30 Outrageous In-Flight Moments That Made Everyone Regret Boarding

On a very crowded flight from San Francisco to Hawaii I noticed a family with two kids under 3. They don’t let you sit with kids that age for some sort of safety rule. So Dad was sitting in one row with a baby and Mom was in a different row with an 18 month old kid who was raising hell and didn’t want to sit or be quiet.

This was the second leg of their trip. They had already been on a plane from NY to San Francisco. Mom got up with 18 month old and was walking back to the bathroom with him stiffening up like a board so he was hard to hold. I was sitting reading in my isle seat with my 15 year old son next to me. She looked at my son and said “I’ll pay you $20 if you will hold him for 10 minutes!”. My son reached out and took him and she went off to the bathroom.

When she came back my son said not to worry and the kid could just stay with him. The 18 month old seemed perfectly happy with my son and he kept him for an hour until we had to prepare for landing. She tried to pay him but he said don’t worry about it. When we got off the plane that family was waiting for us. Families with babies get to get off first. They had a huge white lei for my son! He was happy. They were happy. Everybody was happy!

Don’t we all love it when Karma kicks in.

I love flying and always try for a window seat to watch the view outside while taking off and landing.

One day I walked to my aisle to see two ladies dressed impeccably in my seat and the middle seat leaving only the aisle seat vacant. I politely advised that they were in the wrong seats and was told “I meant to ask for a window seat”! Clearly with no intention to move.

A flight attendant asked was everything OK, to be told by the window lady that she wanted the window and was not moving. To ease the situation I told the Flight Attendant that I will simply take the aisle seat. She was very grateful.

I sat down, their scent was wonderful but across the aisle drifted the scent of a very dirty and smelly young man in his 20’s. He smelt like he had not had a shower for a week. I thought what a trip this will be !!!!

Then the young man leaned out and waved to his mate about 6 ailses forward. I still remember his name and it is at least 10 years ago..”HEY JACKO”…was the call to is mate.”

I had a rare brainwave, I asked the same flight attendant if I could swap with this gentlemans friend so they could fly together be it across an aisle. She had clearly smelt them both and said to me with a smile “That will not be a problem”. As I swapped seats with Jacko, I noticed he was at least as smelly. as I left my seat I turned to the ladies and simply said “enjoy your flight”!!!

I told the lady next to the seat where I moved about it and and I seriously thought she was going to wet herself because she laughed so hard having already experienced Jacko for just a few minutes.

I was on a flight from San Francisco to New York, in a window seat, and a man in a business suit sat down in the aisle seat and then put his 3 year old son in the middle seat. As soon as we took off and we’re allowed to put our tray tables down, the man took out his laptop and told the little boy to keep quiet and not bother him or me. I said it was okay if he talked to me. The poor child had no games or toys to distract him not even any snack. It was before smart phones and before we could select individual movies. What was he supposed to do on a 4 hour flight? I played games with him, talking very softly to avoid annoying mean Dad. The man didn’t tell me to stop, so I had fun with the little guy until we deplaned. I shared a snack I’d brought with him, and I drew pictures for him on my legal pad (I was on a business trip). His father never said another word to his son. Nor did he thank me, but the sweet little boy did and gave me a hug. Some people don’t deserve children!

I was settled into my aisle seat in First, and a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would swap seats with her, so she could sit beside her husband who was in the window seat beside me.

I asked what seat she was in.

“22E”. Yeah.. middle seat in the back of the plane. In exchange for my first class seat.

I immediately burst out laughing, and when I composed myself I suggested that perhaps the person beside her in 22F or D would be happy to swap with her husband and come up to first class, then they could sit with each other in row 22.

“But I want to sit in first!”. Yeah honey, so do I. But unlike you, I actually have a ticket for it.

On an Emirates flight from Dubai, I was next to a couple and as the meal service started the guy asked me if I would “take the vegetarian option please”. A little put out, I asked why and was told that “it offends my wife and I if we watch someone else eat meat or fish”. “What about those across the aisle and on the row in front?” I asked, “We are only asking you as it is very much in our face”…… I had the beef, took my time and they went for a walk.

It was a very large person who bought a ticket in economy and took up half of my seat, expecting me to accept that I paid for a whole seat and had to squish into half a seat.

