What irritates you most while flying?

[straitman]

- Qantas refund time up to 6 weeks

5. It's not just Qantas. Try any airline and I agree entirely.

As much as this is an annoyance, there is a very valid reason for it. If airlines refunded unused or cancelled tickets quickly, people would regularly be booking fligthts they have no intention of taking for a number of reasons, including:

• gaining access to lounges for which they only have access rights when flying. They would purchase a redundable ticket, checkin, enter lounge then cancel the ticket
• reserve seats on multiple flights when only intending to occupy one. Perhaps in the hope of being able to upgrade and then cancel the ones that don't succeed in the upgrade process
• to reserve multiple seats on the same flight, pre-allocating adjacent seats and then cancelling one at the last minute leaving them with an empty seat next to them

All of these things really screw up the airline's ability to manage yield. They need to discourage false or ghost ticket purchases in order to stop this practice.

The downside is for those of us with a genuine need to cancel and refund a ticket, we must wait until after the credit card bill is due before they action the refind.

The 6 week wait has nothing to do with paperwork or administration delays. Such refunds could be actioned overnight. BUT they purposely delay the processing by 6 weeks to discourage the actions I have exampled above.

I'm aware of this, however I stand by my comment that it's extremely "annoying."

 

[shillard]

Annoyances?

1. Obese pax in Y. Stop sinking coke and big macs, eat some fruit and go exercise - or buy two seats, tubby. I'm not talking about your average overweight Australian, but the truly huge who spill over into the adjoining seat.

2. People who think because they are travelling by air, they are "special" (my pet hate).

3. People who waste my time by piss-farting around at security checkpoints, when loading overhead lockers, looking for their seat, etc. Lead me, follow me, or get the hell out of my way.

4. Povs. Nothing specific to air travel - they just cough me.

5. Posers who insist on yakking at full volume about the time they got upgraded out of LAX 19 years ago. Nobody cares - shut up.

6. Pax reading "The DaVinci Code" who can't stop staring at my watch, cufflinks, or the ritual book I'm pouring over.

7. Hippies/ Lefties/ ALP voters. Again, nothing specific to air travel - they just cough me.

8. The posers who, once they have exhausted their inane upgrade stories, start yabbering about how "the service on Qantas is nothing like it used to be on Ansett". Go found your own airline, comrade, and see how far you get with the unions holding a gun to your head.

9. Idiots who can't work out after the first 4 seconds that their hideously oversized bag won't fit in the overhead lockers on a DASH-8. Get a clue - square peg, round hole.

10. The invariably delayed QF2798. This service has never left on time - ever.

 

[Mal]

5. It's not just Qantas. Try any airline and I agree entirely.

The recent J Ticket I had to refund took 2 days for the money to be back in my account. This was cancelling it the day before travel.

 

[dajop]

1. Don't seem to have the problem. I'm Gold and always get 1st or 2nd row and most times an exit when I ask for it.

1st or 2nd row may be pushing it, but on most flights I'm usually in the front 5 rows. Except CBR-MEL at 17:30 (or even the 19:00) - but those flights are pretty unique. They have a "priority" boarding call for the 10 or so pax sitting at the departure gate, then the remaining 130 pax emerge from the QC or CL. As a WP, I"m always in the back half of the plane (CL obviously come first). The NB's get put in the luggage hold :wink: (although come to think of it, it's probably impossible to get a seat on the plane unless you are either a WP or travelling with one, it's the one flight I always have to use the guaranteed seat to get on board).

 

[pomjim]

On international flights, the people who have two bags, thier own plus one for duty free, and take all the locker room, leaving me with my one bag (duty free inside) to search for free space.

 

[straitman]

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.

Four things annoy me more than anything else. :evil:
1. Flying economy,
2. Paying for my own tickets.
3. The huge variation in service standards on Qantas,
4. The plastic smiles etc on Virgin Blue.

Beyond that I think its been covered fairly well by everyone else.

 

[QF WP]

Annoyances?

1. Obese pax in Y. Stop sinking coke and big macs, eat some fruit and go exercise - or buy two seats, tubby. I'm not talking about your average overweight Australian, but the truly huge who spill over into the adjoining seat.
.
.
through to
.
.
9. Idiots who can't work out after the first 4 seconds that their hideously oversized bag won't fit in the overhead lockers on a DASH-8. Get a clue - square peg, round hole.

Oh you had me laughing so hard shillard, I agreed with everything you said in those points. Thanks, I needed a good laugh this weekend.

10. The invariably delayed QF2798. This service has never left on time - ever.

Hmmm, as I've never caught it....

 

[mianos]

- people who put the seat back just before the meal
Wouldn't it be nice if the crew asked the person to bring the seat back up during the meal service? They seem to do it sometimes.
- cabin service not given in full
missing meals is no killer but it's sure annoying when you are paying full price J. It has only *ever* happened to me on BA and Qantas

 

[cssaus]

- Wouldn't it be nice if the crew asked the person to bring the seat back up during the meal service? They seem to do it sometimes.

Having flown SIA many times they do it all the time and the flight attendants are very polite about it.

 

[Mal]

Today, I had a whole combo of things happen which shat me big time.

1) Boarding display in QP showed flight boarding at X time, and then departing at the same time.
2) QP didn't do a boarding call for the flight
3) Get personally paged to hurry up and grab the flight...
4) Seated next to a "very big" person, who took up a lot of my space.
5) Person behind kept kicking the back of my chair
6) Person infront reclined full recline as soon as the seatbelts sign went off. To top it off, they then kept pushing the chair back even more and stretching their arms behind their head. Didn't move the chair back until landing time.
7) Person on the other side of the aisle started boasting about how he got a free upgrade on a flight once to the hostie, and thought she'd be impressed...

