muscae

On the HNL - DEN redeye last night. In the back on an award ticket, had a nonrev directly behind me who talked the entire flight. Various flight attendants would stop by kneel in the aisle and talk, talk talk. I got to dose off a few times. Why wouldn't they take it to a galley? Solutions? Write to 1k voice and ask them to tell nonrevs not to talk constantly on a redeye? Is noise canceling headphones my only option? Anyone had a similar experience?

DawgmanOH

Without knowing more about this, the issue isn't that it was a nonrev. The issue is that the talking was not conducive to sleep. It could have just as easily been two passengers near you who talked because they weren't tired.

You hit on the answer in your post. Since there is no guarantee that people won't talk on a redeye flight, and if people talking is not good for your sleep, you should definitely invest in a good pair of noise cancelling headphones.

drewguy

This is something you need to address in the moment, and turn to them and say something like "I appreciate you'd like to talk, but given this is a redeye perhaps you could do it in the galley?" Or something.

If anyone is to blame here it's the FAs, not the non-rev.

TOGALK

I have, almost every flight I’ve dealt with people talking non-stop the entire time. However, I nov-rev to work weekly (UAL Pilot), and I rarely see non-revenue passengers behave poorly. Not to say it doesn’t happen though, because it does. Seeing how you never mentioned anything about requesting them to quiet down, I assume you didn’t. Instead of making some federal case about how non-revs ruined your flight, just turn around and ask “May you please lower the volume, I am trying to get some rest?” I’d be willing to bet that they will do so. We have to acknowledge an agreement every time we book NRSA, and being disruptive is not allowed. Basically they agree to let us fly for free, under the condition that we behave better than the average frequent flyer (which is a VERY low bar). Also, you should have noise cancellation headphones regardless. People are annoying, it’s something you have to deal with when you fly. I fly 2 to 5 times a week as a passenger, and there are annoying people near me more times than not.

physioprof

Passengers are allowed to talk all they want on a commercial airliner. Correspondingly, passengers are allowed to ask other passengers to keep it down.

dkc192

I partially disagree. Two (or more) passengers can talk all they want, revenue or nonrev--I would frown on that but at the end of the day I cannot do anything about it. However, working FAs have a responsibility for the comfort and wellbeing of passengers (after safety, of course), and I'd argue that talking with a passenger for extended periods within earshot of other passengers trying to sleep does not fulfill that responsibility.

If you do write to 1K Voice, I'd suggest focusing on the FAs and not the passenger.

limey1K

I had in-ear noise cancelers that I bought for this reason and lost the right one on the second overnight flight. I went to sleep with two, woke up with one. .Over ear for sleeping is a non-starter for me.

Instead of having to buy headphones, people could apply a little common courtesy instead on an overnight flight? That would work too.

narvik

Noise on a plane is par for the course, really.

Engine noise; aerodynamic noise; announcements over PA; crying babies; people coughing; people talking; & I recently had a guy cracking up laughing loudly for what-seemed-to-be-hours because he was so amused at what he was watching.

Flying ≠ quiet time.

mduell

You could, like, talk to the fellow humans around you about their behavior and how it's disrupting you.

narvik

Exactly; unlike all the other examples I mentioned just before, this is really the only scenario that warrants some interaction, which -if done politely- should yield a positive outcome.

nwflyboy

You can TRY to get others to behave, but you can't count on them doing it. People are...well, you know.

Forget the over-ear headphones. Forget your expensive Bose QuietComfort ANR phones and any sort of ear buds.

Just get some simple foam earplugs, learn how to properly insert them (you might be surprised, there's a specific technique you need to use for them to be effective, and IME most people are either too lazy to bother with getting it right, or too stupid to figure it out, or both - most people just try to mash them into their ear with their thumb, and seem to be surprised when they prove useless). If you know how to use them (and practice a bit) even the cheap-o little foam earplugs will completely drown out virtually all noise (the only exception: screaming babies, the high-pitched, shrill cries will cut through any acoustic or electronic filter you try...but FAs and nonrevs boorishly chatting nearby? That's easy, earplugs will eliminate that).

There ARE safety issues about being completely cut off from all outside sounds - hopefully, in an emergency, you would be jostled enough to wake up. Then there's the issue of getting the earplugs OUT of your ear if you've inserted them too deeply...

Silence is golden when you're a light sleeper and need to get some rest.

lehms

Red eye=. Eye mask, ear plugs, noise cancellation

I have been wondering why they don’t turn off the lights in the galley and stop talking for 30 years


Einstein Quote #1:"The definition of insanity is -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

WineCountryUA

And your technique is??

The one I learned was to roll them to decrease the diameter and let them expand in the ear.

jpezaris

Properly used foam ear plugs should give about 30-33 dB of noise reduction (read: are advertised at 30-33 dB), and cost something over a dime each in quantity. But just because they are inexpensive does not mean they aren't effective. The last time I checked, even the top-of-the-line noise cancelling headphones didn't come close.

enviroian

OP just curious why you didn't say anything? I would have said something after the first 2 minutes. It's a red-eye flight. There are known courtesies that come along with it and talking and keeping people up is a no-no.