It was a short flight, so I just dealt and kept my mouth shut. But I decided that in the future I will talk with the flight attendant and insist that I get the entire seat I paid for. I do not wish to be cruel to the larger person, but the larger person’s decision to buy one seat or not to buy a 1st class ticket and take 1.5 seats was her choice to begin with. This has nothing to do with fat-shaming. It has to do with my being comfortable in a very expensive seat that I paid to enjoy.

I was comfortably settled in my window seat, book in hand, anticipating the rest and relaxation my well-deserved vacation would bring. As my seat mate approached, I was struck by the six-inch rhinestone cross that hung from her neck. She began piling books atop the tray table, one of which was entitled, How to Convert Atheists.

Within a matter of minutes, the dreaded question was propounded. “Have you heard the good news?” I enthusiastically answered, “I have! The Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states. The Catholic Church is losing members faster than you can say pedophile priests and televangelists are being exposed for their fraudulent practices and extramarital affairs.” Before she could respond, I pointed to her book, looked her directly in the eye, and stated unambiguously, “Don’t even think about it.”

I returned to my book and suddenly heard, “I will pray for you.” To which I responded, “Knock yourself out, dear, just do it silently.”

On a flight within Asia (where one often gets better customer service than in the West) a woman asked the flight attendant to care for her toddler because he was fussy and she needed to get some sleep. The flight attendant was, not surprisingly, temporarily at a loss for words then responded “I’m responsible for the safety and wellbeing of everyone on board, not a babysitter.” The passenger pouted and whined “What can I do then?” A fellow passenger replied that she needed to step up as a parent or travel with a nanny. The flight attendant smiled her thanks.

Last year, I was on a flight from New York to Europe, somewhere about half way over the Atlantic, a passenger came from Economy Class and sat down behind me. I was falling asleep, and I had my seat reclined. He taps me on the shoulder and then I see his head pop up, he tells me “Don’t say anything.”

There were lots of empty seats behind me, I really just wanted to sleep. So I did not answer him and just shut my eyes. I think an hour passed, and I heard commotion behind me. This man had asked for a blanket, and had several drinks. Apparently, he still was not noticed, it was only after he began complaining about bad service that they figured out he did not even belong in the seat.

He was trying to pull a fast one now, and stated his seat had been taken by me. Well, the cabin crew never even asked me, as they knew he was out of place. He refused to leave and fastened his seat belt. Backup came and they gave him two options either he comply of they would remove him by force and might get him arrested when we landed. The idea of being arrested did not change much for him.

He started yelling, and at this point we all had enough of it. Two other passengers began telling him to go back to economy as he would just end up with all kinds of issues if he did not. He now asked for another drink to “Think about it.” A burly, staff member came and then another. They gave him one last chance to get up and go back. He still did not move an inch. He began telling them, there were so many seats empty, and that he should be given one.

It seems the airline did not want to appear to be brutal in front of all of us. They gave in, and gave the man a drink and backed down. This really seemed to make a lot of people angry in the cabin. As Breakfast was served, an older man would comment to a Flight Attendant that he would do the same thing and never pay extra for Cabin Upgrades if the Airline just allowed people to sit down and make a claim.

The Flight Attendant laughed, and said “No you would not do any such thing, just wait for an hour and see.” Well, I realized that seat grabber’s bravado, was going to get him into a situation on arrival. He was laughing the whole time, and enjoying his larger seat, and was ordering drink after drink. It seems they knew quite well, that his problems were only getting worse. As now he was a drunken passenger as well. When we landed, he was the first person to disembark with escorts, It seems he had a welcoming committee waiting for him. For a couple of hours of getting his way, he lost far more than he gained.

Not initially my reaction - but what the person did …

So I was on a plane and the guy seated next to me was in a very nice suit- right away ai am suspicious (even the CEO of my company - always in a nice suit- wears “travel clothes”).

So when the flight attendant was serving drinks, he requested more hot water in his tea- as she is pouring, he moves the cup and his hand- he got literally at most 2 tablespoons of water on his hand before she reacted and stopped pouring..

Immediately he screams out “You poured hot water on my hand and I am in pain!”

Not rehearsed, right???

My immediate thought “Oh, a scammer trying to get money from the airline.”

