Recent submissions about airplane etiquette brought to mind a situation I encountered recently. While my experience is very tame, laughable really. compared to the horror stories I read in the past couple of weeks, I thought it might be worth sharing.
I had booked the window seat on a short, regional flight. Given that I didn’t really feel like paying more to upgrade to the front of the plane or to a roomier seat, I was pretty satisfied with my choice all in all: a window seat towards the back of the plane. I decided to pre-emptively grab a snack before boarding and so, boarded at the end of my boarding “zone”. I wasn’t late by any means but this meant that most of the passengers around me were already in their seats with the majority of the overhead baggage space taken. Still, it was my choice to board later and my snack was worth it :). I located space as close to my area as I could and proceeded to my seat only to find it taken. As I smiled at the man and told him it was my seat, a flight attendant hurried over, informing me that even though it wasn’t the man’s seat, he was in it so he could sit next to his wife and I wouldn’t mind sitting elsewhere, would I? She directed me to an aisle seat two rows ahead. I don’t remember her exact phrasing but I remember feeling bullied into accepting. Even though it was a question, it wasn’t really a request but more of a fait accompli. I was taken aback and murmured something about it not being a window seat but I didn’t put up a fight. The seat I was directed to actually belonged to someone else (not the man who stole my seat) so they didn’t even get that right.
It worked out in the end because my new seatmate had a wife in the same row across the aisle. More trades happened but this time, they were actual trades between affected parties, not in absentia. I moved into the window and I got yet another new seatmate who turned out to be entertaining but that’s a story for another day! Overall, it wouldn’t have been a big deal as it was a short flight but it’s the principle of it. I’ve seen this happen to others for longer flights in much the same manner. What happened to asking for a favour rather than demanding it? Is it commonplace now to assume that passengers will happily inconvenience themselves to accommodate people who want to sit together but who, for whatever reason,couldn’t be bothered to make arrangements? When did flight attendants become bullies?
Before someone points out that I could have exercised my polite spine, I’d like to point out that on a longer flight or poorer seat exchange (middle seat), I would have :). But the point of this story is that I shouldn’t have to! 1009-18
Tag: Travel
We’re Flying The Friendly Skies Again!
I flew yesterday, which was the day after you posted the story about the screaming child on the plane. Luckily no kids screamed but I did see rudeness unlike anything I have ever seen.
A lady in her sixties was traveling with her elderly mom. The mom was given pre-boarding status and taken on plane in a wheelchair. The mom had the middle seat and the daughter had the aisle. I boarded in group three and was across from them, so I was able to see/hear the whole conversation that occurred when the lady who had the window seat tried to get into her seat.
The daughter did not want to let the lady in. She was livid that her mom was going to be disturbed. The lady trying to enter the row kept apologizing and saying she wish she didn’t have to do it, but that was her seat and they had been announcing it was a full flight so there was no where to move to and they were going to need to let her in. She stayed very nice, calm and sympathetic the entire time. If it had been me, I would have pointed out that what did she expect to happen when you pre-board and if it was really that big a deal then the daughter should have taken the window seat to ensure this didn’t happen.
The daughter and her mom finally got up so the lady could get in to her seat. At which point the daughter very rudely told the lady to pay attention to their stuff and not step on anything.
When the flight ended, I walked off the plane behind them, as they apparently hadn’t ordered a wheelchair for the end. Which is why they stole someone else’s wheelchair when we reached the ramp. And when the attendant tried to tell the mom to get out the daughter said no and blocked everyone else from moving till the guy relented and called for another wheelchair for the person now stuck on the plane.
But hey, no kids screamed. 1005-18
Should Blood Curdling Screaming Be Grounds For Removal From a Flight?
I’ve seen the original, longer video of this situation and declined to share it due to the fact that the child’s face is clearly seen. However, this version redacts his face.
