Annual Airport Pet Peeve thread

[Lone Clone]

Originally posted by St. Louis Hawk:

Originally posted by Tenacious E:

Originally posted by Hawk in SEC Country:
People with seats further back in the plane, yet think it's perfectly okay to put their bag in the overhead compartments closer to the front.

I've personally moved someone's bag from my overhead compartment. Bastard was 10 rows back. The flight attendant took the bag from me, and put it in the proper compartment. Dude go pissed at me for "touching his bag". Flight attendant told him that he was in the wrong.

This is another thing the pisses me off. When did it become socially acceptable to put your crap above someone else's seat? When I'm traveling it is always with a checked bag and a briefcase so it doesn't affect me. But it annoys me.

I have to admit to doing this if I have to grab a flight at the last minute and can't get a early boarding group. I'm still not seeing why it's wrong? Some airlines even make an announcement: the overheads at the back of the cabin are filling up fast, find a space elsewhere or we will have to gate check. And most flight attendants will take your bag if the overheads are full and move it to the front of the plane if there is space. Do you need special permission to do what the airline tells you to do and what they often do for you?

Help me see the error in my ways oh HROT brethren.

The only time I've ever heard a flight attendant make an announcement like that is when the seats in front are occupied -- that is, the people who are supposed to get the space over their heads have taken all the space they need.

It is wrong because if everybody did it, there would be no space left by the time the people who were supposed to have it boarded the plane. It is wrong because the farther people are from their carry-ons, the longer and more of a hassle the deboarding process is.

I've rarely moved anybody else's bag. When I have, it's because they have a small bag taking up the space that a large would would fill, and there is a smaller space available someplace else.

But generally speaking, when it comes to this kind of problem -- or virtually ANY problem that might involve a conflict with another passenger -- I let the attendant handle it. That's why they're there. And they would much, much rather take care of it themselves than try to settle a dispute between passengers and THEN take care of it themselves, anyway.

Since you are averse to gate-checking, mind telling me why? As I said in an earlier post in this thread, I don't understand why that bothers people.

 

[Tenacious E]

Originally posted by St. Louis Hawk:

Originally posted by Tenacious E:

Originally posted by Hawk in SEC Country:
People with seats further back in the plane, yet think it's perfectly okay to put their bag in the overhead compartments closer to the front.

I've personally moved someone's bag from my overhead compartment. Bastard was 10 rows back. The flight attendant took the bag from me, and put it in the proper compartment. Dude go pissed at me for "touching his bag". Flight attendant told him that he was in the wrong.

This is another thing the pisses me off. When did it become socially acceptable to put your crap above someone else's seat? When I'm traveling it is always with a checked bag and a briefcase so it doesn't affect me. But it annoys me.

I have to admit to doing this if I have to grab a flight at the last minute and can't get a early boarding group. I'm still not seeing why it's wrong? Some airlines even make an announcement: the overheads at the back of the cabin are filling up fast, find a space elsewhere or we will have to gate check. And most flight attendants will take your bag if the overheads are full and move it to the front of the plane if there is space. Do you need special permission to do what the airline tells you to do and what they often do for you?

Help me see the error in my ways oh HROT brethren.

Like I said, I don't fly a bunch but I have not heard of this either. I have heard them say overhead is filling up fast so we can gate check your bag for you. You don't need special permission (at least I don't think you do, I've never actually studied the fine print of their policies) to put your bag in an overhead, it is more common courtesy of putting your bag in a place above your actual seat. If space fills up, space fills up and that is justification for putting your bags as close as you can to your seat. However, while that just excuses taking someone else's space, it does not make taking someone's space okay in the first instance.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

Originally posted by Lone Clone:

Originally posted by St. Louis Hawk:

Originally posted by Tenacious E:

Originally posted by Hawk in SEC Country:
People with seats further back in the plane, yet think it's perfectly okay to put their bag in the overhead compartments closer to the front.

I've personally moved someone's bag from my overhead compartment. Bastard was 10 rows back. The flight attendant took the bag from me, and put it in the proper compartment. Dude go pissed at me for "touching his bag". Flight attendant told him that he was in the wrong.

This is another thing the pisses me off. When did it become socially acceptable to put your crap above someone else's seat? When I'm traveling it is always with a checked bag and a briefcase so it doesn't affect me. But it annoys me.

I have to admit to doing this if I have to grab a flight at the last minute and can't get a early boarding group. I'm still not seeing why it's wrong? Some airlines even make an announcement: the overheads at the back of the cabin are filling up fast, find a space elsewhere or we will have to gate check. And most flight attendants will take your bag if the overheads are full and move it to the front of the plane if there is space. Do you need special permission to do what the airline tells you to do and what they often do for you?

Help me see the error in my ways oh HROT brethren.

The only time I've ever heard a flight attendant make an announcement like that is when the seats in front are occupied -- that is, the people who are supposed to get the space over their heads have taken all the space they need.

It is wrong because if everybody did it, there would be no space left by the time the people who were supposed to have it boarded the plane. It is wrong because the farther people are from their carry-ons, the longer and more of a hassle the deboarding process is.

I've rarely moved anybody else's bag. When I have, it's because they have a small bag taking up the space that a large would would fill, and there is a smaller space available someplace else.

But generally speaking, when it comes to this kind of problem -- or virtually ANY problem that might involve a conflict with another passenger -- I let the attendant handle it. That's why they're there. And they would much, much rather take care of it themselves than try to settle a dispute between passengers and THEN take care of it themselves, anyway.

Since you are averse to gate-checking, mind telling me why? As I said in an earlier post in this thread, I don't understand why that bothers people.