She immediately apologized and offered him medical attention.

“No - none of you are qualified!”

She assured him that every flight attendant must be fully trained in emergency medical care, first aid, etc.

“No! I will only accept the care of a medical doctor! No one else is allowed to touch me! And I demand you have one here taking care of my hand the moment we land!!”

The hand - the one with no blisters or even a red spot - that hand.

So she goes to arrange all of this - he looks at me and says “Give me your name - I want you as a witness.”

I said ,”Well - ok - But you know that I will testify truthfully that you refused all medical care offered.”

He immediately lost all interest in talking with me….

I had a passenger offer me a drink from his flask. I was the pilot on a charter flight - just he and I. Come on - no one will know - just a sip - he kept at it, so after a while, I asked him if he could do me a favor. I wasn’t sure about the oil pressure in the number two engine (he sat right behind the engine gauges,) so if he noticed it dipping, could he give me a heads up? It worked like a charm - not a peep out of him the rest of the flight - a little cruel having him stare at a perfectly good engine gauge for the whole flight, but it left me alone to fly the airplane without having to focus on new ways to say no - and yes - technically I should have removed the flask from him - but with only he and I onboard the aircraft, I thought that would lead to more distraction.

I was on a flight to Las Vegas from the UK, I think it was flying from Gatwick at the time, travelling alone. Got on the plane, sat down, said hi to the other people in the row. I was in the centre set, aisle seat. I have broad shoulders, so tend to go for aisle or window so I don’t give everyone an uncomfortable flight.

I digress. Anyway, a group of Northern Irish ‘ladies’ got on the flight, found their seats - which were not together - and almost immediately one of them seated in the row just behind me got up and started asking everyone around her if they were travelling alone. I had pre-booked my seat, and ordered a vegetarian meal option. When she got to me, my row-mates, complete strangers, saw the expression of murder on my face at this woman’s approach, and told her that we were all flying together so couldn’t move. Basically, her entire hen party had booked a flight… then not sorted their seating out and were all over the cabin. No big deal, and frankly I couldn’t care any less about it.

But she went on, and on, and on. Eventually her party were all together around her (she wasn’t even the damn bride), and this woman then sealed her status as a genuine arse-breather. You know the type of person - they must be breathing with their arse because they somehow talk without pause. For hours.

She even told a story about how she herself had refused to move to accommodate a woman that wanted to sit next to her own young child on a flight, because it wasn’t her fault the woman hadn’t checked them in on adjacent seats… She recounted this with zero sense of irony. Her sense of entitlement was absolutely staggering.

At some point another passenger complained about the racket, and a stewardess had a word - this only made her worse as she then started asking everyone around her if they had a problem with her.

She even started claiming she spoke so loud because she was hard of hearing. Absolute bullshit.

Bear in mind I have quite a deep voice, it’s not the easiest thing to hear on a plane. She got round to asking me, “Excuse me, I was just wondering if you think I’ve been noisy on this flight, I think someone complained about me.”

I replied, in my usual voice - and believe me, she heard every word - “I’ve been watching a movie with the sound turned up, and I’m wearing noise-cancelling headphones, and I have heard every word you have said during this entire flight.”

Amazingly, she then piped down for the last few hours of the flight and looked suitably embarrassed. Yay me.

I was waiting to board a domestic flight when a woman began playing music loudly on her phone. She was not asked to turn it off, turn it down, or plug in her earbuds, at least not by an airport employee. If anyone complained, she ignored it. It was music I often enjoy, but not at that volume in these circumstances. I was tired, hungry, and barely there on time having rushed from a previous flight.

She did not reduce the volume after boarding the flight. I put on my ear plugs, but they barely made a difference. I’m not sure full-on noise cancelling headphones would have been enough. Then other people started playing music and podcasts and other noisemakers for everyone to hear. She destroyed the civility of the entire flight. The din was outrageous.

I got off the flight with a migraine and a level of internal fury that I have rarely, if ever, otherwise experienced in this life.

I was on a flight from Melbourne to Bangkok and sitting next to a 50 something, married couple in the middle seats. The wife and I passed a few pleasantries, while her husband proceeded to get wasted on the free alcohol. About 2 hours into the flight, the husband starts yelling at his wife, decides to give her a backhander and because he was wearing a ring, her cuts her face and blood starts trickling down her chin and onto her clothes. All the time this is happening, he is still screaming at her.

