46 Times People Got Stuck Next To An Entitled Passenger And Had Nowhere To Escape At 30,000 Feet

Parents let their kid scream and blast toy music for a 5-hour flight, parents did nothing and let the kids do whatever—am I crazy for being furious?

I got off a flight from IAD to LAX yesterday and need to sanity check this because I’m genuinely furious.

About 30 minutes into the flight, a kid (maybe 3 or 4 years old) started screaming hysterically. I get it—kids cry, ears pop, flying is rough on little ones. But then the parents handed the kid one of those electronic noise-making toy devices, and instead of using headphones, they just let it blast repetitive, loud kid music at top volume.

So for the next three hours, it was a tag-team of full-volume toddler meltdowns and blaring electronic toy noise.

I asked the flight attendant if they could request the parents turn the device off or use headphones. The FA walked over to speak with them, and the parents literally just shrugged and said, "We can't do anything to control him, so we just have to let him scream and play." The parents just ignored everything and let the kid do whatever they want.

When did "kids will be kids" turn into "we won't even try to parent or respect 150 other people trapped in a metal tube"? Is it standard now for flight crews to completely give up on noise enforcement, or did I just get unlucky?

What would you have done in this situation? How are parents getting away with blaring loud audio devices without headphones on planes now?

I've had a few people be nuisances (idc I always got my seat in the end), but the one exchange that always comes to mind is this one. Once there was a mom with two kids sitting in my two seats, who pretended to not understand English, and then started to be racist about and cuss me out to the flight attendant in a local Zambian language (Bemba, which I speak because most of my colleagues prefered it). Cue her surprise when I as a white guy told her in fluent Bemba I've been kind and patient with her, but I don't appreciate her attitude and asked her to leave one last time or I'd have to get her moved. Suddenly she can apologize in perfect English and runs to the back dragging her screaming kids with her. The flight attendant thought it was hilarious. Wished the other lady a nice stay in my home country when we were at the baggage pick up but didn't hear anything back lol.

Well, folks, it's that time. Me traveling to and fro Costa Rica getting treated to seeing crazy entitlement around flying. Flying used to be rare and fancy. Now it's just a flying bus! Oh boy did I see lots of it, but this one kind of took the cake.

The other day I had a four hour international flight to get home. I'd already booked a business class seat. Larger seat equals more comfort instead of being squished together like sardines in main cabin. When I went to preboard the gate agent told me she'd moved me farther forward. Okay, cool beans, thank you! They wheeled me to the door of the plane and I discovered I was now sitting in first class! Score! I love first class but it's usually prohibitively expensive so I rarely buy a first class ticket.

The only other person preboarding in a wheelchair is sitting just in front of me in first class, and I had just watched her make a huge production of getting aboard, crying, whining and yelling. I sense she's a tad dramatic because she's only got an over the counter not so supportive knee support on, no crutches or cane, nothing medical issue that you'd get with a serious knee injury or disease. But whatever, people are entitled to be as weird as they wanna be.

Once regular boarding started I got to see my seatmate for the flight, a man with a magnificent quiff of chestnut hair in a man bun and a large beard. He was dressed in old shorts and an old stained tee. I'd watched folks looking like they bathed in hand sanitizer giving him wide berth and a variety of not very friendly looks in the airport waiting room. I'd seen how they were treating him and thought I'd love to know his story, so lo and behold he's sitting with me, just behind Yelling Knee Lady.

We settle in, and over wine we start talking. He's a federal and military retiree, just like my husband, and he's traveling around the world, going places that strike his fancy with merely a backpack. We're having a good conversation with a bit of laughing thrown in, but we're speaking at regular conversational level. Not loudly at all.

We've only been airborne 30 minutes or so when Knee Lady starts yelling for the flight attendants to move myself and this gentleman because, her reasoning, we were "dirty hippies" who didn't belong in first class. He and I are looking at each other and LAUGHING at that! We're both post 60, yes he's dressed very casually but is clean and doesn't smell. I'm wearing an outfit of linen tunic printed in an etole fabric, black pants, and Birkenstocks. This is an outfit that one of my kids teases me makes me look like I am on my way to teach yoga in Connecticut! Sort of alternative, sort of suburban upper class lady.

