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Odd Passenger Behavior
OK, what are some strange things you've seen people do on an airplane? I've got two that come to mind, one of them in the category of "just when you think you've seen it all..."
Some time ago, pre-9/11, I guy next to me in F was reading a magazine. He had his tray table down with the mag on it. In his pocket he had a small X-acto type knife. After reading every page, front and back, he would remove the knife, uncap it, very carefully and neatly cut the page out of the magazie, fold it in half, cap the knife and put it back in his pocket. The pages piled up until all he had was the shell of the mag, then he put them all together and gave them to the FA to toss. #2 happened just about two months ago. Evening flight IAH-LAX, didn't score an EUA but had a nice comfy exit row aisle. About maybe 15 seconds after leaving the runway I go to recline my seat, gently. It goes back about an inch then snaps forward. Hmmmmmm. I try again, this time more forcefully. It doesn't move. OK, I wrench around and look behind me and see the dude sitting behind me all crouched down with his shoulder up against the seatback. 'What in the hell are you doing?" I ask. His response is that I am not allowed to put my seat back until we are in the air. I asked him to look out the window and he refused, just stayed there all hunkered down. I for sure thought there was going to be a brawl. I decided to cool off and ask an FA for help before I escalated things. They were in the middle of their after-takeoff spiel and I didn't want to interrupt them. Just as she finished her talk and before I could call, the dude all of a sudden lets go, sits back, and said nothing more nor gave me any more trouble on the flight. Weird. |
oh man. This is good stuff...the only weird stuff is what people say to me on the plane. I actually had to tell one guy to stop talking to me...I was trying to finish a book and he didn't let the fact that I had the book up to my face stop him from continually trying to converse....
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Originally Posted by carpboy
About maybe 15 seconds after leaving the runway I go to recline my seat, gently. ... His response is that I am not allowed to put my seat back until we are in the air.
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
One might reasonably ask what you're doing trying to recline your seat 15 seconds after leaving the runway. It would be better to leave it until either the seat belt sign is off, or the cabin crew are up and moving around the cabin. At that time, you know that you are not going to be coming back to the field for a rapid landing, or worse trying a forced landing somewhere else. While this guy's choice of words may not have been apt, I think that his sentiment was accurate.
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The one incident that I remember was on (guess) Continental. It must be about five or six years ago. So, I was on the plane and a well dressed lady came down and told me to get out of her seat. To make a long story short, she hadn't read her boarding pass properly and didn't have the window seat. An FA in the aisle sorted it out. So she sat down and lectured me about rude travelers and how people dressed on airplanes (I think I was a target, because I was in jeans); she also let me know that she didn't appreciate my taking her seat, but she was going to get an upgrade as she was platinum. She then explained how elite status worked.
The next thing she did was to engage in what started as polite conversation with the lady across the aisle from her. Within less than a minute, I heard her lecture the woman about the way she was holding her baby and that she might hurt the child’s neck. She also got into a discussion with a guy holding a bag of food, but I missed that exchange because an announcement. She was annoyed when the flight attendant wouldn’t bring here water. Well, the GA came down the aisle with some upgrades. I admired the woman, because she tried to take mine. When then GA mentioned my name the lady said 'yes' and stood up to move to the front. That issue got satisfactorily resolved. I think she did end up with the window seat, so I hope she was happy. I was glad to get away from her. |
Originally Posted by cblaisd
...We begin to taxi. As we're are taxiing, my seatmate reaches over and clutches my shirt and says "Could you please close all those windows -- I hate takeoffs and think I will pass out if I have to watch." As kindly as I could (really) I say, no, I booked a window seat so I can watch and maybe you could close your eyes or move over in the center where there is no one sitting (and offered to call the FA) and you won't 'have to' see outside. He says, no, I picked this seat because I need people to talk to.
