What irritates you most while flying?

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Warks

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I sometimes find myself irritated by all sorts of things when flying. I don't know what it is but on certain flights everthing seems to annoy me and yet other times all is plain sailing (flying). I have a heap of things that annoy me but I'd like to see what my fellow pax think without my initial influence. No I'm not an old whinger but lately I wonder if I'm the problem. Do I expect too much?

BTW I only fly economy domestically.
 
1. People asking me what irritates me about flying :p
2. People who are not prepared for security screening or any other process that requires queuing
3. People who stand in the middle of escalators and moving walkways blocking the way past
4. People reclining their seats during meal services
5. Window pax who drink 5 beers and expect the rest of us seated in the same row to let them out to the lav 4 times during a 1 hour flight
6. People who hog overhead locker space
7. The poor quality of scotch served by most airlines in Y and J (and even F in the case of Qantas)
8. A delayed flight that means less time in the airline lounge before connecting to a long-haul flight
9. Poor communication about delays
10. Being told all the hot breakfasts are gone and being served cerial, then finding the FA sitting in the galley digging into eggs and bacon
 
I'll second a few of those NM particualrly i/ reclining during meal service and ii/ hogging overhead locker space.

During a recent PER-SYD trip I had the emergency exit row in Y on the A330. You get a tiny amount of overhead space in you are sitting in a window seat. I had one bag and a laptop and went to put them up to discover another laptop above. My bag fitted in but I had to put my laptop elsewhere. As I slotted my bag in I heard a female Sth African voice say youre not putting that on my laptop are you I need to use that during the flight. Politely I removed her laptop and placed it on top of my bag. When looking for space for my other bag I saw that she had ample space above where she was sitting (in the middle 3 across from me) but for some reason had taken my allocation. She then never moved from her seat for the whole flight. Never touched the laptop. It took a bit of restraint and a few glasses of red to stop me commenting to this very arrogant woman. Very annoying PAX :x
 
Russell Corr said:
It took a bit of restraint and a few glasses of red to stop me commenting to this very arrogant woman. Very annoying PAX :x

The few glasses of red would have the opposite effect on me.

:)
 
NM said:
3. People who stand in the middle of escalators and moving walkways blocking the way past

Hi NM,

This is a problem for me too, but I have developed a strategy to help me get through.

I say "Excuse me" in a rather loud voice. Usually works.

:)
 
My personal favourite ...

Being seated in the back row next to 2 unaccompanied kids CNS-> BNE. Ones who get on well for the first little while, then start to fight over whose dad has the most money or posessions (or something similar...)

Arrgh! Nearly swore to never fly QF again after that flight.

I had checked in early too. That was the days before FF status and close to front seats.

Other things that get a little annoying...
1) late people delaying the flight (ie, the ones who have to get paged, or the ones who don't show and get their bag offloaded)
2) Airlines being too optimistic when flights get delayed (Eg boarding 9am, departing 9am)
 
I find it annoying when you are 5 minutes from boarding and there is still no plane at your gate yet the monitors say all is well!
 
Mal said:
My personal favourite ...

1) late people delaying the flight (ie, the ones who have to get paged, or the ones who don't show and get their bag offloaded)

That used to annoy me (and still would if I knew they had to be paged), but don't assume that people who are late have been inconsiderate/slack. I've been given "daggers" by lots of pax (particularly on SYD/MEL flights full of suits), boarding after everyone else (apart from those in same situation) after late arriving connexion!

Apart from that:

1) I find people who just put their seats back without looking behind annoying, particularly when working on a laptop.
2) Travelling with friends/family/colleagues (who want to talk ... how inconsiderate!) when all I want to do is bury my head in the book I started on my previous flight!
3) Snacks on Qantas flights. I mean really why bother? Just sell some decent snacks instead.
 
Holding a confirmed points upgrade to business class ADL-SIN, and being downgraded to economy at check-in. Thank you, Qantas, take a bow.
 
I totally agree with all the above, but special mention of having the seat in front of you always down (esp while working on a laptop) and having someone continually go to the toilet (esp when asleap on overnight flights).

Smaller annoying things are where you get two or more seats in a row but even with the arms-rests up I still can't get comfortable as I can feel the hard metal bits between the seats.