Thankfully the flight attendant had a lot of common sense, telling Knee Lady that she's not moving us anywhere, but she will ask us to pipe down some if that helps Knee Lady. We both smiled at the attendant and that she didn't even have to ask, we'll be more quiet. Lunch followed by a nap.

When we arrived in Costa Rica I got to see a Jetway Jesus experience as Yelling Knee Lady was suddenly able to walk without much trouble once her suitcase arrived. I just had to laugh at that as the guys at the airport pushed me out to my car.

I swear, I feel so sorry for everyone having to deal with folks like this.

In a previous job I used to travel for work - ALOT. Often I'd go into work only to be told I was needed in another state that day so they would have a car waiting for me to take me to the airport and than I'd normally fly first class to my destination. The main reason I would fly first is so I would have space to work (or sleep, depending on the time).

​

Anyway this happened so I grab my travel bag (which I kept in my desk - had my phone charger, my noise cancelling headphones and my passport) and jumped in the car to the airport.

​

One big advantage to flying first is lounge access so I always made a priority to go into the lounge and grab a muffin and a coffee. I'd down the coffee as fast as I could, and then head to the plane with the muffin.

​

it just so happened that todays flight was on a 38 seater prop job but because of the status I have with the airline thanks to all the travel and the first class ticket I was in row 1 (this plane was a 2 - 2 seating formation with the first 2 rows being first class)

​

I get on the plane and as I am boarding I see someone in my seat. mind you, the plane boards right next to the first row. I give the flight attendant my boarding pass and she sees 1A and says "your seat is right..." as she spins around 180 degrees and sees the passenger in my seat over the barrier that's there.

​

She turns to the passenger and says "your in the wrong seat"

​

The passenger responds with "make him sit in the second row"

​

this turned into a full argument with the FA winning. the seat stealer gets up and just to be spiteful knocks the muffin out of my hand.

​

This was too much for the FA who ordered the passenger off the flight. they didn't have any checked bags so they grabbed their carry on and left.

​

The thing was there was only 1 direct flight to where I was going a day. the only other way of getting there was to transit though another city and pay quite a bit more, so that's what I guessed happened.

​

The flight attendant was rally apologetic about it (I told her not to worry) and when I flew again in the future she always hooked me up with extra stuff - one day she found out I had a newborn so she gave me a stuffed mascot of the airline.

My wife and I took our children to Florida a couple of years ago, flying with Virgin Atlantic. Their seats have generous leg room compared to others apparently but I'm 6'4" and I fully utilise any leg room there is.

On the flight there, the woman in front of me (who swapped with her daughter I think, just my luck) decided to just ram her seat into full recline without warning, taking away some much needed room. She then proceeded to keep stretching and pushing the seat back every few minutes, crushing my knees.

I had to keep switching positions (slouched, knees to the sides / sat bolt upright, knees pressing into the back of the chair) just to get some relief.

Then I found a game on the monitor in the back of her headrest. Solitaire, controlled by touchscreen. For about 4 hours I jabbed those cards as hard as I could, sending vibrations through her seat and stopping her getting any rest.

At one point my wife saw her tutting and muttering to a family member and nodded her head towards me, so I knew my plan worked.

On the flight home I wanted to recline my seat. First thing I did? "Ask the passenger behind me if they minded, and that if it got too uncomfortable for them, just let me know."

I was flying in the window seat, because I like looking out the window. The woman sitting next to me reached in front of me multiple times to close the window shade. She never asked me, she just reached directly in front of me to close the shade. I would immediately reopen it, and a few minutes later she would reach in front of me again to close it.

It was a noon domestic short haul flight, so no reason to need darkness in the middle of the day. And absolutely no excuse for violating my personal space multiple times without asking me or acknowledging me or treating me like a human in any way.

So I pulled out my book and turned on the reading light, despite there being ample natural light from the open window for me to read. I then positioned my hands in such a way that my watch would reflect the reading light directly into her eyes.

I read like that for an hour, jiggling my hand the entire time, so it would shine the light back and forth across her eyes and be super distracting and annoying.

Once we landed and she took her headphones off, I turned to her and said “next time you fly, book a window seat if you want to control the window. Or at least treat me like a human and ask me before you violate my personal space. What you did is unbelievably rude.”

She looked SO OFFENDED.