In the longer video, the child runs down the airplane aisles and when compelled to stop, these screams issue forth. He cannot sit still in a seat and the longer video shows him standing on and crawling over seats until…once again, he is being asked to stop and the screaming starts. The video game cannot be started and he screams. He appears to be about 4 years old, maybe 5.
I think in this situation it would be justified for the airline staff to remove the family from the flight citing that the child is obviously not in an emotional condition to fly across the Atlantic Ocean for 8 hours. And I do think it is poor parenting to raise children who scream like they are being killed with a 14-inch Klingon danger to the guts when the issue prompting the screaming is really one of entitlement.
Chinese Tourists – Is the Cultural Revolution Really To Blame For The Current State of Ill-Manners?
While traveling abroad to Asia (Thailand, Laos, Tokyo), my daughter reached a conclusion that Chinese tourists were the rudest she’d ever encountered whereas the Japanese were delightful. Whereas the Japanese had an “othersness” perspective regarding interactions with other people, the Chinese appear to be quite self absorbed. A traveling nation of special snowflakes.
Hers isn’t a unique opinion. Apparently Chinese tourists’ bad behavior has become so well known that the mainland China government created and issued a travel brochure detailing what are good manners for traveling abroad. The first video goes into detail about that.
What I find interesting about the two next videos is that China’s Cultural Revolution is blamed for the destruction of values, traditions, and morals seen today. So the questions I ponder are whether culture can impact an entire nation to mold a new mindset about how to behave and if that is possible, it appears that the trend is to poorer levels of consideration, common sense, and courtesy.
The etiquette police? Writing tickets?
This last video was funded in part or whole by the Chinese government.
Peace And Quiet In A Hotel Room
I’ve been a long-time reader of e-hell but this is my first submission. My husband and teenage daughter and I do quite a bit of weekend traveling due to her competitive sports schedule, so hotel stays are a normal part of our lives. I do understand and accept a normal amount of noise associated with hotels, such as traffic, large groups of people, etc, but what we experienced last weekend took me aback and I may not have responded well.
First of all, this particular Saturday was a very long day. We had to leave our home at 4 am to drive the few hours to our destination city. My daughter’s sports activity was several hours long out in the cold and by the time we headed to our hotel to check in, I already had a splitting headache and was longing for a short nap before heading out for dinner with the team. After waiting 30 minutes in a line to check in,(a busy weekend in the city!) we finally get to our room and lay down. Immediately we started hearing very loud noise directly outside our room. It was doors banging and heavy objects being dragged about and even machines being turned on and off. My first thought was that housekeeping was finishing up with a few rooms in our hallway, and they would be done soon. After about 20-30 minutes of this, I opened my door to see a maintenance man dragging furniture from the room directly next door to the one across the hall. I said,”Excuse me, is there construction going on?” and he said, ”Construction? Yeah, there is construction going on.” (in a rather annoyed tone). He said he would be finishing up in an hour or so. I didn’t blow up or anything, but I did state that it was a bit unfair to pay $$$ for a hotel room that you couldn’t get a little rest in. (I know it wasn’t his fault, but who really assigns guests in a construction zone?) I probably should have called the front desk to complain, but as I knew the hotel was very packed, a different room assignment was probably not going to happen.
So I go back in my room, where my daughter tells me to relax, that they don’t expect guests to be sleeping at 4 in the afternoon. Point taken, I’m feeling a little bad at this moment, but we did pay for the room for the whole day, not just the night, and I think it’s reasonable to expect some level of quiet.
A few minutes later, the same maintenance man knocks at the door and curtly says that he is finished because “Guests need to be happy”. I thanked him and got a few moment’s rest before dinner.
Ironically, at 5 am our room gets a “Wake-up call” from the front desk (which WE did not order, as we had set our phones for a 7 am alarm). An innocent mistake? Or did this employee set us up for a bit of revenge? I had to laugh a bit as I left a note under the construction room door as we checked out saying “Nice job with the wake-up call – good one!” with a smiley face. 0828-17