Most people treat flights like a task to get through before they reach their destination, which makes sense, as a lot of folks get grumpy during the process. Unfortunately, this is also why some people act up or throw tantrums in the air, which can be unpleasant for everyone else.
This list includes tales from passengers who had to deal with an entitled, rude, and demanding person on a flight, and how the incident turned out. Hopefully none of us ever has to deal with drama like this, but it certainly makes for an entertaining story.
#41
I’ve been flying for decades but this one was new to me. I was traveling with my 80 year-old brother. He needs wheelchairs and a bit of looking after during a flight. So I made sure that, in addition to the wheelchairs, I booked two aisle seats, directly across from each other. Flight was completely full. Boarded the flight and found a man in my aisle seat. He tried to claim that seat A-x was the aisle seat and so mine was the window. I’ve been flying on AA for decades, and on a plane with 3x3 seating, C&D are the aisles, A&F are windows. I attempted to explain this, nicely, to him. He insisted that I was wrong and he was right. I didn’t argue with him any further, I simply asked the flight attendant to explain the seating letter system to him. She did, and he then tried to argue with her that the airline booked him with the wrong seat. He finally took his window seat, grumbling about it, and so I could take my assigned aisle seat. I’ll give the guy A for originality but the only way to deal with these entitled folks is to be polite, but firm, and involve the flight attendant if you can’t make any headway.
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#42
This happened in July 2018.
Me, my mom and stepdad were flying home after vacationing in Mexico. For some reason my stepdad was sitting in the row ahead of me and my mom. There were two guys sitting next to him and another guy came up to sit next to us. I was the window seat, my mom was the middle seat and the man was the aisle seat.
My mom politely asked the man if he would mind switching seats with my stepdad but he said no because he apparently paid extra money to sit in the aisle seat ( I didn’t know you could do that ). One of the men who were sitting on the aisle seat next to my stepdad offered to give up his seat but the man still refused. Me and my mom were kinda annoyed but hey, he paid for the seat so it’s rightfully his.
I was in the window seat so I didn’t experience this and I didn’t know about this until after we got off the plane. The man had a laptop and the whole two hours of the flight he was typing on it and was elbowing my mom the whole time. My mom even asked him to stop but he just looked at her and then looked back at his laptop. I was asleep but she said that she was leaning on me and he was still elbowing her. At this point it seemed like he was moving his arms more then he had to to type and she said that she was pretty sure he was jabbing her on purpose at this point. The plane eventually landed and we all got off and that was the last we saw of him, thankfully. My mom later looked at her arm and saw a bruise on it where he was jabbing her.
Me, my mom and stepdad were flying home after vacationing in Mexico. For some reason my stepdad was sitting in the row ahead of me and my mom. There were two guys sitting next to him and another guy came up to sit next to us. I was the window seat, my mom was the middle seat and the man was the aisle seat.
My mom politely asked the man if he would mind switching seats with my stepdad but he said no because he apparently paid extra money to sit in the aisle seat ( I didn’t know you could do that ). One of the men who were sitting on the aisle seat next to my stepdad offered to give up his seat but the man still refused. Me and my mom were kinda annoyed but hey, he paid for the seat so it’s rightfully his.
I was in the window seat so I didn’t experience this and I didn’t know about this until after we got off the plane. The man had a laptop and the whole two hours of the flight he was typing on it and was elbowing my mom the whole time. My mom even asked him to stop but he just looked at her and then looked back at his laptop. I was asleep but she said that she was leaning on me and he was still elbowing her. At this point it seemed like he was moving his arms more then he had to to type and she said that she was pretty sure he was jabbing her on purpose at this point. The plane eventually landed and we all got off and that was the last we saw of him, thankfully. My mom later looked at her arm and saw a bruise on it where he was jabbing her.
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#43
Hello Reddit!
This happened to me just a while ago and I wanted to share it with all of you. So my family and I had taken a 5 day trip to NYC over the 4th of July weekend. Everything went perfectly fine until we boarded our plane to return to Minneapolis/St. Paul MN. As we were walking down the aisle, we noticed that there was a Karen in one of our seats. The interaction went something like this:
Me: “Excuse me ma’am, but I think you’re in my seat”
Karen: “No, I’m not! I specifically paid for this seat!”
Me: “Well my ticket says that this is my assigned seat.”
Karen, pulling out her ticket: “See 27B!”
I looked at my ticket and saw that my ticket also said 27B. Karen flagged down a flight attendant.
