I'll add to that: pax who insisted on early boarding because they need extra time, yet they somehow also "need" to be first out of their bulkhead seats, creaking up the jetway and holding up those of us trying to make a connection. If you get pre-boarding, you should accept post-deboarding.

And one more, albeit from pre-9/11: mega families of arriving passengers that insisted on long hugs and squeals at the exit of the jetway, blocking the remaining passengers.

Well, it looks like it's time for some good examples!

1) The person who asks if they can adjust your bag when putting theirs in the overhead bin instead of just smushing it

2) The parents who bring things for their kids/babies to do on the flight and actually watch them to make sure they are behaving

3) The people who only bring on the amount of carryon luggage they should, and put their purse/briefcase/small personal item under the seat in front of them.

I'm sure there's more... just thought that maybe instead of looking at all the negatives that people do, we could list a few positives. Not everyone is a self absorbed heathen.

(Although I don't agree about the not waiting thing to get off the plane thing. If you don't wait for people to get their things like the polite people we should all be, then folks never have a chance to get their things and get off the plane. Of course, if you have a tight connection or something I understand the urgency - but other than that I don't see pushing to be the first off the plane to be any better behavior than crowding the gate to be first on)

To blow my own horn as well as plenty of other FTers:
The pax who will help other less plane-savvy pax to place their belongings appropriately in the overheads. The same for the boyscouts who help others through the security process, even if it's as simple as "you'll probably need to take that belt off". It's hard to imagine a more frustrating situation than watching the same moron go through the metal detector the fourth time because they can't get it right. (I have to take my jacket AND my shoes off?!)
Thanks to anyone who comes to the rescue, on the plane or off of it.

Card games inflight drive me nuts. The sound of shuffling the cards is very loud on a flight. I'm not sure why, considering the cabin can be loud anyway if you're sitting behind the engines. Perhaps because it's such a completely different type of sound than anything else on the plane.

When I'm home playing poker with buddies, the sound of shuffling doesn't bug me at all. Just on airplanes.

==============

One unrelated thing I noticed a couple of months ago: I was boarding a late-night ORD-MCI flight on United. A 757, very lightly loaded, maybe 50-60 pax total. I had already upgraded using an e500. I'm standing about 30 feet away from the GA when I notice a couple come up and ask for preboarding. The weird part is that I actually was a casual acquaintance of the couple: they're late 50's/early 60's and fairly visible members of "society" - wealthy donors to the arts and all of that. Nice people and all, but they definitely like to play the "DYKWIA?" card a lot. On the ground, I'm sure it works at restaurants, theatre, etc.

The GA, seeing that they don't need assistance, attempted to tell them to board with their group. They insisted, a little bit of back-and-forth went on, and finally the GA gave in and let them preboard. I was surprised...I wanted to say "hi" to them but just assumed they'd be in F and I'd catch them on the plane. Anyway, I boarded after them with just enough time to peek back and see them settling in at about Row 20. I waved, smiled, and made my left turn to Row 6. United OLCI usually tries to upsell this upgrade for $65 - I'm still surprised they didn't buy it. Maybe 5 of us total in F...

In any case, pax who don't need preboarding but grovel for it are a tad annoying. On a mostly-empty 757 it doesn't really affect anyone else, but still...

The passenger(s) who must get everything out of their bag one at a time several times just minutes before take-off. The bag is stowed in the overhead compartment and they can't wait ten minutes to get to cruising altitude to get their book or ipod. Up and down up and down... drives me crazy. Just wait!

And, to toot my own horn, people who react to someone else's noisy kid by quietly distracting him/her (playing peek-a-boo, etc.) instead of immediately getting hostile towards the parent(s).

Of course I'm just a kid at heart... or is it that I'm childish? ;)

Kudos to you for that! I will play peek a boo and smile and wave too and have a tolerance for the kids... however after traveling with my friend and my 1 year old god son, I think that I start to put more and more responsibility on the parent to be prepared.

There was a lady with 2 kids (1 baby, 1 probably... 2 -3?) sitting behind us on our non-stop flight from St Louis to Seattle and she hadn't brought a single book, rattle, toy, snack, binky or heck, even a paper cup for the kids to play with. We'd been behind her in the security line, so we knew that she wasn't used to flying and we'd helped her out there a bit, but any smart parent knows that a 2 year old and a baby won't sit quietly for 4+ hours. Heck, I can't sit quietly for 4+ hours!

