation.
I've done it a few times at the gate. You get a really really dirty look, but they either move away or shut up.

And today I learn that if work ever gets me down, I should be glad that I don't work for a person like this, or a company where that kind of culture exists.

Plenty of people on planes with an odd sense of entitlement though - some of the lounge guestbooks always make for amusing reading of people complaining about the most trivial things.

Exactly what I was about to suggest ;)


cs

Many years ago when mobile phones first came in, there was an article revealing that most of the people on the packed Star ferries in Hong Kong chatting on their mobiles were just trying to impress as their phones were not actually connected.

This thought has come back to me many times when there are people talking 'business' on the plane or in lounges loudly. I notice how clichéd the business-talk is and wonder if it is real or why anyone with any integrity or business-sense would talk in earshot of people who could be competitors or anyone.

No phone needed to be a to$$er ... 'Suit' in 1K on the LGW-JER yesterday, in the middle of boarding, feels an urgent need to have a 'greet and chat' to 3K. Cue several dozen pax having to squeeze themselves and their bags past this pillock. When he's content, he then of course barges his merry way back to 1K, with everyone letting him do it.

I think the other pax were all very restrained. I believe I muttered [loudly] something like "Sit down, you idiot" from 2C, but I guess he was immune to outside influences.

Not quite on a plane ... but on the subject of calls ...

I was sat in CDG a couple of weeks ago and a woman came over to near where I was sat (from near her companion) and proceeded to have a conversation at volume about how they weren't going to make their delivery targets for Christmas unless something significant changed in warehouse processes (like upping production 50%).

She strongly felt - and I recall this - that having sat the warehouse teams down and told them to find a solution was enough and they should have found one by now and apparently they'd just told her there wasn't a solution due to under investment in people and this wasn't good enough.

She was deeply concerned about their new operations director who was supposed to have been brought in to fix the processes and didn't seem to have done anything in the 3 months he'd been there and which members of the management team should sit in on his appraisal to deliver the "get on with it or get out" message.

Anyway - she gave me enough information to work out who the delivery director was, look him up on linkedin and from there derive the company, from there find her, figure out who she was talking to and also work out which of their clients weren't getting their deliveries. All in the space of about 15 minutes.

I was seriously tempted to message him. But I figured that would make me as unprofessional as her.

But I was more amused by the idea that this particular company would be majorly failing on their orders for major retailers which (apparently) they've known about for 6 months and have failed to scale for and I felt that amusement would satisfy me.

This seems tenuously related to BA...OMNI perhaps?

Guys like that ought to be getting "inadvertently" battered by passing luggage. Maybe a torn trouser leg would raise awareness.

I confess t being 'careless' with my back-pack on occasion. ;)

👍

As this essentially is generic for all scheduled flying we'll move this thread.
Also, please mind the language.
Thanks,
Petrus

Maybe you should have messaged her mid-call :)

I was in the Heathrow T3 Admirals Club (or Flagship Lounge, don't remember, doesn't matter) a while back when one of these types was having a very loud discussion on his mobile. I wrote a short note and put it in front of him. It said, as best I remember:

He quieted WAY down, REALLY REALLY fast.

THAT is brilliant.
And - I admit in advance - I'm stealing it.
Thank you.

Time for a loud fake phone call to my stockbroker telling them to short 20,000 shares of XYZ, I hear they aren't going to make their Christmas sales numbers etc. :)

^ this is awesome

OP, if you overheard what company it was, you should contact that company's president and let him know that confidential company information was being disseminated publicly by this jerk.

How tacky...just....how tacky....:rolleyes:

I'm just amazed you flew a 7-6 for that short of distance! :D

I think it is more amuzing just to short it yourself and make money off the .........

Some people have no manners, or sense for confidentiality.

I've had a few of these 'suits' on flights into LCY.

There's the guy working during taxi and flight on his power point presentation. It was nice to read though. There's the guy holding a team meeting. There's the guy explaining in depth what he thinks of a case and how to handle a client.

