Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

How to deal with annoying airline passengers – crying babies have nothing on these antisocial neighbours

From a woman opening her tray table and changing her baby’s diaper to a man clipping his toenails during dinner, some passengers have zero thought for others
Here are some top tips to help you handle those seat mates from hell

Airline passengers can be so annoying. How annoying? Just ask Retha Charette, a tour guide from Arlington, in the US state of Vermont.

On a recent flight from Newark in New Jersey to Amsterdam, her seatmate opened her tray table, placed her infant on it and began to change the baby’s diaper.

“It’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen on a plane,” Charette says. “I didn’t know what to do.” It’s hard to find someone who does not have a story like hers to tell. Charette, who writes a blog called Roaming Nanny, says she tries to keep her cool when a neighbour does something irritating.

“I think the number one thing to remember when something weird starts happening is not to lose your temper,” she says. “I firmly believe that when most people travel, they don’t think about those around them. We’re all worried about our comfort.”

Jacquelyn Youst, a frequent traveller and president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Protocol, agrees that maintaining your composure is the golden rule when it comes to passengers seated behind you, in front of you, or next to you.

Losing your cool is counterproductive, considering that you’re trapped with them in a pressurised tube for the foreseeable future.

“Don’t yell,” she says. “This will only make the rest of your travel experience tense.” So what are the most aggravating things passengers do – and what can you do about them? The problems are as numerous and varied as the solutions. If there’s a common thread, it is this: stay above the fray. Otherwise, you could end up starring in a viral video – or worse.

I asked Marianne Perez de Fransius – the CEO of Bébé Voyage, a site for parents who travel with young children – for her thoughts on babies in flight. “A crying baby can be annoying,” says Perez de Fransius. “But the absolute wrong reaction is berating the parent or caretaker for having a crying baby. Parents want their baby to stop crying more than the other passengers.”

Instead, offer to help or try distracting the baby. “Maybe you have a cute video on your phone you could show the baby, or you have something entertaining like a colourful key chain,” Perez de Fransius says.

Infants are hardly the only passengers who can grate on your nerves. Consider the situation Lisa Cortez found herself in on a recent flight from Los Angeles to Rome.

Soon after the flight attendants served a snack, a passenger seated across the aisle calmly removed his shoes and began clipping his toenails. His seatmate, her face buried in a book, didn’t react.

Cortez, a frequent air traveller who runs a tour company in Phoenix, in the US state of Arizona, waited in vain for the seatmate to react. “I grabbed my tablet computer from the side pocket of my seat and set it to a standing position as a barrier between flying toenails and my yummy midflight snack,” she says.

Sometimes, that’s all you can do – protect yourself from whatever a fellow passenger sends your way.

And then there are the seat-reclining passengers. Oh, those seat recliners! Kat Koppett, an actor and improv consultant from Albany, New York, had one on her last flight.

“It would have been easy to react mindlessly,” she says. “I could have passively aggressively bumped her seat a lot.”

Instead, she applied the principles of improv and used the moment as an opportunity to stretch her performance range, cycling through possible responses.

“I could tap her on the shoulder, politely explain that I had a deadline and ask her to move up,” she says. “I could see if the flight attendant might help me. I could choose not to work and find out how that decision might lead to other options, like meditating or listening to music.”



She could also vow never to fly on an airline with such a scarcity of legroom again. Or book a ticket on an air carrier that limits seat recline, such as Delta Air Lines.

In the end, she suffered in silence, as most of us do.

If you are going to address the problem, it’s better to do so sooner rather than later. That is what Gregorio Palomino discovered when a passenger boarded late and took a middle seat next to him.

“He sat down next to me and pushed me and the other seatmate off [the armrests] after we had settled in,” says Palomino, an event planner from San Antonio. “He looked at me and said: ‘Are we going to have a problem here?’”

Palomino stood up, walked to the front of the cabin and asked if he could move to a different seat. Instead of reseating him, the attendant called the airport police, who ushered Palomino and the aggressive passenger off the plane. The airline gave Palomino a ticket on the next available flight. But it could have been much worse.

Imagine if Palomino had waited until the aircraft had reached cruising altitude.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Trump Says Ukraine Can Fully Restore Borders with NATO Backing
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
×