Since it’s a busy travel season, and I, myself, am traveling, I thought I would share a recent experience I had. I happened to earn a first class upgrade on one of my flights. The change in class comes with a few perks like a warm meal, heated towel to cleanse my hands, and depending on whether I am flying internationally or domestically, a dopp kit, and better quality blanket and pillow. This particular flight wasn’t very long, but it was still nice to have a little wider seat and only one person sitting next to me. Except the person sitting next to me was quite possibly the worst traveler on the planet.
He entered the plane and for whatever reason, wanted to put his bag in the overhead bins behind us. That literally made no sense. Of course this then meant he had to walk against traffic to come back to his seat, which inevitably was the window seat, and I had to get up to let him in. We were flying home from a warm state so it was odd that he was dressed in full Nanook-of-the-North garb: boots, heavy puffy parka with fur-edged hood, scarf, and gloves. Immediately he was hot and wanted to take off the coat. The coat, naturally, needed to go with his bag (which I can only assume was put into the overhead bin handle first), which necessitated my getting up, his trip to the back somewhere, eventual return against the traffic, and my getting up again.
Did I mention this entire time he’s on speaker phone with someone? At a volume so loud I’m certain they could hear his conversation on the next plane. It was so annoying that the flight attendant asked him politely several times to put his earbuds in; then they made a broad announcement over the loudspeaker for everyone, generally, to take their phones off speaker, then they called him out specifically over the loudspeaker to end his conversation. None of which phased this terrible traveler.
The phone conversation continued through the safety demonstration, through the request to put all electronics into airplane mode, and almost to the point of take off. The flight attendants did all but take his phone away or remove him from the plane to get him to end his phone conversation. Seriously?
This whole ordeal brought to mind how so many people these days have complete disregard for those around them when talking on the phone. I’ve mentioned it before in my blog Step to the Side. People take or make phone calls, or FaceTime with folks without headphones just blabbing away in others’ personal space. Nobody else needs to be part of your conversation about what’s for dinner.
Out of courtesy for those around you, please, grab a pair of ear buds and plug in when talking on the phone. Then, we are only hearing your side of the conversation because, sadly, we haven’t figured out a way to turn that down yet. Please, keep it to yourself.
Do you have a travel story? Give us a laugh, share it here or send me an email!
Interested in more travel tips? Visit my Traveler’s Tidbits page. You’ll find super helpful tidbits for unseasoned travelers that everyone should know and nobody tells you!
Safe travels!
Discover more from Tracy's Tidbits
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The selfish disregard of common courtesy is becoming all too commonplace. Seems it’s a how-does-it-impact-me culture these days and, unless you’re joining the chorus of the masses voicing the same complaint, then you had better just keep quiet because everyone is entitled to their opinion, unless it’s a different opinion than the masses.