Karen: “This guy says that he’s supposed to sit in my seat, but I already have settled in and I’m not moving.”
Flight attendant: “Can I please see both of your tickets?”
Karen and I hand the flight attendant our tickets. Karen looks at me with an “I know I’m right” smirk. The flight attendant then points out to her that she somehow got onto the wrong flight.
Karen: “No I didn’t. This is the flight to Ontario, isn’t it?”
Flight attendant: “No, this is the flight to MSP.”
Karen’s face goes pale. She then picks up all of her things and hauls @$$ off the plane.
How the hell she was able to get on the plane is beyond me. I'm also pretty sure that the flight to Ontario left about a half-hour before we boarded.
The best part of the whole story comes when the flight attendant makes her preflight announcement saying “Welcome aboard to Flight ###, Nonstop service to MSP, not Ontario. If you are flying to Ontario, get off the plane now.” My family and I burst out laughing.
This happened to me just a while ago and I wanted to share it with all of you. So my family and I had taken a 5 day trip to NYC over the 4th of July weekend. Everything went perfectly fine until we boarded our plane to return to Minneapolis/St. Paul MN. As we were walking down the aisle, we noticed that there was a Karen in one of our seats. The interaction went something like this:
Me: “Excuse me ma’am, but I think you’re in my seat”
Karen: “No, I’m not! I specifically paid for this seat!”
Me: “Well my ticket says that this is my assigned seat.”
Karen, pulling out her ticket: “See 27B!”
I looked at my ticket and saw that my ticket also said 27B. Karen flagged down a flight attendant.
Karen: “This guy says that he’s supposed to sit in my seat, but I already have settled in and I’m not moving.”
Flight attendant: “Can I please see both of your tickets?”
Karen and I hand the flight attendant our tickets. Karen looks at me with an “I know I’m right” smirk. The flight attendant then points out to her that she somehow got onto the wrong flight.
Karen: “No I didn’t. This is the flight to Ontario, isn’t it?”
Flight attendant: “No, this is the flight to MSP.”
Karen’s face goes pale. She then picks up all of her things and hauls @$$ off the plane.
How the hell she was able to get on the plane is beyond me. I'm also pretty sure that the flight to Ontario left about a half-hour before we boarded.
The best part of the whole story comes when the flight attendant makes her preflight announcement saying “Welcome aboard to Flight ###, Nonstop service to MSP, not Ontario. If you are flying to Ontario, get off the plane now.” My family and I burst out laughing.
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#44
This happened about 7 hours ago, we haven’t landed yet and I’m still getting major stink eye.
My husband and I are on a trip to Europe for his work. I have really bad joint issues, and my husband deserves the special treatment, so I surprised him by upgrading to the little first class pods - the ones that lay flat.
The plane’s configuration is 1 pod next to the windows and two pods in the centre, separated by a short wall. My husband and I are in the centre pods.
As soon as I sat down I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a Karen in the pod to my right - where’s-the-manager-haircut and all.
Her: “You need to change seats with me.”
Me: “huh?”
Her: “You’re travelling alone, I want to sit next to my husband.”
She motions at the guy sitting in front of me.
(Now, there’s an age difference between my husband and I. The assumption is always that I’m a gold digger - the funny thing is, we earn the same.)
Me: “oh. No, sorry, I’m travelling with MY husband.” I point to him in his pod.
Her, rolling her eyes: “You don’t need to sit next to each other. It’s just one flight.”
Me: “I guess that means it’s okay for you to stay there”
I put my headphones on and thought that would be the end of it... but no.
She then called the flight attendant and TOLD her to tell ME to change seats.
Bless this flight attendant, she shut it down fast...
“Mrs. Karen, there’s no available seats in this class and Ms. Omissions has no obligation to switch. I do have two seats together in economy class if you’d like to move back there?”
Karen has been glaring at me for 7 hours now.
My husband and I are on a trip to Europe for his work. I have really bad joint issues, and my husband deserves the special treatment, so I surprised him by upgrading to the little first class pods - the ones that lay flat.
The plane’s configuration is 1 pod next to the windows and two pods in the centre, separated by a short wall. My husband and I are in the centre pods.
As soon as I sat down I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a Karen in the pod to my right - where’s-the-manager-haircut and all.
Her: “You need to change seats with me.”
Me: “huh?”
Her: “You’re travelling alone, I want to sit next to my husband.”
She motions at the guy sitting in front of me.
