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 don’t have any long horror story about my fellow passengers, just about the airline itself. Recently when I checked into my United flight, I found that we had been assigned seats in the very last row. As I am in a wheelchair, I called the airline to request something a little closer to the front. I was charged $108.00. On the way back, same thing. Even though my reservations stated that I was in a wheelchair, United insisted on placing me in the back of the plane, then charging me to sit closer to the front. First and last time we are flying on United.
Tagged as:
disability,
seats,
united airlines
July 2nd, 2003 I was on Northwest flight 852 from Anchorage, Alaska to Detroit, Michigan, approximately a 6 hour red eye on a 757-300. I was only 15 at the time and by myself. Surprisingly the flight was packed full. My seat was back in row 43 and as always I had a window seat. Rows 40-48 were in their own little mini cabin in the back. In this section sat an entire high school track team and a few of their parents and a couple siblings; I was one of the very few odd balls.
The 2 seat mates were only a couple years younger than me. They were not a problem till an hour into the flight when I really needed to get up for the restroom but they had all their bags practically unpacked in the floor. After tripping over them I managed to make it.
But none of that team was really the problem. It was the young kid, couldn’t have been more than 6 years old, sitting behind me. About an hour and a half into the flight he wouldn’t sleep and was bored. Throwing his little temper tantrum he kept kicking my seat hard as he could. I tried to ignore it, figured his mother would do something about it, wrong. I was trying to type a letter on my laptop and after 1/2 an hour of constant seat back assaults I turned around and politely asked his mother to get him under control; she just glared at me and told me to mind my own $@#%#$ business. The flight attendant finally told miss stuck up to get her kid under control. She did and finally a little peace. Put my laptop away and decided to get some sleep.
Propped up a pillow and stared out the window before finally passing out. About 15 minutes later I was awakened by a foot, sneaker and all, blasting me right in the side of the face. Little Johny son of a bitch was throwing a tantrum again. For such a young kid he had quite the kick. I could feel my face swelling around my eye. I had enough, paged the flight attendant and got an ice pack, got up, grabbed my bag and started searching the cabin for an open seat. Three hours left of the flight; I wasn’t going to sit there anymore. Finally came across the only 2 on the entire aircraft, a row in 1st class, and sat down next to the window. The first class attendant soon told me to go back to the economy seats, but I didn’t have to explain as the attendant who got me the ice pack came up there, said to let me stay, and gave me a can of Pepsi.
That was the one and only time I’ve sat in First Class. Unlike economy where I had been served just supper, now in first class I was also served a breakfast about an hour before landing.
The first half of that flight was hell and the rest I had a pounding headache. I’m just glad I didn’t have to sit back there anymore. I got a black eye that lasted 2 weeks, but I got a free first class upgrade for 3 hours and an extra meal, so at least Northwest made up for the hell that some kid put me through. Little kids like that should have to sit at the bulkheads just to avoid these kinds of situations.
Six years later and I still remember that flight clear as day due to the hell created by that one little kid.
Tagged as:
children & babies,
flight attendant,
injury,
northwest airlines,
seats
I was recently traveling in a large group on a late night flight from Miami to Boston. Being a savvy traveler, I had changed my seats online, separating myself from the rest of the group.
After about an hour and a half of delays and annoying gate agents, all the passengers boarded the aircraft. I was 2 or 3 rows behind the rest of my group, sitting in an aisle “D” seat. Soon after takeoff, I could see that another passenger was feeling uneasy sitting next to members of my group. I offered to switch with her, and she was delighted! I dragged my two carry-on bags, waking up some passengers, to her aisle seat (this is a key fact of the story).
About 3 minutes later, I hear an extremely loud voice resonating from a couple of rows behind me: “This seat is HAAARRRIBAAALLLL!!! I can’t even see the movie.” The movie was Marley & Me, the lady was about 60.
I offered to switch back with her, and surprisingly she was willing to sit next to the very same passengers who were annoying her in the first place. As I passed her in the aisle she started explaining to me that the seat was horrible, incorrectly placed, tight, etc, etc etc and that she couldn’t fit. It was the exact same aisle seat as hers, except 2 rows back!
Later, the people I was sitting with told me that this passenger had snored and fallen asleep on one of their shoulders. What a grumpy lady!?
Tagged as:
delay,
gate agent,
seats,
senior citizen