And naturally she walked 2 mph. Being a city walker, I easily got in front of her, then once we were on the moving walkway I stopped immediately in front of her. Did the same on the escalator to the curb, before flipping her off the entire way to my ride.

Edit: wanted to make a slight clarification that I was subtly flipping her off by extending my middle finger while holding the handle of my bag, so it was upside down and you only would’ve noticed if you were looking at my hand. It wasn’t like I was just holding 🖕up to her face. I was angry and it was a subtle way for me to voice my anger and get it out of my system

Sitting on UA flight 40 to Rome. Was at the lounge earlier and this couple was sitting across from me, wife was visibly sick and sneezing and snotting everywhere. Not wearing a mask.

I get on this flight, and just my luck, they’re seated next to me. I kindly ask her (after another nasty sneeze) if she was in the lounge earlier and asked her to wear a mask. She said she just has a cold and didn’t have a mask but would ask the flight attendant. Flight attendant said they’re out. The wife then tries to talk me saying that it’s just allergies, so I’m like no you just told me it was a cold, and if it were me I’d be wearing a mask to try to minimize getting others sick even if I had to wear a mask. And husband tries to jump in saying some nonsense so I just responded they were classic entitled people and turned my head but this really grinds my gears.

If you’re sick and you’re getting on a plane put on a damn mask. Is it that hard?

I am white and I don’t want to make it about race but it’s always entitled white folks doing this bs and then not even apologizing for their behavior/acting like it’s fine. It really proves other people’s criticism of white people.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

A few years back I was flying home from a vacation island. It was a four hour flight and we should have been at our destination by 4 pm. About half way through the flight the pilot asked if there was a doctor on board. Which is never a good omen. Two guys stood up and went to the back of the plane. A few minutes later the pilot announced that we‘re going to land at the nearest airport because we have a medical emergency on board. 20 minutes later we were landing and there was already an ambulance and an emergency doctor waiting for us. They carried out an elderly man and a crying woman followed them. After they left the pilot told us that the guy was having an heart attack and that they would sort out their luggage and fuel up the plane. This would take around 30 minutes and that we would be at our destination by 6 pm. After the announcement a woman started to complain loudly that she would be late and that her son is waiting for her at the airport and that it’s an impudence she is late. Old people just shouldn’t fly and so on. She was traveling alone and complained to everyone around her. Unfortunately I was sitting right next to her and had to listen to this for at least 15 min. Than I snapped and told her to shut up because nobody on the plane wanted to be late but the old guy definitely didn’t want to have a heart attack and going to a hospital in a foreign country instead of going home. I may have said a few not so nice things although but I was really annoyed by her. For the rest of the flight she just sat there right next to me and gave me a few really evil eyes. But she shut her mouth.

P.s. Sorry for the English. It’s not my first language.

My son and I are flying out. I booked the aisle and window in case the flight wasn’t full. If it was full, we would let the middle person choose aisle or window. We get to our row and there is someone in the window. We check our seats. She looks away pretending she doesn’t see or hear us. It’s fine for us since we were going to take the middle seat anyways.

Then this guys comes and says he has the middle seat in our row. I explained we have the aisle and the window but this woman sat down first. Turns out she had the middle seat on the other side. Now she is squished between two large dudes. She didn’t even steal the correct side.

I had the seat "1A" booked on both of my flights. Yes I got a deal on First Class and flew sitting in the first seat on the plane. I was thrilled. First flight, great seat mates. Second flight, problematic people.

I got on, got in my seat. A few minutes later a couple with the husband wearing a "Berkley" sweatshirt and jeans and a wife dressed in designer duds got on and started immediately insisting I was sitting in one of their assigned seats. They had tickets for "1B" and "1C" and insisted that "1A" was the aisle seat. Told them they were wrong. Pointed to the sign showing which seat was which.

They got the flight attendant, who confirmed that I was in the correct seat and they were middle and aisle, not I. Copacetic? Right?

Nope. They started complaining to the flight attendants that I was 'too fat' and was crowding the husband. I may be fluffy, but I can fit in the seat easy on a regular seat much less these wide ones, and put on the seatbelt AND pull it in some. I wasn't touching his rarefied ass. The flight attendants moved them, not I, to right behind me.

So I ended up with a full empty three oversized seats. I made sure to stretch out over all three and take the most glorious and petty power nap of all times. They moaned about how unfair it was, how I should never have been allowed to sit near them, I should have been moved, etc, etc.