(Now, there’s an age difference between my husband and I. The assumption is always that I’m a gold digger - the funny thing is, we earn the same.)
Me: “oh. No, sorry, I’m travelling with MY husband.” I point to him in his pod.
Her, rolling her eyes: “You don’t need to sit next to each other. It’s just one flight.”
Me: “I guess that means it’s okay for you to stay there”
I put my headphones on and thought that would be the end of it... but no.
She then called the flight attendant and TOLD her to tell ME to change seats.
Bless this flight attendant, she shut it down fast...
“Mrs. Karen, there’s no available seats in this class and Ms. Omissions has no obligation to switch. I do have two seats together in economy class if you’d like to move back there?”
Karen has been glaring at me for 7 hours now.
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#45
I was on an airline with my family who were scsttered in the one or two rows in front of and behind me. The random girl next to me at the window seat was talking to her friend who was sitting directly behind me. The friend then asks me if I can switch seats with her so she can sit next her friend. It's still within the vicinity of my family so I agree to it and we swap positions.
She's rhen laughing with her friend and turns and say, "okay, my seat is way back there". Since she had standing in the row behind me talking to her friend, it had appeared like her seat was one row behind, but her actual seat was like 20 rows behind at the back of the plane.
I told her, "I thought you wanted me to switch one row back. I'm not moving to the back of the plane. You didn't mention that before, and I can see you did it on purpose cause youre laughing about it."
She told me I agreed to switch and it's too late now, as if we're in high school. I told the flight attendant that the girl is in my seat, and she told the flight attendant that I agreed to switch. Without getting into who said what, I told the flight attendant, I didn't agee and I've never spoken to this person in my life. They were angry and yelling but it was either go to her seat or get off the plane.
The only issue I was concerned about was having to awkwardly sit next her friend for a few hours. The situation resolved itself when they got someone from the back to switch with them.
She's rhen laughing with her friend and turns and say, "okay, my seat is way back there". Since she had standing in the row behind me talking to her friend, it had appeared like her seat was one row behind, but her actual seat was like 20 rows behind at the back of the plane.
I told her, "I thought you wanted me to switch one row back. I'm not moving to the back of the plane. You didn't mention that before, and I can see you did it on purpose cause youre laughing about it."
She told me I agreed to switch and it's too late now, as if we're in high school. I told the flight attendant that the girl is in my seat, and she told the flight attendant that I agreed to switch. Without getting into who said what, I told the flight attendant, I didn't agee and I've never spoken to this person in my life. They were angry and yelling but it was either go to her seat or get off the plane.
The only issue I was concerned about was having to awkwardly sit next her friend for a few hours. The situation resolved itself when they got someone from the back to switch with them.
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#46
Boarded a flight the other day and saw the aisle was occupied by an older lady. We let her know we had the middle and window and she glared a little, I said cheerfully "at least you'll get this out of the way" since we boarded fairly early. So she stands up and barely moves enough for us to smoosh by even though no one else was on the plane yet and there was plenty of room.
So I start to sit and notice her cane, the entire top handle of it is on the floor in my space and under the front of my seat with just the end under hers. My bag would have been on top of part of it and my feet would have to be arranged around it.
I offered to hand it to my spouse to put up in the bin. "No, it's fine, it's under my seat" she replied.
I said, cheerfully again, "actually, it's under MY seat, it's got to move." Another glare. Staredown. She sees I'm not going to budge, sighs, and agrees to allow it to be put in the bin. Makes me wonder how often that move works for her.
As a fun side note I spent the next hour staring at the used dirty medical tape someone else had stuck to the back of the seat in front of me, until the fight attendant finally removed it and brought me alcohol wipes to disinfect the seat. Flying is such a a thorough displeasure thanks to other travelers.
So I start to sit and notice her cane, the entire top handle of it is on the floor in my space and under the front of my seat with just the end under hers. My bag would have been on top of part of it and my feet would have to be arranged around it.
I offered to hand it to my spouse to put up in the bin. "No, it's fine, it's under my seat" she replied.
I said, cheerfully again, "actually, it's under MY seat, it's got to move." Another glare. Staredown. She sees I'm not going to budge, sighs, and agrees to allow it to be put in the bin. Makes me wonder how often that move works for her.
As a fun side note I spent the next hour staring at the used dirty medical tape someone else had stuck to the back of the seat in front of me, until the fight attendant finally removed it and brought me alcohol wipes to disinfect the seat. Flying is such a a thorough displeasure thanks to other travelers.
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