On a recent trip from Hawaii to San Diego, my brother and I lost the boarding pass lottery and ended boarding the plane last to be seated in bulkhead seats behind first class passengers. It was a two aisle plane and we had the window and aisle seats together on the left of the plane. Since there were no seats in front of us, we had to stow our two small carry-on bags in overhead bins. The problem was that there was no space left. The overhead space above our seats had been utilized by some mystery luggage that seemed to belong to no one when we asked around. So my brother removed the suitcase from the overhead bin and placed it in the aisle and put our bags in the overhead bin.
A little while later a flight attendant showed up and asked who the suitcase belonged to, and suddenly this guy in first class gets up and says it’s his! Can you imagine – this jerk has a seat in first class, with plenty of closets and overhead bins, and he puts his suitcase in the first row of coach to screw the bulkhead passengers! He retrieved his bag and put it in the empty bin over his seat. There are some rotten people out there and a lot of them fly!
Tagged as:
baggage,
flight attendant,
overhead bin,
seats
Let me begin with a little background: I am in my 40’s, I have 3 children (ages 18 -28) all of whom I never took on a plane until they were age 7 or older – obviously I don’t believe in babies and toddlers on airplanes. To parents of small children I say, “Drive to your destination!!!” I also have issues with late-in-life-first-time parents who are enablers (aka: overly tolerant of negative behavior).
I do realize sometimes there isn’t much you can do to calm a crying baby, but you should, at the very least, try to do something, especially when you are in an enclosed space with a captive audience. I, and countless others, have paid our dues as parents and have no desire to be part of a total stranger’s parenting (or lack thereof) experience.
During a flight from West Palm Beach, FL, to Birmingham, AL, I had the displeasure of sitting across the aisle from a 30-something couple with an infant. As they boarded the plane the child was crying, and I don’t mean whimpering… I mean full-out-lung-capacity screaming. I thought perhaps the baby was hungry and they would feed her once they seated. WRONG!!! Neither parent made an attempt to feed the child, burp it, or comfort it in any way to calm its squalling and stop the distress (to all involved).
Anyway, the poor thing continued its scream-fest for at least an hour at which time, I assume, it finally passed out from exhaustion. Five minutes later as we were landing in Charlotte, NC the mother decides it’s her nap time so she hands the finally-sleeping child to her husband. BIG mistake!! Jostled child wakes up and once again starts screaming. Mommy-dearest, however, is still determined to take a nap leaving dear old dad to deal with the child from Hades.
Back in the air again, the child continues to cry the entire flight to Birmingham. Once deplaning begins, Mom of still-screaming child pops up to get her baggage from the overhead making the rest of us wait while still listening to HER little darling. Needless to say, after 3 hours my nerves were raw. I got up, pushed Mom back into her seat and cleared the way so the rest of the passengers could escape. Upon my exit I heard her comment on how rude I was.
Tagged as:
children & babies,
overhead bin
I was on a Delta MD-80 that was fully booked going from Cincinnati to Atlanta. Everyone was seated and we were waiting to leave the gate when a last minute traveler boarded with a very large carry on suitcase. All the passengers watched in silence as this man opened the overheads looking for a place to stow his luggage but all were full. He go to my row and opened the overhead across from me and took out a large bag. “Who owns this bag?” he asked.
“That’s mine,” answered the man sitting in the window seat in front of me.
“Please hold this,” said the late arrival and he handed the man in front of me his bag.
The late arrival then placed his bag in the overhead and closed it.
“What are you doing?” asked the man in front of me now quite irate.
“Your bag can fit under your seat,” explained the late arrival. “My bag cannot. The overheads and meant for larger items so my bag has rights to the overhead and yours goes under your seat! You got a problem with it?”
I and I am sure others thought we were going to see a fist fight but the man in front of me just sighed and stored his bag.
Tagged as:
baggage,
delta airlines,
overhead bin
I was on a long distance flight. I deliberately picked a window seat in the first row in economy. I knew I’d have more room there to stretch my legs, and there would be no one in front of me to lower there seat onto my knees. After I took my seat, an woman in her fifties sat in the aisle seat next to me. I hoped to get some sleep, because I had worked all night before I boarded the flight.
Shortly after takeoff, I got ready to get some sleep. The woman in the aisle seat seemed to be planning to sleep also. I thought it would be a nice relaxing flight. I had barely got to sleep before the woman in the aisle seat moved, jamming her elbow into my side. She had the sharpest elbows I’ve ever seen. I looked over at her and realised she was sound asleep. Apparently she was a nervous sleeper, because for most of the 9 hour flight she kept jamming her elbow into my side. Every time she went to sleep, within five minutes of falling asleep, she would twitch and proceed to jam her elbow into my side. Every time I woke her up, she would apologise, but as soon as she fell asleep again, wham the elbow came again. I barely got any sleep at all during the whole 9 hour flight.
The one time I did get to sleep, she decided to go to the bathroom. She stood up, getting something out of the overhead rack. It was a toilet case, which slipped out of her hands and fell, heavily, on my lap. It woke me up.
When I finally arrived at my destination, and got to my hotel, I found a big purplish bruise on my side from the constant hits I had taken from the lady and her elbows from H-11.
Tagged as:
injury,
overhead bin,
seats
The Idiot Parade
November 15, 2009 Flying Hell CommentaryI have been a frequent business traveler who flies out of D/FW on a weekly basis for the past 7+ years. The first six years were actually very nice. No issues with security other than the occasional long line; no problems with passengers except for a screaming baby now and then or the chronic snorer; [...]