This is why it pays to be nice to others, even others you don't particularly like much. They sat crowded in with someone else fluffy, ignored by the flight attendants while I lolled about napping. I take napping oh so seriously.

I think they must have exhibited that same very bad attitude going through customs because I passed them having their baggage pulled apart and inspected while a customs agent grilled them. Karma is real.. still laughing thinking about it.

Just before landing, the pilot made the plea for people to let other people make their connections. While taxiing, the flight attendant made the same plea. When the seat belt sign went off, the usual thing happened where (almost) everyone stood up in the aisle. The flight stated to everyone that there should only be about ten people in the aisle. Most of the travelers ignored the flight attendant. Some of us connectors were in the back of the plane. As we finally were able to move down the aisle, practically every seat we passed was empty. A special shout-out to “first class” passengers who showed no class. I know you first-classers paid for the privilege of disembarking first, but can’t you have the decency to let others make their connections? You can still get off the plane before the other non-connectors

Sadly, people need to be reminded that unless you are trading for the same seat or a better seat, don’t even ask. It’s rude and so annoying. Literally choose a different flight if you didn’t get the seat you wanted

People think they are so entitled and they are just cheap! People need to not book the aisle and window seat of an extra room seat expecting the person in the middle to give up their seat for the seat you purchased for your son in the back! A family made my poor mother so uncomfortable. My mother flew delta the other day and had purchased the comfort plus middle seat in the row behind first class. There weren’t any window/aisle seats available so she chose the option with the most room. The flight was over booked and a couple had booked the window and aisle seat next to my mother. While the husband went to the bathroom during boarding, the wife asked my mom if she could switch seats with her teenage son who was sitting in the middle seat of like row 24. My mom obviously said no because she paid for the seat. So the wife asked my mom if she could switch seats to sit next to her husband. Clearly her whole seating arrangement didn’t go as planned. The husband came back and made a scene about my mom not switching with his son and now her sitting in the window seat. My mom continued to ignore them, while he continued to complain and tried to intimidate her to move. My mom was over the husband complaining so she offered to move back to her original middle seat and the wife quickly declined. Meanwhile all of this could’ve been avoided if the family had purchased the middle seat my mom was sitting in. People need to learn how to behave idk

I was boarding a flight in ATL and had a window C+ seat. When I arrived at my seat, a man was already sitting there. He asked if he could keep the seat because he has knee problem. Apparently his knee problem prevents him from sitting in the middle seat? I don't know, but I'm non-confrontational and didn't want to make it awkward since I still had to sit next to him for the next 4 hours, so I just said OK and took his middle seat. The entire flight I was wedged between two decent-sized guys, struggling to find a comfortable way to take a nap. I'm a thicker girl myself.

I'm so frustrated that this other passenger thought he was entitled to my window seat, and that I didn't have the balls to just tell him to move, or call the FA over.

Rant over. If this happens again I'm just going to try to politely stand my ground, even if it leads to an awkward flight.

Edit: There is really no need to be rude. I'm very well aware that I voluntarily gave up my seat and should not have. As I said, I'm not confrontational and I struggle with awkward situations like this. While I could certainly use a lesson in assertion, some of you could use a lesson in basic respect.

This happened several years ago on a flight out of Dallas. It is worth mentioning that I am tall: 6'4" with some long legs.

I was flying American (I now prefer JetBlue for the legroom) so the seat spacing had my knees right near the seat in front of me. After the attendants made their final check of seats up, belts buckled, trays folded we were good to go. We accelerated and started to ascend. The guy in front of me reclined but thanks to the acceleration and angle of incline the seat didn't go back slowly but rather slammed into my knees.

I got hit by the tray hinge. It hurt. I was annoyed.

During the rest of the ascent I slowly raised my heels off the ground to lift my knees, and therefore his seat, up. This took a couple minutes but when we leveled off I dropped my heels suddenly, causing his seat to drop. The guy sat up immediately and whipped his head around to look at me.

I shrugged and smiled.

His seat went back up and I didn't have a problem for the remainder it the 3 hour flight.

To be clear, I'm fine if people recline back into my legs during flights. The seats are made to recline, kinda, and while I won't do it to the people behind me I will not begrudge someone a little comfort. In this case though, they ignored instructions for the ascent and hurt my knee so I felt it deserved some response.