Arrrgghhh ! By the end of it, wasn't a happy camper.

 

[mianos]

one more thing I don't like:
- when you are trying to sleep the people in the seat behind you grab the head of the chair in front of them and drag themselves out of the seat waking you up

 

[coyote25]

1. When people in the seat behind me grab the head of the chair and get a piece of me!
2. When trying to sleep, zone out or watch the movie/show someone keeps trying to talk to you (I know... sometimes I'm anti-social)
3. Those who are very overweight taking over my seat, usually the last person boarding.. just as I'm thinking I have a spare seat

 

[NM]

2. When trying to sleep, zone out or watch the movie/show someone keeps trying to talk to you (I know... sometimes I'm anti-social)

For this one I have a solution. I pull out my Shure E3 in-ear earphones. They provide about 30-35dB of sound isolation. The person beside me can talk all they like, but I won't hear them. They work as well as ear plugs for keeping out unwanted seat-mate noise. Sometimes I don't even plug them into the IFE system, just insert them into my ears.

Also works well for nearby crying babies .

 

[Warks]

How about when you are trying to watch a movie on the common screen and some 'stud' decides to stand up and chat up the nearest female thus blocking your view?

Oh and don't forget rooted headphones. One day I had a pair where the left side didn't work so I got another set. Left side didn't work again so I got another but thought it might be the jack (or whatever you call the holes). Third time lucky - but it's happened to me on other flights.

One of the planes (old 737?) has the volume controls in the arm of the chair where you rest your elbow. Of course this drives the volume up to the threshold of pain whenever you lean on it.

Warm beer. (Stop whingeing - you're lucky to get anything!!)

 

[mike307]

People who STINK.

Once when going from Melbourne to Manchester with Emirates, i was stuck next to a guy on the Dubai to Manchester leg for 7 hours who stank.

 

[serfty]

... Oh and don't forget rooted headphones. One day I had a pair where the left side didn't work so I got another set. Left side didn't work again so I got another but thought it might be the jack (or whatever you call the holes). Third time lucky - but it's happened to me on other flights....

TIP: If it's a two prong type of headphone, unplug it, turn it 180º and plug it back in.

If after doing that, the hearing is 'reversed', replace the head phones. If it's still the same ear with no sound, it's the socket :evil: , changing seats may be the only solution.

(Of course, if you now hear nothing at all after doing that, replace the headphones and the seat.)

... One of the planes (old 737?) has the volume controls in the arm of the chair where you rest your elbow. Of course this drives the volume up to the threshold of pain whenever you lean on it. ...

I believe all Qantas 737's have those controls on the side of the armrest. The 767's in economy are the only aircraft to have this type of volume control on the top of the armrests.

The last 747 has only just had these types of economy seats removed in favor of the newer Personal in Flight Entrertainment systems (IFE).

 

[Nutcase]

Things that annoy me about travel

1) Looking at the bottom of the posts on this forum and seeing all the FF memberships that youve got. You sad sad people.
2) The fact that most of you either dont pay for the airline travel (company expense) or worse, buy a heavily discounted airfare and expect to be treated like royalty
3) The ridiculous expectations around short haul domestic flights. Its 60-90 minutes. Get over it!
4) Expecting something for nothing. Why the hell should you get any more than you paid for.
5) Using your laptop on a domsetic flight. Ive seen some fantastic presentations by my competitors over the years. Be careful, I may just be sitting next to you!
6) Pretending to do work on a laptop on a domestic flight. Why do you bother? Youd have to be some kind of wanker. Cant it wait?
7) Not considering the plight of others. Have you ever thought that maybe there is a reason for someone having to use the bathroom several times during the flight besides the fact that it annoys you? No we arent all drunks like you.
8) Screaming children. Yes , you were once one of those. How do you think the parent feels when 300 bloated, suited, business men are looking disapprovingly at you when the child is screaming in terror?
9) Lugging around your precious laptops like they were some kind of status symbol. Boring!
10) Not doing as your told and wondering why the service is bad. "Dont turn your phone on until well inside the terminal means INSIDE the terminal, not in the aircraft. Please remain seated until the seatbelt sign has been switched off, stragely enough, means SIT DOWN!
11) Complaining about the staff. How would you like to have to serve YOU? Do you really think that the staff have a vendetta against you? There is a reason why you are called "pigs in space".
12) Having to sit next to people like you. I could care less if I never had to take another business trip. Ive done it for nearly 20 years. After a while, all of you start to look the same. Even the conversations that you all have, either to each other, or on your mobile phones are the same. "Going forward, adding value, blah blah blah."
13) Rushing to get out of the aircraft as though you are VERY important, only to bump into you either in the Taxi line or, heaven forbid, at the luggage carousel.
14) Status concious Gold and Silver members. Get real! Even Platinum doesnt work. Try being really important and then you may get Chairmans club. Its not really about how much you fly, but how important you REALLY are!
15) Constant comparisons with US Airlines. Hello! 20 million people, 2 airlines. Huge geographical area. where is the comparison?
16) Complaining and doing nothing about it. "My card doesnt get me enough points" Then get rid of it and get one that does. No Id rather complain
17) Running an airline for you coughs and getting notihng but greif!

Best wishes

Geoff Dixon
CEO
QANTAS Airways

 

[redrat]

Gee, 'Geoff' has a real problem with his spelling. :?

 

[Nutcase]

Thanks Redrat.

Is this the best you could come up with?

See you at MENSA

NC

 

[thadocta]

Your nick is rather appropriate, nutcase.

Dave