I was taking a one way flight from LAX to TPA, and I was flying coach. I thought to myself this shouldn’t be too bad. I boarded and found my seat somewhat near the end of the plane. I was sitting in a window seat, and there was a man in an aisle seat; there was no one in middle.
I was thinking this wasn’t so bad after all since the middle seat was the only one left, along with two seats in the back. A minute before the door was closed, one more person came on; I was horrified. This woman was clearly almost morbidly obese. She was barely squeezing through the isle.
I knew she was going to take the middle seat; I threw down the armrest as fast as possible. When she sat down, the armrest moved my way a couple inches or so, but I could still move. Then we took off, and at cruising altitude the worst happened – she took my armrest and lifted it up. I was immediately squashed into the window. I was mad; I didn’t pay to be smothered for five hours. It took an effort to put the armrest down, then she looked at me and put it back up. It went on for about five minutes, then I was starting to get really mad. I told her (clearly many people heard me) that I paid for this seat for me to sit in…ONLY…not for you to sit in also. She gave me a look of surprise, as if she couldn’t believe I said that. I told her that this wasn’t my fault you are where you are now, then she moved to BOTH of the seats in the back. When the plane landed she squeezed herself to the front, giving me a death look as she passed by. In the end of it all, you should defend your seat so you don’t have this kind of flight from hell.
Tagged as:
portly,
seats
When I was a junior in high school (age 16) I flew TWA to Washington D.C. for Presidential Classroom, an educational week-long program that teaches kids about government. On the way out from Kansas City, I was stuck in a 3-seat isle with a mom, her two kids ages 5 and 7, and a baby that was at least 2-years old. The two older ones were sick with colds. The airline let the mom hold the “baby” in her lap and the other two were supposed to share the middle seat. The two kids were too big to share the seat so they raised the armrests and took over half my seat. The “baby” squirmed and climbed over the mom the kids and myself.
I asked the stewardess if I could be moved to a different seat but was told the flight was over-booked and no seats remained. So I asked to be moved to the seat that one of the children were supposed to be sitting in but weren’t and was told the family only had two seats, one for the mom and one for the kids. So I asked how could they, a family of four, be allowed to board the plane with only two-tickets? The stewardess told me that was just the way it was and that I needed to be quiet and sit in my seat – which was impossible because I kept having to get up every five minutes because the brats kept having to go use the restroom. The mom was too stupid to have brought the kids snacks to shut them up so they whined about being hungry the whole time and were kicking and pushing each other.
It was a three-and-a-half hour flight; the airline didn’t apologize nor did they offer any compensation. Within two days I caught a terrible cold, I’m sure from those germy brats, and my trip was pretty much ruined. Because I was a minor, TWA didn’t take my complaint seriously even though my parents filed a complaint on my behalf.
Tagged as:
children & babies,
illness & medical,
seats,
TWA
my weekly travels from Dallas to LA have been somewhat uneventful for the most part until american started getting cheap… between the chaos of american and the summer travels, the last couple of months have been horrible as far as seating or the ability to change it…
…so I board and sit with my NOISE CANCELLING headphones on… I hear this really piercing obnoxious voice coming from above… I look up as a natural reaction to the stupidity and loudness of what is being said and I see this younger girl of about 18 or 19 yapping about various mindless things without taking a breath… she was telling her travel mate (whom the whole plane will learn minutes later that he is homosexual) about her travels to south america or mexico or somewhere… I didn’t think much of it, it is natural for people to try and solicit attention… both travelers ended up sitting two rows behind me and to my surprise this girl never stopped talking for a second not even to take a breath… from statements like “like o my gawd…” to the f bombs she continuously dropped, she covered the whole spectrum of obnoxious and stereotypical conversations you associate with air heads and dumb blonds as depicted in hollywood… she tried her best to be loud enough for everyone to hear her, I am assuming she thought she was interesting or cute or something… I felt bad for her because she had to do this to get attention… but this feeling soon dissipated as thoughts of silencing her by force or otherwise filled my head…
the few minutes we were asked to turn the electronic equipments off we were in hell… there was no protection from the torturous sound and mind numbing assaults… her traveling mate, while not less obnoxious, had a less audible sound… although we did hear what he was saying, his voice didn’t pierce your brain… when she stopped to take a breath, he managed few words in. we learned that his mom was ok with him being gay and liked one of his boyfriends and that he has gone to south america… that is all he managed to say, those few words “literally”! the other 3.8 hours (we spent 40 minutes at the gate) were about she devil… the food cart didn’t shut her up and neither one of them took a restroom break to give us a moment of silence… it was hell, my nerves were unraveling, I couldn’t concentrate on reading, I couldn’t sleep, I was getting exhausted. all I could do is fantasize about shoving something in my ears to stop the torture… no one around me said anything… so I thought it was all in my head, I was having this reaction because I concentrated on her, so it is all my fault for being a negative person… and the assault continued…
finally we stood up to de-board and I happen to make eye contact with the passenger across from me and I realized she was telling me something, she was saying “I will never complain about a toddler again”… suddenly voices from all around me got louder, people started making abusive comments at ear shot of the girl while looking at each other not at HER… I was too tired to join at this point but I was awed when I saw the business men join the verbal attacks… this almost never happen… in fact most of the people who were making the comments did not look like the type of people who will behave in this manner… I doubt the girl realized that any of what was being said was about her…
as I walked toward baggage claim “they” were there and I can see she was still talking (I am not sure how can that be humanly possible)… I seriously contemplated picking up my bag later… I figured the hour or so to rent a car, checking into the hotel, coming back and paying for airport parking was well worth it if it means never hearing her voice again…
Tagged as:
chatty
[Mature content]
On one of my flights, a male took the middle seat next to me. He told me something to which I smiled and nodded. I thought it was obvious when I didn’t remove my headphones that I wanted no conversation. He told me something else and I smiled again and pointed to my headphones. He reacted with a big grin and went on to rummage around his seat. I thought things were going well at this point. Apparently he found nothing to busy himself with so he decided to go to sleep before we were even airborne. In few seconds he had his arms on both arm rests, had his legs stretched out and was slouching in his seat. Nothing to be alarmed about, I thought. Few minutes passed by and I noticed he was tugging on his shirt. He was pulling it down toward his thighs. With every tug and move he managed to elbow me. *sigh* He started fidgeting again and his hands ended up being cupped and resting over his private area. No big deal I thought, that is how it worked out for him. However, he kept on fidgeting and moving in his seat almost every minute and finally came the big move. He undid his seat belt and put it around or over his private part to KEEP IT DOWN. THE GUY HAD AN ERECTION HE WAS TRYING TO CONCEAL. That was worse than the people who pick their nose while less than an inch away from you!!!!
Tagged as:
sexuality