Ok so I’m not 100% sure if this fits here but I’d say so

I just got home from a brutal night of traveling and had such an annoying experience and all my friends are asleep so i gotta rant.

I had a late night cross-country flight so i took a magnesium pill and put on my noise canceling headphones.

So i have a loop of white noise that i listen too when i sleep in general but especially on planes, so ive got my pillow and eye mask, headphones and blanket so im cool right.

Something starts stinking, i peek out and basically there’s a mother and daughter next to me eating some sort of stinky egg thing out of tubberwear. It was nasty and smelly but i was like fine whatever, let’s go to sleep.

Also we have not taken off yet btw and i get a sharp jab in my shoulder, it’s a flight attendant, im like yes? And she tells me that my music is too loud and im disrupting people. I’m sooo soo confused because im not even listening to music and let me tell you this woman was being very mean straight away and I’m kinda like I’m not listening to music and she claims she can hear it blasting and if i could go back in time I’d have asked her what song but i kinda just stared liked a moron because i was so taken aback.

The woman next to me has been quiet but starts whispering to the flight attendant and Flight attendant tells me to either turn my music down or she’s moving my seat. That’s when im like ohh egg lady probably lied on me to get a row to herself and her kid or maybe she has someone else she wants to join.

I said I’ll move to another window seat but noooo that wasn’t available so i was like ok no. This lady was kinda fighting with me about my “music” claiming she could hear it when nothing was playing, then another flight attendant basically shooed her off and apologized and that was that.

But so the stinky egg family can stink up the whole plane but god forbid i wear headphones. I had not even turned on my white nose yet! I’m grumpy af. I’m just baffled at the balls of some people.

Also stinky eggs should be banned from flights! Out of all the places you need to eat an egg salad you choose an airplane? Why?

I witnessed a small spat between two people on a flight earlier today regarding their seats which reminded me of this experience I had about ten years ago. I was on a flight to attend an annual convention happening on the other side of the country with two of my senior colleagues. It was the night before the first day of the event so the entire flight practically consisted of people in the same industry. My colleagues were busy greeting or acknowledging people as we were walking along the airplane aisle to get to our seats. I was a rookie at the time.

At any rate, a woman in early thirties was sitting in my seat. She was wearing oversized sunglasses along with a pair of studio headphones over her head. Moreover, she rested her hands neatly on her lap and had her head tilted back on the headrest as if to suggest that she was asleep and not to be disturbed. Give me a break, half of the plane hadn't finished boarding by this point.

She ignored several of my initial verbal attempts at getting her attention. She ignored half a dozen gentle taps on her shoulder. When she finally "awakened", I tried explaining to her that she was in my seat. But her response was to point at her headphones, then shrugging with both her hands upturned to gesture that she couldn't hear what I was saying. "You could try taking them off?". Nothing, still playing dumb with no intention to take off her headphones. I think the reader can appreciate that I was starting to impede aisle traffic by this point.

Not giving up, I then showed her my boarding pass, pointing at the printed seat number. She then mouthed "ohhhh" as if she just understood what I've been saying all along. She then tucked in her knees half an inch into the seat and motioned me to pass by her like that. I had briefly considered whether to give her the crotch or the ass but I chose to insist. When she tucked in her knees again at my another futile attempt at getting her to move to her own seat, I just about had it.

I raised my voice and and said out loud that "I'm not the one getting in, you are!" to which she instantly recoiled and moved to the window seat without a word. The guy who was waiting behind me in the aisle gave me a thumbs up as he passed by. I thought that was that but she was apparently still salty and wanted satisfaction. After the plane had taken off, she tapped on my shoulder and said she'd be open to switching seats with me "If I wanted." I politely declined albeit with an almost amused look in my face.

Later, I was casually conversing with my colleagues seated across from me in their aisle seats. She tapped on my shoulders again and said that her offer extended to "your friends". I gave a light chuckle and said "Sure." I knew what she was getting at along with her condescension; that she was "someone in the industry". Too late, I already texted my colleagues after that little incident of ours and both of them had Mariah Carey'd her.