Like was posted above, I will put my stuff above another row only if the overheads above me are full, but I won't put it more than a row behind me to avoid fighting the flow out of the plane. This usually only happens on a few airlines, where they board in sections, but not always from back to front. Delta used to do this - middle of plane first, sometimes window seats first. They seem to have changed that lately.

If by gate-checking, you mean I get my bag when I wait in the jet bridge after getting off the plane, I have no problem with that at all and always use it if I get a small plane - a 2/1 or 2/2.

If you mean checking where I have to schlep down to the baggage carousel, known in St. Louis as the "40 minute wait of death", no thanks!

 

[Tenacious E]

Yes, checking at the gate where you wait on the bridge is what I meant.

 

[HIWB]

Originally posted by pezhawk:

Originally posted by SPOONER:
It almost never fails--landing at a destination like CR and people from the back of the plane trying to ram their way to the front. What's your bleeping hurry?

Maybe they have been on a crappy business trip and want to get home to their family? I don't travel alot, but have learn to never really judge anyone else, because I have no clue on their story.

If someone has an emergency, is trying to make a connection, or had a kid issue, I'm happy to let them through. Heck, I'm even happy to let them through if they have to go to the bathroom. Someone on a crappy business trip and wanting to get home to their family isn't enough to trump me wanting to get home or the common courtesy of waiting your turn at the back of the line for an extra 7 minutes.

 

[Lone Clone]

Originally posted by HIWB:

Originally posted by pezhawk:

Originally posted by SPOONER:
It almost never fails--landing at a destination like CR and people from the back of the plane trying to ram their way to the front. What's your bleeping hurry?

Maybe they have been on a crappy business trip and want to get home to their family? I don't travel alot, but have learn to never really judge anyone else, because I have no clue on their story.

If someone has an emergency, is trying to make a connection, or had a kid issue, I'm happy to let them through. Heck, I'm even happy to let them through if they have to go to the bathroom. Someone on a crappy business trip and wanting to get home to their family isn't enough to trump me wanting to get home or the common courtesy of waiting your turn at the back of the line for an extra 7 minutes.

Sometimes if a flight is running late, the attendant will announce that some of the passengers have a very tight connection and asks those who do not have a time problem to wait until the ones in a hurry have deplaned. Sometimes people actually do this.

 

[hooper56]

Originally posted by Lone Clone:
Well, if we've moved from the terminal to the aircraft.......how about kids whose parents don't supervise them?

My favorite story.....we're on a fairly long flight on a 737 with 3-3 seating. Mrs. LC and I have an aisle and a window with a vacant seat between (not an accident; long story). Behind us is an older lady, probalby in her 70s, and two little girls, maybe 5 and 7, thereabouts. The girls are acting up. Kicking the back of our seats, bouncing around, whining. Grandma is trying to get them to settle down, but they ignore it. A couple of times, the younger woman sitting across the aisle from my wife looks around and back and says, "Jessica! Esther! Settle down!" and then goes back to her book. We figure Mom has stuck the kids with Grandma.

Then, after about an hour of this "Grandma" says to the woman: "Ma'am, if you'd like to sit with your daughters, I can change seats with you." And Mom shakes her head, smiles, and says, "No, this is fine."

True story.

Is that one from your book?

 

[Hawk in SEC Country]

Originally posted by Tenacious E:

Originally posted by Hawk in SEC Country:
People with seats further back in the plane, yet think it's perfectly okay to put their bag in the overhead compartments closer to the front.

I've personally moved someone's bag from my overhead compartment. Bastard was 10 rows back. The flight attendant took the bag from me, and put it in the proper compartment. Dude go pissed at me for "touching his bag". Flight attendant told him that he was in the wrong.

This is another thing the pisses me off. When did it become socially acceptable to put your crap above someone else's seat? When I'm traveling it is always with a checked bag and a briefcase so it doesn't affect me. But it annoys me.

I travel with my camera bag and a backpack with my laptop and accessories in it. My camera gear never gets checked, period. and I'm not about to let $45K worth of gear get more than 5 ft out of my reach on an aircraft. Therefore it goes directly above me. The backpack goes under the seat.

 

[Lone Clone]

Originally posted by hooper56:

Originally posted by Lone Clone:
Well, if we've moved from the terminal to the aircraft.......how about kids whose parents don't supervise them?

My favorite story.....we're on a fairly long flight on a 737 with 3-3 seating. Mrs. LC and I have an aisle and a window with a vacant seat between (not an accident; long story). Behind us is an older lady, probalby in her 70s, and two little girls, maybe 5 and 7, thereabouts. The girls are acting up. Kicking the back of our seats, bouncing around, whining. Grandma is trying to get them to settle down, but they ignore it. A couple of times, the younger woman sitting across the aisle from my wife looks around and back and says, "Jessica! Esther! Settle down!" and then goes back to her book. We figure Mom has stuck the kids with Grandma.

Then, after about an hour of this "Grandma" says to the woman: "Ma'am, if you'd like to sit with your daughters, I can change seats with you." And Mom shakes her head, smiles, and says, "No, this is fine."

True story.

Is that one from your book?

I don't think so. Haven't read the book for years. Don't recall what I put in it and what I omitted, with some exceptions of course.

I doubt this is in there. The story is too short.

 

[hooper56]

I really miss reading your column in the Gazette. Guess I was a fan, and it gave me a chuckle quite often.

 

[jpphawk]

Late getting in and potential to miss connecting flight. Stewardess asks those that have connecting flights leaving in the next 30 minutes or less to raise their hand. She then asked everyone else to please let those folks with their hands up go first. Didn't happen. Why can't everyone just get along?

 

[Lone Clone]

Originally posted by hooper56:
I really miss reading your column in the Gazette. Guess I was a fan, and it gave me a chuckle quite often.

Thanks. I don't miss writing it. Miss cashing the checks, though.