Flying home to Detroit from LA. If that wasn’t bad enough, sat next to a mother and child, roughly 7-8 yrs old. Kid was really too sick to fly as he coughed, hacked, sneezed while strings of mucous dripped from his nose. Did his mother wipe or blow his nose? No. Did the kid wipe or blow his nose? No. Instead he used the back of his hand, his sleeve and sniffled the whole way through. Needless to say, I, too was sick once I got home. Yes, the flight was full, no seats to change to.
One summer, I flew back and forth from ATL to Detroit every other week. I generally got business class seats. People, if you’re booking a flight as a couple, and that airline can’t offer you adjoining seats, then don’t get offended when I don’t want to give up my seat to trade with your significant other that is sitting 10 rows back. Five times that summer, I was asked by someone to trade seats “because we want to sit together.” Then find an airline that can accommodate you!!!!!
Tagged as:
children & babies,
illness & medical,
seats
I, like many others, suffer from “Sleep Apnea” and use a device that keeps my airway open while I sleep. It is called a “CPAP” machine, which stands for Constant Positive Air Pressure. When I travel, the device and accessories fit neatly in my carry-on bag which is then subject to a search by our security professionals.
Every time I go through security, the attendant calls out “CPAP Alert” at which point I am taken off to the side and my bag is given a thorough search. The machine and all contents of my carry-on are removed, the CPAP is swabbed for explosives (of course no residue is found) and the contents are hastily returned to my bag and I’m free to go.
I do not have a problem with random searches, nor do I begrudge anyone from doing their job… but I fail to see the threat a CPAP machine poses to flight/airport security. I mean it’s one thing to randomly select passengers for additional screening, but to identify and select each and every passenger that is in possession of a CPAP machine is absolutely ludicrous!!!
Tagged as:
baggage,
illness & medical,
security
I am afraid my story incriminates me as a passenger from hell, but it has to be told so that some people can see the other side of bad behavior and maybe sympathize just a tiny bit. Some people don’t mean any harm and just find themselves in a bad situation they never wanted to be in.
Last month I had an anxiety attack coming home on a short flight. I’m a normal person with no mental issues, and it was the first anxiety attack I’d ever had in my life.
Basically I was standing up waiting for the bathroom in the very back of the plane when we hit some rough turbulence. My spouse was way up at the front of the plane and I could see him waving for me to come back. The seat belt sign went on, and even the flight attendants were looking worriedly at each other. I started to panic because there was a food cart in aisle and I could not get back up to my seat.
Now, I KNEW we weren’t crashing, but it had been a rough day. I had been told that morning I was going to be laid off from my job (one that I love wholeheartedly), I was just getting over the flu and was exhausted, my beloved dog had been hit by a car the previous day while a neighbor was walking her, and my brother had just broken the news to me that he was seriously depressed and thinking of suicide… I know, the whole thing sounds like a sad country song. My wonderful life appeared to be falling apart before my eyes with no warning in a space of less than 48 hours.
So without so much as a glimmer of warning I had a major anxiety attack in the back of that plane. Prior to this point I had been holding it all together for a while and was acting brave, but now the turbulence was the final straw (I’m a nervous flyer anyway). So I burst into tears, climbed OVER the food cart, jumped over the guy in the aisle (smashing his foot and spilling his drink in the process) and dived into my seat. I sobbed loudly the whole flight and yes, I got many dirty looks from passengers because the flight attendants were constantly checking on me and trying to help. I heard one man yell “can you please shut her up!?” It was terrifying, I just could not control myself – I was shaking, crying, and panicking all at once – and it lasted for about 45 minutes, which was about how much of the flight we had left. It was a very rough flight as I mentioned, which did not help matters in the least.
This little breakdown was caused by one of the worst days of my life, and of all places I had to fall apart on the plane. It was already humiliating enough for a strong person like me to lose it in the first place, nevermind in front of so many people and my shocked husband.
All I’m saying is, you truly have no idea what is really going on in your fellow passenger’s lives, and if you are being annoyed by someone incessantly talking (maybe out of nervousness), being rude (preoccupied by worries) or other alarming behaviors, please give them a break now and then.
By the way, I’d like to send out a huge thank you Southwest for being so understanding and kind to a passenger in need. The flight attendants and an off-duty pilot never treated me like a mental case, although I was certainly acting like one. They just correctly assumed I was a very scared human being in need of some comforting words – and a good stiff drink! I was quite happy by the time we got on the ground!
Tagged as:
flight attendant,
illness & medical,
pilot,
southwest airlines,
weather
When I was 18, I was flying back (on my second air flight ever!) from visiting my married sister in Nevada. Now, in my extended family, I am known as ‘the sickly one.’ Everything that can happen does to me.
On this flight, I boarded feeling cheery, excited, and well rested. I spoke to the gent sitting beside me about little things, and listened to him. I started listening more and more to him as I began to feel lightheaded and a bit sick in a non-nausea way. My chest hurt and I was having a hard time breathing. I asked him, when I was beginning to gasp, to call the airline attendant.
Bravo to the airline for having considerate attendants, a kind African American gentleman, but no working oxygen tank in the back! It was okay, they got one from the front. I remember passing out, but feeling better as soon as the plane descended far enough for an emergency landing. I asked the flight attendant to apologize to the other passengers for me. I still feel guilty about my health messing up their flight.
A very sarcastic thanks to the New Mexico hospital who assumed I had been on drugs, didn’t run a single test aside from a drug screening and turned me out ALONE with no money, knowing I hadn’t been able to contact my parents and was hundreds of miles away from home, with no answer as to why I was having chest pain, difficultly breathing, and passed out. Thank God my father heard from the only relative I’d been able to contact and came from Texas!
Tagged as:
flight attendant,
illness & medical,
medication & drugs