She later circled back on this, whether if I'd asked my colleagues about their seat yet to which I replied in the negative. She asked "If I could please ask them" to which I'd always reply in the positive, "Sure" in a lighthearted manner. This exact exchange occurred between us not once, not twice, but thrice in the course of a 6 hour flight. To this day, I've never come across her professionally so I'm not sure what exactly she was trying to achieve there.

I tried to recline my seat and it popped back upright, I tried again and realized the lady behind me was shoving my seat forward. I tried again and she yelled at me that I couldnt recline my seat.

I was very shaken up by the interaction so I just stayed upright for like 10 minutes until I could see a flight attendant nearby. I was able to quickly recline and have my chair click into place so she couldn't shove it forward. She raised her voice at me again and I told her everyone on the whole plane gets to recline their seat. She said I was reclining too far back though... I told her my seat was in the same position as the person sitting in front of me and kind of held my hands up at her through the little gap between the seats and then sat back. She didn't try to talk to me again.

The whole thing made me so uncomfortable. I wish I had gotten an attendant to help me instead of interacting with her directly. I can't believe this happened irl, the whole time i was thinking it sounded like a reddit story

Edited to add: she was a petite short woman, all of 5'2" like my travel companion (we saw her again at baggage pick up) In a different situation, and asked politely, I am certain I would have accommodated the person. Even the tall guy who's knees were jammed into the seat in front of him was getting involved telling her she needed to calm down

So I was recently on an 8 hour flight from the US, settled into our seats and noted a family with several teen/young adult children sat with each child having a 2 seat row to themselves, mum settled them all in and went to her seat in business or premium economy from what I could see. Take off and everything is fairly normal. From the moment the seatbelt sign went off the mum was up and down the aisle from her seat to her children’s seats the whole damn flight, every time banging everyones elbow and talking so loudly I couldn’t even hear what I was watching on Netflix despite having the volume up fully.
The seatbelt sign went back on a couple of times due to turbulence and she had to be told at least 5 times to just sit the hell down.
During meal service they all loudly complained about the food and basically treated the FA as their own personal waitress. They kept waving her down and being so rude she announced no more drinks as she was only one person. It was an over night flight and gradually all the kids fell asleep but that didn’t stop mum continually marching up and down. It was just impossible to sleep.
Descent begins and again they basically had to force her to take her seat and the kids all begin throwing their trash in the aisle and packing up. We land and mum barges through anyone trying to get off and then pushes her way back through with her kids in tow.
I was so happy to get off that plane and went to go through passport control when I saw them all frantically tearing their bags apart as apparently the daughter had lost her passport. Might have had a smile to myself as we went straight through while dad was arguing with a member of staff about the missing passport. Felt bad for the daughter but after that awful flight it felt good to see a tiny bit of karma come through!

Wife and I were flying from Santorini to Paris recently on budget airline Transavia (subsidiary of Air France) . It’s like the Spirit Airlines equivalent I guess.

Anyhow we had paid extra $ for exit row seats which come with additional leg room. Also allowed for earlier group boarding but wifey was in the toilet when boarding started so we ended up boarding a bit later.. no big deal I thought since we had reserved seats.

When we boarded we see a lady in my exit row aisle seat. Of course a fellow American. I informed her she was in my seat and she (without even looking up, mind you) asked if we couldn’t just sit in the exit row across the aisle which (at the moment) was empty. I of course politely but firmly told her no.

At this point plane is about 75% boarded but we are now holding up people trying to get to their seats. I moved over to let other passengers pass by and she still hasn’t gotten up. After about 10 more seconds I lost my patience and finally said “get out of my seat or I’ll have the flight attendant do it” loud enough to startle her and she finally looks up sheepishly and says “fine but you don’t need to be rude!” And a huge huffy puffy

I quickly responded with “I wasn’t until you decided to be an entitled jerk” as she walked …. To the second to last row on the plane !

And yes the plane was 95% full in the end, including all exit row seats.

Not sure this is the most entitled thing ever, but I think it fits.

Sitting on a plane while boarding continues and watch this interaction between old grumpy lady heading to her seat and flight attendant.

OGL: You don't have in flight entertainment?

FA: On your device. You connect to wi-fi.

OGL: But no screens?

FA: There are screens on some international flights, but not usually on domestic.

OGL (with a sharp tone): You should have screens on EVERY flight!

Luckily it didn't escalate, but such a weird thing to hold up boarding over.