One of the flight crew and several fellow passengers ask him to quieten down but that has little effect. Then all of a sudden she clutches her chest and says she can't breathe. The husband says, matter of factly, that she probably having a heart attack and yells “die you f---ing b**ch, die".

She manages to tell me that she has some tablets in one of the bags at her feet, at which point I ask the husband where they would be, but he's still busy yelling insults at her and refuses to help. By this time her lips have turned blue and I'm frantically rummaging through her handbag for the tablets. Finally, I find the right one, put it under her tongue and slowly her breathing returns to normal. Unbelievably, her husband is still abusing her in between trying to find one of the flight crew to order another drink.

Then two male attendants show up, handcuff him and escort him up to first class and things quieten down. After thanking me profusely, the wife falls asleep and the rest of the flight passes uneventfully. When the plane finally lands, two security guards board the plane and he is escorted into a room in customs. I suggested to the wife that she would be welcome to come with me and we could share a room, at a nearby hotel, while she sorted out what she wanted to do. She politely declined my offer and one of the saddest things I've seen, is her with a overflowing luggage trolley, patiently waiting for her husband to be released by security and allowed into Thailand.

The only upside being that one of the flight attendants gave me 2 bottles of red wine, when I was disembarking, as a thankyou for my efforts! I've often thought about her and wondered if she ever developed the courage to leave him.

About ten years ago I boarded a full flight at the Istanbul Airport in Turkey heading back to the U.S. When I approached my assigned seat, I found a muslim woman seated in the window seat with a baby in an infant carrier placed in the aisle seat which was assigned to me. I explained to the woman that I was assigned to the seat occupied by her infant. In poor english, she explained that the infant was mistakenly assigned a seat several rows away and begged that I switch seats.

Of course I accommodated her request and all was well until another traveler approached and informed me that I was occupying their seat. I vacated the seat and again approached the muslim woman. This time she tried to explain that I must have gone to the wrong seat and pointed me towards another seat. At this point I asked to see the seat assignment ticket. She acted like she wasn’t understanding the language when a flight attendant approached to find out why I was blocking the aisle during boarding. I explained the situation to the attendant. The attendant confronted the woman and informed her that she had not purchased a seat for the infant and needed to hold the child on her lap during the flight.

The woman went into a rage loudly demanding that the airline provide a seat for her infant. She yelled about being denied a seat in first class where there were likely empty seats. She complained loudly about being discriminated against because she was muslim which made no sense because we were flying Turkish Airlines.

The flight attendant left and returned quickly with another airline attendant (probably a supervisor). The supervisor informed the woman that she either removed the child from my seat or they would both be removed from the flight.

The woman rose from her seat, brought the baby to a male traveler seated several rows away (likely her husband), dumped the child in his lap, argued with the man for a minute, stored the infant carrier in an overhead bin, and returned to her seat.

Needless to say, we didn’t talk much during the long flight.

Was on an Emirates flight from Jeddah to Dubai, and had checked in online, nice and early, to get an aisle seat near the front of the economy section. When I boarded, I got to my seat to find a gentleman in the window seat, a lady next to him, and then my seat.

Within ten seconds of my bum touching my seat, the flight attendant asked if I would swap with a guy who had a middle seat of the central seating section, some rows behind. I said no on the basis I don’t like middle seats and had made the effort to check in early to secure a good seat. The gentleman concerned was now standing nearby and pointing at me whilst speaking Arabic to the flight attendant. She explained he couldn't have my seat. After some louder proclamations, it was told to me that the gentleman was the middle passengers father, and didn’t want her next to me, an unknown man (window guy was her husband).

I again refused to move, and at this stage others around had become aware of the situation and were giving nods and winks of support.

Now the “You’ve gotta be kidding me” moment. The older guy suddenly lunged over me and sat half on me, and half on his daughter, and then started to try and push me off my seat. Needless to say, he didn’t succeed.

EDIT: Lots of comments and questions regarding the husband. It just wasn’t an issue for him - he refused to give up the window seat. The person with the issue was the father.

