Sweet Willie

seem to be more than a few on this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/011618.html

Jenbel

On the aisle of a 767 EWR-MAN in Y. Girl in the centre seat of the three had ordered a special meal which arrived and she ate. Then, about, oh 30 seconds after my normal dinner had arrived, she decided she needed to go to the toilet. I let her out, waited until she returned and then sat down to my now cool dinner. Fine, thats it. oh no. I have one chance to sleep on an overnight flight - even if I only get an hour, I won't sleep again. So I slept for about 20 mins, only to be wakened by her asking to get out to the toilet.

She wasn't to know, but definitely wasn't considerate. I've sat next to small children that were much better travelling companions.

WillTravel

She might have been inconsiderate, but it's possible stress or a physical condition made her have to go a lot. The obvious solution is to get a window seat, rather than aisle.
A person in the aisle seat is going to be stuck having to let people climb over him.
You might have been better off switching with the girl.

Dovster

I agree. I like to get up quite a bit on long distance flights and always make certain I have an aisle seat. My ability to move around is what is important to me. On the other hand, if not being disturbed was what mattered most, I would always seek out an window seat.

I would rather move for someone else than have someone else move for me. If you feel otherwise, enjoy the view from the window.



[This message has been edited by Dovster (edited 10-21-2003).]

WaywardCorsican

Now this is my first posting but so many horror stories have I accrued... Worst seatmate ever? I narrow them down to this colourful cast of characters:

** I was 15 years old and flying off to summer camp on a rickety old UA 762 (if memory serves) bound from LAX-EWR. The aisle seat was mine and seated in the window seat was an older man who, at one point just after take-off, slipped his nylon (a noisier material than most) anorak over his lap and proceeded to wank for the duration of the 5 hour flight. He would take the occasional 10 minute nap-break and drool all over himself only to wake up soon thereafter and launch into yet another onanistic soliloquy. As I was a shy youth, I sat there aghast and silent trying to convince myself that perhaps he was furiously knitting a scarf for the flight attendant and he daren't let her see it unfinished. Absolutely appalling.

** I was 18 years old flying SEL-NRT seated in the smoking section (because I thought I was a bad-...) wedged in a middle seat between a man huffing and puffing the most noxious pipe tobacco in memory and an elderly Japanese lady who could barely walk much less lift a very heavy box of duty-free liquor into the overhead compartment. While her resolve may have been steadfast, her grip, alas, was not. In cruel slow motion, the box tumbled from her shaky little hands and a jagged edge managed to slice my scalp... and the head, well, she tends to bleed. No apology or serious acknowledgement of my injury, the woman seemed annoyed that I had bled on her precious duty-free swill.

** Everyone has a fat seatmate story and I am no exception... One day flying LHR-BOS I managed to snag a standby seat on the horrible BA 742 rattlebox and of course, I got a middle seat. Huffing down the aisle as I was the last to board, I make a quick visual scan of the cabin and notice there are no empty seats to be found. This was illusory because my little seat had been completely eclipsed by the largest tag-team sumo wrestlers this side of Manchester... which was, in fact, where they were from. Imagine Tubbs and Edward from The League of Gentlemen only fatter... much fatter. The flight attendant LITERALLY placed their meals atop their stomachs as the tray-table could not be budged. I could sense their guilt, however, in crushing a young man in his prime and it is for this reason I can't really blame them. So I'll blame British Airways.