We begin the takeoff roll with a clerance to make a 10 degree turn to the left. We rotate and begin the 10 degree turn. My seatmate again grabs my shirt and softly screams. Then the gear comes up and flaps are coming up. Out shoots the hand and clutches my shirt. I suggest to him that he put on his headphones, listen to Channel 9 and he'll hear what the controllers are telling the pilots to do, or that he listen to music. He puts on the headphones, but does not plug them in. In about 2 minutes -- you guessed it, a hand again clutches my shirt and he says "please stop working and talk to me. I picked this seat so someone would talk to me. I can't stand not having someone to talk to me during takeoff." OK. I talk to him a couple of minutes. He again asks me to put all the windows down. My seatmate asks for a meal and then does not eat it for 45 minutes (but does not want the FA to take it back). Finally, I notice, he picks up the roll (this is the -- surprise!! -- deli plate) precisely rotates the roll 90 degrees, eats half of the bottom half of the roll, then studies it for a time. Then he precisely turns it another 90 degrees, and eats the other half of the bottom of the roll. Then he tells the FA to take it away. |
My husband is always my seatmate and he is always just plain weird. :D
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
One might reasonably ask what you're doing trying to recline your seat 15 seconds after leaving the runway. It would be better to leave it until either the seat belt sign is off, or the cabin crew are up and moving around the cabin. At that time, you know that you are not going to be coming back to the field for a rapid landing, or worse trying a forced landing somewhere else. While this guy's choice of words may not have been apt, I think that his sentiment was accurate.
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Originally Posted by carpboy
Some time ago, pre-9/11, I guy next to me in F was reading a magazine. He had his tray table down with the mag on it. In his pocket he had a small X-acto type knife. After reading every page, front and back, he would remove the knife, uncap it, very carefully and neatly cut the page out of the magazie, fold it in half, cap the knife and put it back in his pocket.
I kept waiting for him to look around and start laughing and say, "I had you all fooled, you thought I was crazy, huh?" He never did. |
One of the weirdest thing I've seen was not on the plane, but still in the terminal.
One morning, I was in the N terminal and SEA in the newstand picking up some water or something. I looked over at the cash register, and there was a guy doing something I never thought I'd see a traveller do. He bought a USA Today. Cromely. |
my friend always gets a window seat and if someone is sitting in the middle he will always bang his head against the window and scream out weird things - like "Sega" remember the commercial. If that doesn't work, he'll take out some a mirror, a drug like ambien, and snort. After snorting, he'll turn to the middle seat passenger and say "Damn - that hit the spot - wanna try". All else fails he'll continually scratch his nether regions and offer the passenger an odd array of items - "Hey dude it looks like you might need this puke bag more than me".
My friend is plain weird! And gets a kick out of freaking people out. He's had tremendous success in opening that middle seat. |
This is a real story.
On a flight from BOS to IAD on UA few years ago in F/C this guy sitting next to me about 65 years old seemed very nervous.Before take off he gathered few pillows and put him on his lap.durinf T/O that guy pissed in his pants and covered himself with the pillows.Now the smell is terrible so i walked to the F/A told her what happened but she did nothing about it.During the flight that guy went to the bath few times.Beleive or not same thing happened during landing. I have never used an airline pillow since then. |
Originally Posted by svenskaflicka
My husband is always my seatmate and he is always just plain weird. :D
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Originally Posted by PTravel
Not according to UA. The question of when it's okay to recline has come up in a previous thread, so I asked the purser on my last flight. Her words, confirmed by the FA sitting next to her, is that it's okay to recline any time after wheels up.
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Originally Posted by infinityplusone
I think I saw this same guy or at least a relative... it was back in the late '90s and the guy was sitting across the aisle from me. He was reading some magazine, I forget what it was now, but he had a small pocketknife and he would cut the pages from the magazine after he was done reading them, fold them in half and then in half again and then put it in his pant's pocket. He didn't do it for every single page but he did do it for the majority of the pages.
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