As far as I saw it, he simply hadn’t bothered checking in online, and there was no way I was giving up a decent seat to satisfy his outdated moral code.

We were flying Seattle to Heathrow on British Airways. We boarded the plane, and the seats assigned to us were wet. The flight attendant called the ground crew and quickly changed the seat covers~unfortunately the backs of the seats were wet as well, but that was fine with us.

At this time the third person assigned to the row boarded, an older woman wearing a sweatshirt with a Christmas tree on it. (This was in May). She loudly announced she was not going to sit in a row with wet seats (hers was dry) and demanded an upgrade. The flights manager got on the phone and found there were no business seats available. There was a discussion with flight ops that procedure must be followed and they could not place a passenger into First Class, only Business Class, that this was not the protocol.

To our surprise instead of moving the complaining older lady the flights manager took us into the First Class cabin leaving the complaining passenger in the economy class in her dry seat next to the two wet ones. Not only did we have a marvellous flight and great conversation with the flight attendants, one took a duty free bag and gave us a bottle of champagne to take off the plane, hoping that our London trip would go well after such a rocky start. We were very grateful not to have to sit next to the lady on the flight, and so surprised at such great service.

This happened years ago, before I had kids. I was on a flight, sitting in the window seat, minding my own business as people boarded. A young woman with a child sat in the middle seat next to me. I figured the child had the aisle seat, but no, someone else had that seat. Now the rules then were that a child could be a free lap-rider up until the age of 2 years, then were required to purchase a seat. This was the biggest 2 year old I have ever seen or the mother was pulling one over on the airline. Now they require a birth certificate if there is any doubt the age of the child.

Everything was fine until the plane took off. At that point the child decided they needed to see out the window and walked onto my lap to see the view. Mother didn’t even flinch. Just kept encouraging the child to see the view. She then slipped on headphones and buried her nose in a magazine.

Over the next two hours the child stomped all over me, demanded my attention, and prevented me from eating or drinking anything. The flight attendants repeatedly asked the mother to keep her child on her lap, and she would for as long as it took for the FA to walk away. The flight attendants kept mouthing ‘sorry’ to me the whole flight.

I decided to suck it up for the child and since it was a short flight to just deal with it. As I stood to disembark the plane, after the mother and child had already left, all of the flight attendants hugged me, shoved extra snacks into my hands and thanked me over and over. I ended up leaving with a big smile on my face. People like that mother are the reason the rest of us have to deal with so many rules and regulations.

A woman got on a plane in New York headed to Los Angeles. The plane was continuing on to Seattle, but she was only going to Los Angeles. After the plane got to 35,000 feet and the pilot turned off the seat belt sign, she got up, gathered up her things and moved up to 1st class. One of the flight attendants approached her and pointed out that she had an Economy ticket and needed to move back to her assigned seat.

She replied: “I’m blonde. I’m Beautiful. I deserve 1st class.” No amount of explanation could convince her to move She went back to the galley and told the lead flight attendant, who went to speak with the woman. She got the same response: “I’m blonde, and I’m beautiful. I deserve 1st class.”

The 1st officer happened to be passing the galley and heard the flight attendants discussing this woman. He said, “I’ll take care of it”.

He went to the woman and whispered something in her ear. She looked at him and asked, “Really”? and he replied, “Yes, Ma’am”.

She got up, gathered things and returned to her seat in economy.

The flight attendants asked the 1st officer, “ What did you say to her?”

He replied,” I told her that 1st class did not stop in LA.”

The woman sitting next to me had a peanut allergy. She demanded that the entire flight be declared peanut free. The flight attendants informed her that 6 rows in front of her and 6 rows behind her would be peanut free. That wasn't satisfactory to her. She didn't merely make a scene… her tantrum was an epic! She was informed that they were not even offering peanuts for a snack. She wanted all passengers searched for contraband peanuts.

They continually quoted their airline's policy, but she insisted that other airlines catered to her needs. Now, i was on a tight schedule once we touched ground in Boston, and we've now been sitting at the terminal for over an hour because of her tantrum. I excused myself out of my seat. Opend the overhead bin .grabbed my bag and begged them to let me off of the plane. I arrived in Boston 45 minutes before my original flight. Hard to imagine that one person can s***w up so many people's day because of their personal needs. What a Nut job! 😉