** Another fun-filled flight from LHR-BOS on BA (on a better appointed 772) involved my sitting next to a raving lunatic who suddenly, as we were pulling away from the gate, started screeching "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!" He didn't remain my seatmate for much longer as he was ejected from the aircraft. The ensuing delay as they removed his baggage was similarly irksome. However, there might have been something to what this prophet had to say... As we taxi-ed out to the runway, the pilot came over the PA to announce a technical malfunction. What happened next was nothing short of astounding. Expecting to taxi back to the gate and sit it out while they investigated the glitch, you can imagine my surprise when we rolled over to a hangar area where real live technicians ran to the engine hanging from the mighty wing and began to tinker around! Perhaps it was the lack of air conditioning on that hot London summer's day, perhaps it was my already frazzled nerves or perhaps it was my personal fatalistic bend... it was at that point that I crossed myself, popped some pills and hoped that when I woke up, it would be in Beantown. Miraculously, we did... and only 3 hours late. Is it just me or is such interactive repair work highly unusual? Doesn't it hamper morale... which, for us, had already been hampered by the insane man who spoke of an icy Atlantic grave. When mere mortals are faced with the reality that these monstrous flying machines are manmade and that they aren't quite so magical, it reminds us just how dangerous air travel can be. At least, that's my humble analysis...

Those are my favourites and believe me, there are plenty more where they came from. I just stumbled today upon this message board and I still can't believe that there are others like me who not only enjoy but obsess over civil aviation.

[This message has been edited by WaywardCorsican (edited 10-21-2003).]

Y_me?

Splendid first post WaywardCorsican! Welcome aboard.

(N.B.: Fasten your seat belt and check that your life jacket is stowed under your seat.)

RevvedUp

Great post WaywardCorsican , welcome! I hope you'll consider adding some stories to the Trip Report board.

Jenbel

Guys, I know this, I always ask for a window seat to prevent this. But I don't always get it. This was a full-to-the-gunnels flight, and I'd asked at booking and check-in for one. And yes, it could have been medical, but there were two exits from the row, she didn't have to ask me all of the time.

But hey, water under the bridge compared with WaywardCorsican's post - welcome to FT! - although his first story does remind me of a longhaul trip with my boss..... but I'm still too grossed out by it to talk about it...

essxjay

Brilliant prose!



------------------
essxjay
Constitutional apologist

www.theatlasphere.com
www.capitalistchicks.com
www.objectivistcenter.org

HomelessScientist

To follow up on ScottC: "The 'snotty' guy on a CX HKG-NRT in F, he was sniffing and snottering through the entire flight, and instead of blowing his nose he just decided it would be better to annoy his fellow passengers..."

My limited understanding of Japanese etiquette says that it's considered very rude to blow your nose in a public place. The guidebooks say that it's more common to see people urinating in the street than blowing their noses. Just to try to explain this behavior--it would have driven me beyond crazy too, I simply can't stand repeated sniffling.

Punki

Certainly not the worst, but probably the most amusing are the boorish businessmen who try to impress me with their status, and then turn out to be Premier or Premier Execs on UA or MVPs on AS.

At least they are somewhat entertaining.

I really don't like the whiny, unhappy, pouty, complaining type seatmates. Of course, I don't much care for those types anywhere. Fortunately, they are few and far between.

By far the majority of my seatmates are range from interesting to delightful.

dhacker

The guy who sat next to me on my first and only Concorde flight 2 weeks ago.

He was an extremely rich, eighty something ex-ambassador and ex-chairman of a major oil company on his sixteenth Concorde flight. I had to really work hard the entire flight to ignore him enough to enjoy the experience while avoiding a scene by still listening to his endless, repetitve stories and unwelcome ideas about how I too could become super rich. He just couldn't understand how anyone could be happy with anything less. I actually pitied him more than anything and felt sorry for his very nice wife across the aisle who ran interference between him and the FA's as he became more beligerant with every drink. In the end, I accepted a ride with them to my hotel in London, mostly because it would have been harder to refuse. It saved me some money and I zipped through customs because he was in a wheelchair I was now "with" them.

AllanJ

You should have pressed him on what exactly to do (down to the step by step choreography) to become super rich yourself. Except that each time an outlay is needed, he makes the outlay, and you promise to pay back any loans after you get super rich.



[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited 10-23-2003).]

dhacker

Opporunities like this always seem to happen to the wrong people!

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 10-23-2003).]

SPN Lifer

Originally posted by vetteset:
See Perv on the Plane
http://www.flyertalk.com/pasttalk/ft...ML/012030.html