Another annoying thing is the seemingly flexible metal scanners in the security sections of the airport. I used to fly every week to Canberra (from MLB) and always wore the same belt and shoes. Every few weeks the metal scanners would be tuned so sensitively that it would detect the metal strips in my shoes! I didn't believe it at first as they had previously made my take off my belt, my tie (as it had a little fake metal chain on the back) and then my shoes off.

Not good when you are late for your flight.

Regards
Daniel
 
danielh said:
I totally agree with all the above, but special mention of having the seat in front of you always down (esp while working on a laptop) and having someone continually go to the toilet (esp when asleap on overnight flights).
I always reserve an aisle seat in the centre block of a wide-body aircraft to minimise the possibility of havinf someone next to me need to get up while I am asleep. I get up and visit the lav several times on long-haul flights since I tend to consume a few scotches and also copious amounts of water. That is why I always have an aisle seat so I don't have to disturb sleeping passengers.

But for the seat recline ... in my opinion the only time a seat should not be allowed to recline is during takeoff and landing and all meal services. Outside of those time, I think it is inconsiderable of the person behind to push the seat back as it is reclined. It is not the reclining passenger's fault the airline chose to price their airfares at a rate that passengers are willing to pay and that requires them to position the seats such that the space between seats is less than we would like for the fare we are willing to pay. Once the meal service is cleared (especially on long-haul flights), I will gently and slowly recline my seat to relax, and if the person behind wants more space for their laptop they should buy a business class ticket next time.
 
Hi, everyone - sometime lurker, first time poster!

I hate it when people recline their seats when there is not enough room to do so. I agree with danielh that it is the airline's fault more than the passenger doing the reclining, but whoever's to blame, it wrecks a flight, particularly if you are trying to work.

Something else that bugs me is last minute flight announcements when the members' lounge is a long way from the gate. In Melbourne, QC is a lo-o-ong distance from the gate for Canberra flights. If they give you five minutes to board, it is physically impossible to get there in time - especially if you have overhead luggage and are wearing heels. I have tried to counter this by leaving QC ten minutes before the scheduled boarding time - but almost every time the flight is then delayed, wasting time I could have spent in the lounge.

I really hate the Canberra/Melbourne flights!
 
I know what you mean. To get there to the gate for CBR flights you have to go down the QC escalators, walk all the way down the corridor (past the security section), down a flight of stairs and then up the terminal extension.

I once had to catch a Virgin flight to CBR and there was one of those Boost or Viva juice places at the waiting area. I got one and that made the wait a bit better. In the Qantas section you have a few vending machines and (if you are catching a later flight) some 2 minute angels.

Regards
Daniel
 
Thanks for the tip, Daniel - I feel ignorant asking, but what are two minute angels?
 
Ah so I'm not alone!

Pretty much agree with all of the above. One that hasn't been mentioned is when boarding a plane the passenger who gets about five rows down the centre aisle and stops to load their overhead locker. Should be a simple 10 second operation, right? Wrong! Gotta take as long as possible! Meanwhile the queue backs up all the way through the airbridge to the gate! If I have a bit to organise at least I pull my cough out of the aisle and let people past.
FAs taking the whole flight to clear away the meal trays when it is scoffed down in about 3 minutes flat. When you want to get the laptop out it makes it hard to do much. By the time it's cleared you've started to descend sometimes (SYD-MEL or BNE).

Here's another: armrest hogs!! You know when you're trying to eat your meal and you have to be a contortionist to use your knife or fork.
Then there's the overly large gentleman who gets the centre seat. Nuff said.

How about snorers??

My last (for now) annoyance is somewhat unreasonable as it doesn't physically affect me but it bugs me nonetheless. People who whip the seatbelt off as soon as the seatbelt light is switched off in the air (with a great sigh of relief (remember Aloha Airlines I say!!). Also when they whip it off before we are at the gate so they can get a running start to stand in a queue to get off! I always have this secret desire for the plane to lurch forward suddenly throwing them into the seat in front! :evil:
 
Two Minute Angels are those people who massage you in the midde of the concourse.

Regards
Daniel
 
danielh said:
Two Minute Angels are those people who massage you in the midde of the concourse. ...Regards Daniel
Daniel, maybe you should be more specific.:D

They are people who will massage your neck an upper back while you sit down.

This is all done behind waist-hight black screens. It is a G rated paid service
 
Being boarded, then having to wait 30mins or more while some final task is completed.

(The worst was on old 762 from Cairns where they could not close the forward right-hand cargo door. Waited on that steaming aircraft for 85 mins :evil: )

That time is far better spent in QP!
 
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