The good news about this one is that the solution is easy (and often satisfying!).

I am a little confused. If they are elites and they are going to be sitting upfront, they are not the ones crowding.:confused:

Secondly, how is owning a bigger house, a faster car or having a hotter girlfriend relevant? :confused:

1. It was in reference to the supposed elite FF's in business suits who automatically assume that people in polo shirts and jeans (or shorts) could not possibly be sitting up front because they look like "Kettles."

2. Just a jab...while the FF elites are sweatily jostling with gate lice as they call them, I'm cruising down the PCH in my M3 with my hot gf. :)

true
 

I agree that it is easy to fix creeping leg syndrome. On a flight to SFO once, my wife (at the time gf) had a pax next to her with creeping legs. After trying repeatedly to establish the boundary line, she finally got fed up and stomped on his foot. In heels. Needless to say, his feet stayed on his side of the line for the rest of the flight.

It almost made me laugh out loud... especially because my wife is usually so accomodating.

I third that as well ^^

For one, people that get so bent outta shape over the gate lice thing. Is it so hard to just board when you're called? And if you decided to take a stroll around the boarding door (or in some cases the 'elite carpet') let them be. Lets face it....we're all going somewhere. Just my $0.02

I also second those who talk about people being absent minded at security. There are signs and announcements ad nauseum...take your shoes, jackets, and belts off and just run them through. I watched a woman go through the metal detector three times before she realized she still had her watch on under her shirt. We all make mistakes...but being proactive at security is something everyone benefits from :)

Another one....when a random flatus passes through the cabin....don't we all love that...

I used to get really riled up over the boarding gate crowding thing, the overhead bin contention, the various invasion-of-personal-space issues, until I made one major change in my approach to air travel. No longer do I check in online the within minutes of the flight opening for check in. No longer to do I try to sit as close to the front of the plane as possible. No longer do I have to plot pre-boarding gate proximity strategy. Now, I check just before I leave for the airport, scroll down the plane seating plan to about row 20 and pick the first window seat I see where the aisle seat is already allocated but the middle seat is still free (I fly mostly A320's and A321's and always economy). Now I can board at my leisure and still find somewhere in front of my seat to stow my case and 6 or 7 times out of 10 I have a free seat beside me.
I really love sitting near the gate with the boarding scrum at full cry while I watch an episode of Family Guy on my iPod, then pick up my stuff and nonchalantly board when the queue has disappeared and then watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth as passengers contemplate the nightmare of getting their bag from above row 11 when they're squashed into 4B.
The downside of course, is that I lose maybe 5 minutes at the other end, but to my mind it's well worth the elimination of most of my flying pet peeves.
The ones that remain are:
- people who clearly have checked bags and who amble aimlessly along on narrow corridors on the way to baggage reclaim after deplaning and who hold up people behind who have carry on only
- people (usually young, female college students for some reason?) who sit in large groups on the floor in front of the boarding gate
- people who throw their coats carelessly into the overhead bin instead of putting them on top of their bags/cases and leaving more room for others
- people who don't let other passengers seated in front of them out into the aisle when deplaning

Photos of gf as proof please.

Haha...I don't think so. But if you see someone who makes Lucy Liu look like Sandra Oh at ONT or SJC, then that's probably her. :D

And along those lines, I'll pick on the men because I saw it three separate times yesterday - when throwing your coats in the overhead bin, if a sleeve or belt happens to be hanging down, how about tidying it up so the person sitting below doesn't have your clothing hanging down an inch from their head? In all three cases, the FA had to 'clean up' after the passenger.

Good call. Another slightly related one is someone puts his stuff up in the bin and then closes it. For no reason. It's not full. He's not the last person to board. He just closes it because he's put his stuff in there and that's that. The people who get on after assume it's full. No idea why they do it.

I don't get this one either and I'm their age....

the good thing about flying on a plane with that kind of group aboard is that they travel only with a huge checked-only size suitcases so theres plenty of bin space.

Not really a pet peeve, but I relate to the "appearance" comments on this thread.

When I travel, I like to dress as comfortably as possible but proper. (jeans, sweater). Nothing sloppy, no sneakers.

One time I waited in line at the elite status line and an employee asked to see my boarding pass. :( Then when the baggage was all done and over with, I went to the security line. There was an employee who walked down the line and asked "oneworld ruby, something, something", and basically those who have elite status can move over to the elite status line). So I was at the end of the line with another lady who was going onto the same flight (she was running late too due to a crowded check-in) and I saw that she has Boarding Group 1 (same as me). The employee didn't even bother asking us and then walked back. :confused:

The lady in front of me was digging through something so she may not "look" like an elite member. I was only in my mid-20s and probably looked too young to be an elite member. Anyway, I happened to ask the lady if she was an elite member and she said yes. The line was amazingly long and I was actually afraid I would miss the flight (I budgeted 1.5 hours for a domestic flight, but the checkin took much longer than anticipated).

We decided to skip over to the elite line anyway and by the time we got through security, it was boarding time (actually, people have already boarded). Some people seemed confused. By the time I got there, boarding has apparently happened. I walked to the end of the line and I asked a gentleman who was already in line what group they're boarding, and he said he doesn't know..."

Of course, I missed all the pre-boarding announcements because I was trying to get through security.

I know this sounds silly, but my pet peeve is actually someone who changes their seat mid-flight. One time I was seated the window seat, my sis at the aisle seat on a 3 seat row). The middle seat is empty.

We intentionally picked the seats because we were hoping for more space (yes, I know, the seat isn't really "ours", but the fact is that I spent a lot of time choosing the seats).

One person who sat in front of me kept moving around in the seat in front of me and turning around to eye that middleseat (all 3 seats were taken for her row) and she asked the flight attendant if she could move over to our row so she can watch "TV" better. (That was a lie because she was just one seat up mine and the angle of her seat to TV isn't much different from mine). Also, I think she wanted to move because the guy next to her fell asleep and he's leaning towards her side of the seat.

That was a bit annoying because we were already comfortable in our seats (mid-flight!). I guess it was okay until she laughed obnoxiously loud (not just chuckle, but loud HA HA HA's) when she watched TV and I was trying to catch a nap (it was an evening flight). :mad:

I wanted to strangle her at the time. In hindsight, it was silly, but still...the flight attendance said something along the lines of "you can only take one seat..." I guess she wouldn't be considered a seat poacher, but it's still a pet peeve anyway.

So many pet peeves, so little time...

Actually, my biggest is businessmen who refuse to put anything under the seat in front of them.

It's also annoying that I'm Chairman on USAir, but the rest of the people in First and the FA's treat me like garbage. I'm a petite 40 year old woman, but I look like I'm 28 (so I'm told), and I don't wear my best clothes when traveling (they just get wrecked). Sometimes I'd like to scream at all the businessmen in First "I make more than you! So HA!"

The folks who wait for a personal, ceremonious invitation to use the kiosk
 

Mine is waiting to use the kiosks at check in becasue kettles in front wait to be called by an agent or if I'm around, have to wait till I tell them "there's kiosks available, please step ahead" (much to the annoyance of my wife). At BWI a few weeks ago, the line was about 7-10 minutes would have been 2-5 if people stepped forward to kiosks. Instead they kept waiting until an employee, seeing the empty ones, would move them forward.

Also, people seem to think its rude to use the kiosk while its available but the person before them is waiting for bags to be tagged, but I don't. Dangit, use the kiosk, then step aside....