I cut kids and their parents plenty of slack when it's obvious that they're trying. It's the ones who just aren't that I have less tolerance for - although I know they're not having any more fun than I am at that point. :)

The only problem is that you don't know if anyone else in the back of the plane behind you has a tight connection that they may miss if they are delayed by a few minutes. The most polite thing to do is exit the plane as quickly as you can without being pushy, and if you need more time to gather your things before you go, stay out of the aisle until you are ready to leave the plane.

This strategy can backfire too. I was once traveling with a friend who did the peekaboo thing with a kid seated in front of her who kept hanging over the seat back. He quickly decided that she should do that or entertain him in other ways for the length of the flight. The mother made no effort to control or entertain him herself.

Grown ups who act like kids....they cannot sit still, and have to get up every 10 minutes on some pretext or other. They did not bring anything to amuse themselves with such as an ipod or book, and instead sit and stare at the seat back, check their watch every 2 minutes, and rapidly pump their leg up and down..like fidgety kids, but grown ups who should know better.

Line jumpers of all kinds, old ladies are the worst of course, especially at the luggage check. And those who duck under line seaparators to get there before you.

Casual fliers who bring ridiculous crap with them onto the plane...like full sized pillows and coolers.

GAs and FA's who back down wayyyy to easily from folks who insist on pre-boarding (when they don't require it) or sneaking into F class. Why do I have to pay if they don't?

Seat poachers..doubly so for the ones who refuse to move..and worse are FA's who take their side.

Jestors who joke loudly to anyone in earshot, and to no one in particular and then laugh at their own quips. The kind of moron who thinks it's funny to tell tsa that his elderly mother has a bomb.

Drunks. Grow some balls and stop being afraid of flying. Alcohol won't help. It will only make you feel worse when you get there.

LOL at full-sized pillows. Seriously, what is the deal with that? I thought that practice went out of style when Greyhound went out of business in 1985.




Oh wait...Greyhound still exists? :eek:

People who don't wait for those in the rows ahead to exit but try to barrel and push past so that they can exit first. Luckily, most PAX in US follow normal deplaning rules of behavior. ^

*I have found that most geriatics and invalids stay in their seats until after everyone deboards.

Bad Pax:
:rolleyes: Those who think their first class boarding pass is better than my first class BP and walk in front of me to board the plane. Most frequent with people of a certain age (older than my parents) and sometimes DYKWIA men in business suits.

:eek: Those who have elite status but don't know the rules (obvs. not FT'ers) and complain loudly about lack of upgrade or other airline policy even though they are status XYZ -- when they didn't get upgrade because GA WAS following rules.

:mad: Pax who placed luggage at front of plane and pushes past all other deplaning pax to try to get to their bag. WAIT your turn; your bag will be waiting for you!

Good Pax:
First rule of good pax -- good pax are more frequent than bad pax. :cool:

^ Community of aisle pax who get window pax's luggage out of overhead BEFORE deplaning has started. Speeds up process.

:p Most children on planes -- they find an excitment about flying still and unless really poorly parented, follow the rules.

:-: Great AE FAs I've encountered. Some have been more attentive than international business FAs!

:) Pax who understand I don't want to have a conversation with them through the entire flight.

:):) Those few Pax who have interesting tales with whom I did have flight-long conversations.

+1^

My big bug a boo. People who bring a computer bag, a 24 inch roller bag, a huge purse and shopping bag on a RJ and the GA lets them.

Those Pax that pay to check a bag and bring a small bag on board but the above person that has to have 24 inch roller bag gate checked because the RJ will not have enough room for it and pay NOTHING!

People with kids under two that fly free with the kid and bring a huge diaper bag, car seat, huge stroller and a bag of junk for the kid.

People who stuff everything but the kitchen sink into Golf bags and don't have to pay extra for a 70 pound bag.

I have been hit in the head so much from people grabbing stuff out of the over head and hauling huge bags. If you can't lift it into the overhead don't expect someone else to do it for you.

You don't need 15 pairs of shoes for a 7 day trip, or full size bottle of anything.
Stinky people or ethnic food, garlic and curry will make me as sick as a bath in polo or estee lauder.

ok, enough....