On a flight a gentleman sat behind me. After being seated he took his sneakers off and wedged one of his feet in-between the seat in front of him (which was mine), and under my arm rest. The smell was enough to make me puke. I turned around and asked him to remove his foot, he said no, that he paid for his seat and needed to stretch out. I said please again, he said no, live with it. I told him the stink from his foot was making me sick, at which time he shoved his foot further between the seats causing the arm rest to raise. I told him if you don’t move your foot you would be sorry. He told me to pound sand. At that time I smashed the arm rest down on his foot. He screamed bloody murder, which caused the flight attendant to come back and ask what was wrong. He start spouting off it was my fault, then I gave my side of the story and the lady next to me said the same thing. The flight attendant told the man to remove his foot and put his shoes back on, or he would be escorted off the airplane. He was pissed. As he left the airplane the gave me and the lady a dirty stare.
Tagged as:
flight attendant,
odor,
seats,
violence
I fly a lot for work and recently flew a relatively short 2 hour flight on a smaller regional jet with 50 seats. The plane was full to capacity. I knew it was going to be a bad flight by the sounds of toddlers having tantrums in the gate area and exhausted parents who could not control their kids and babies.
I boarded and was seated in the last few rows. A single father boarded with what looked like his 2 year old and 3 year old sons. They sat 2 rows in front of me; to my immediate left was a single mother with a what looked like a 3 year old. The 3 year old had a temper tantrum when he was forced to buckle up, and screamed for 45 minutes non stop. The FA had to intervene a few times and ask what was going on as the kid was hysterical. To add to this, there must have been 3 babies crying on and off the entire flight.
About an hour into the flight, 2 rows up a 2 year old boy starts whining and wants to run in the aisle. The kid runs and cries and whines for 15 minutes annoying everyone. Then the single father gets out of his seat and grabs a diaper and wipes from the overhead bin. I think, OK, he’s going to take his 2 year old to the back lav and change him. No, he stands his son on his lap, pulls down his pants, and unfastens the tapes of a loaded diaper. Everyone was hit with this disgusting aroma. Dad is just wiping away the mess for a good 10 minutes and then just rolls up the diaper and wipes and tosses them under the seat. The used diaper was under the seat when we got off the plane.
I don’t understand why some parents can be so unmannerly. It was foul! People were complaining about the smell, but the FA did nothing. Airlines have changing tables for a reason… use them please! To make matters worse, I get off the plane and have to use the washroom. Not even a foot away from the urinals another father is busy changing junior’s soiled diaper. Why not place diaper changing tables near the sink or in a stall? I did my business and got out of there fast!
The joys of travel!
Pascal
Tagged as:
children & babies,
odor,
poop
A few years ago, flying from AVL (Asheville, N.C.) to BOS, my cousin and I were waiting to get on the puddle-jump from AVL-CLT stand-by. When a party of seven didn’t show for the flight, we were ushered on to the plane and told to “take the first seats we could find” as we would leave immediately.
My folks were sitting further back in the plane, but we found two seats in the second row and sat down. In AVL the planes don’t even pull in to Jetways, they sort of parallel park, so as soon as we clicked out seatbelts the jet rolled towards the taxiway. All of the sudden it became very apparent why these two seats weren’t taken. In front of us was a bloke with huge dreadlocks which probably hadn’t been washed in a year.
My cousin and I started a muffled conversation where every third or fourth word was mimed in order to not offend the offender. Something like, “Do you [sniff sniff] that?” “Oh, god, yes, it’s [holds nose] awful!” We discussed walking back to seats aft, but the flight attendant was standing next to us, giving the safety lecture, so there’d be none of that, thank you.
We hit the runway, and as we spun up the FA sat down. We began to roll–V1, V2–and I looked at my cousin, he nodded and looked at me. We left the ground, and the flight attendant got up and turned around–our cue to sprint up the aisle. We flopped in to seats in row 13 or 14, buckled up, and got to explain to my parents why we were shooting down the plane ten seconds after take off. But at least we could breathe.
Tagged as:
odor,
puddle jumper
It’s sad. Because of unexpected traffic delays, I ran like mad to meet my international flight and made it just as they were about to close the doors. As it turned out, seated next to me on the aisle was a soccer player. When he sat back down after getting up to let me into my seat, I noticed the smell of old sports moldy toe-jam shoes. It wasn’t a little scent, it was very strong and nasty. I was appalled, but I did my best to ignore it the whole flight. Until we were getting close to our destination…
I got up to go to the bathroom. The smell followed me. It was unexplainable, since I was pretty sure the soccer player didn’t touch me with his shoes or feet. I swore it was the soccer player, but in the lavatory I looked down and realized it was my shoes!!! Apparently, the old comfy shoes I liked to wear travelling didn’t handle the dampness of my running to meet the plane very well, and had picked a bad time to start smelling! Never before had these shoes smelled, but now they positively reeked.
I made my way back to my seat, but before I could muster up the nerve to apologize through my embarrassment, we landed and the soccer player got off. No bad looks; no grumbling; he just left the plane and was graceful about the whole thing. I was mortified, but very grateful for his grace.
Now I am especially vigilant about deodorants, perfumes, etc. when I travel – I’ve added shoes onto the list.
Tagged as:
odor