But I overhear such conversations on the ground too. Whenever I enjoy my weekend at home, I occasionally end up sitting on terrasse next to a couple of lawyers, that openly discuss their clients, strategies (that usually are extremely bad), etc... .

In any case, this shows a bad work attitude. A lawyer or financial consultant should know of the importance of confidentiality, especially on flights, that are filled to the brim with passengers working in the industry.

A 767 from LHR to EDI?

Yes, a Boeing 767 from LHR-EDI,often on this route in the mornings.which is why I chose that flight,plus you get a proper cooked breakfast as well!!

Yup! You can't travel and run into these folks now and then.

Absolutely love it.

And this story ....

One bottle of wine before boarding and another in flight.

http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/ea...aces-jail.html

I think, drinking should be prohibited on board unless provided on board. And, in the latter case, only limited to e.g. 1 glass alcoholic drink on a short haul flight and 2-3 glasses on a long haul flight. Or not provided free.

Most unruly passenger cases are the result of drinking.

And the alcohol just makes the volume of shouty-phone-people even worse. I have a colleague who took a work call from someone in an airport lounge and he gradually got louder and louder. When I told him to quieten down he actually did the comedy thing of giggling and shushing himself.

Why not just put a period at the end of that clause. Why do we need people drinking on an airplane. I can think of a lot of ways that it creates a potential for problem for the plane, the crew and other passengers. I can't think of a single way that it makes things better. If you can't take a flight, even a long haul, without drinking, you have other problems you need to address.

This is a good thing !
Talking about myself, I take no drop of alcohol during a 16 hours flight.
Moreover, to minimize effect of night flight hangovers / jet lag one should not drink alcohol, but just water.

In the OP's case, I would have been really tempted to say something like, excuse me but what's your name? I know this guy's lawyer wife really well.

My own worst story of something like this was my FC seatmate on a USA domestic flight that had a long delay at the gate after boarding.

The guy next to me first has a LOUD long emotional conversation with his wife trying to convince her that she has severe emotional problems and needs to go back into serious therapy since she's messing up the family's life by imagining that he's having an affair.

Next he calls the girlfriend and has an intimate chat (almost phone sex) about how she's
so much better than the wife and he'd like to divorce and marry her immediately except for the kids.

I wanted to take a shower.

One reason I always pack noise canceling headphones and ear plugs no matter the length of the flight.

When I worked for the government it wasn't unusual to overhear folks in the elevator plotting their strategy for their upcoming meeting with me.

Cheers,

Happens all the time, but I've learned to live with it, I suppose.

While I understand there are times when it's imperative to use a cell phone in public, you'd imagine a person would make an effort to find a relatively private area to carry on a short conversation. There's really no reason to have these "face time" and "phone conference" call meetings that Middle Managers like to always get on when in a public area. It seems as if they have "meetings" about the "meeting" after the initial call.

It's a free country and public space. I get that others have as much right to public space as I and are free to exercise that freedom. However, I'd greatly appreciate two things. One, if people would generally speak with a lower tone in public. And, two, unless absolutely necessary, stay off the cell phones, especially when sitting next to me.

Doesn't just happen on planes. A number of years ago, a colleague and I were on a train with our client down to a meeting. In the same carriage as us were a group having a loud conversation that turned out to be all about the subject of the meeting we were going to. They were advising the other side. By the time the train arrived at the station, we knew their strategy, their thoughts about their client (which were not complimentary), the defects in their arguments and the position they were willing to advise settling for.

Best meeting of my life.

1F

Lawyer in ORD Admiral's Club
 

Similar situation in ORD Admiral's Club a couple of years back. Lawyer was discussing in detail how his client was being held by Chicago Police as a John Doe and that he had outstanding warrants so if they found out his real name they would throw away the key.

Almost but not quite enough information to be able to advise Chicago PD. If had named the police station where his client was being held, no expectation of privacy at that volume, I would have made the call.

Too big a city to call in and say "somewhere at some police station in the city you have a John Doe who has warrants."