44 Plane Seatmates Who Turned Ordinary Flights Into Travel Nightmares

We put up with travel because typically we’re pretty excited to get to the destination. But often the more exotic the endpoint, the longer one has to sit in a plane, train or automobile. Which also means being in close proximity to other folks who can really make or break your trip.

So we’ve gathered travelers tales from across the internet of the absolutely worst flight seatmates they’ve ever had to deal with. Get comfortable as you read through these tales of discomfort, upvote the most nightmarish examples and be sure to share your own stories in the comments below.

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I've been traveling by plane since I was 4. Mostly neutral or good experiences, but there was this one dude, I paid for the window seat, he was not that much taller than me but definitely a fair bit wider. There was also an empty seat in our row after takeoff, 12h flight. He asks for my window seat, since I'm not "using" it (I get the window seat coz Im hypermobile and need the extra support on one side to be able to sleep on long flights, so I was actually using it.

I say no, I paid extra for a window seat, but they can check and see if any others are free with the flight attendant.dude proceeds to sit in the empty seat next to me, and spreads his legs out literally pushing my legs off to the dode and taking over my leg space. I asked him to move, he just grinned.

I called the flight attendant, explained the situation, completely ignoring the dude trying to interject. He stops and she leaves, 5 min later, same thing. I call the flight attendant. She tells him to stop. Again. He stops for 5 minutes. Does it again. I call the flight attendant back and ask "could you have police waiting when we land? I'd like to file a harrassment report. And could I ask you to also give a statement to them?" now, police will be called to be waiting at landing for bigger infractions. I doubt they'd do it for something like this. But I was betting he didn't know that and that the flight attendant was smart enough to figure out that this way she wouldn't be called over every 5 minutes. She basically said something along the lines of "if you insist we will definitely do our best to make it happen, but perhaps Mr X would just prefer to switch seats and avoid the unpleasantness?"

He switched seats. I got all 3 to myself. But it was super weird and frustrating. Not even scary or anything, just legitimately strange behaviour.

I had to sit in a middle seat next to 2 men who were manspreading. Nothing like having zero personal space because they can't close their legs even a little bit. Also as a tall person I can't stand sitting behind someone who reclines their seat all the way back.

I had a 13hr flight to Rome and sat next to a larger man with mobility limitations which I understand come with a lot of challenges. When he first got to our row, I recall the flight attendants letting him know they would assist him with getting to the washroom. I had the window seat and he had the aisle.
It didn’t dawn on me that he wouldn’t ever be getting up during the flight. At first I didn’t think much of it but soon realized he was likely wearing bladder control pads. There would be a strong smell followed by him spraying cologne to cover it. I had to climb over him to use the washroom as he didn’t get up at all during the entire 13hr flight! Let’s just say it was a very uncomfortable flight for both of us.

Many years ago, when I was around 18-19 years old and in college, I went to visit my dad who was living in Korea at the time. On my trip back home to the US, I was on a non-stop flight from Seoul to Detroit. The guy sitting next to me was a much older Korean man, probably in his 50s, who kept wanting to talk to me and it kind of creeped me out but I was stuck. I pretended to sleep for part of the trip to try and avoid him. But while we were in flight, they were selling duty-free items, and he bought me a bottle of Chanel perfume. It was super weird and creepy because I was traveling alone, but as soon as we landed, I ditched the guy and thankfully didn't have to see him in customs since I was a US citizen and he wasn't so he was in the longer line.

Someone who doesn’t have headphones when you’re trying to read a new book you’ve been saving for this specific flight.

ATL>FRA: A toddler who got airsick and puked all over herself and pooped her diaper three times.

It was MY kid, but still.

The middle passenger that half way through the flight is still asking if my husband (window) or I (aisle) want to switch seats so we can sit next to each other, even after refusing when she boarded and immediately after takeoff my husband is sleeping and I’m watching a movie but she continues to tap each of us, alternating between us, thinking she’ll wear us down, she didn’t. She then complained to a FA as she was getting off the flight. Flight attendant said “better luck next time”. 😂.

From Hawaii to LA I sat next to a guy wearing a small tank top and shorts who had clearly wiped out on a skateboard the previous day. Body was covered in road rash that was oozing the entire time. He just picked at all his wounds/scabs/ooze the entire flight.

Dutch lady kicking my chair behind me when I tried to lean it back the two inches it reclines. JA I HAF NO ROOM!

Gross man in the middle seat next to me kept picking his nose and flicking it on the floor for most of the 2 hour flight.

A 6’6” jacked as f old guy to my left and a hefty big boy to my right. Im also no slouch either. We all had a great flight 🤦‍♂️.

Was flying from NYC to London on Norse Airways economy light and this family of 4 was sitting on my row and in front of me. East Asian woman/white man. I'm an East Asian female myself. The dude sat in front of my, while his wife sat next to me. He was HUGE and when he reclined his seat, it felt like the seat dropped down a few more inches. She was being weird and fidgety, elbowing me randomly, getting in my space, etc--just really uncomfortable and I retaliated a few times so it was a silent war of making each other uncomfortable. If she was gonna mess around, I was gonna make her flight h**l. This went on the ENTIRE 7.5-8 hours of this red eye flight and I did not sleep one bit. If you don't know much about AW/WM dynamics, this is not an uncommon behavior among the women in this type of relationship towards other Asian women--tons of hostility.

I was in the window seat and this old lady sat down in the middle seat next to me. the second the plane starts backing up she immediately reached for the sick bag and starts throwing up and continues for the duration of the flight. it should also be noted that i have a debilitating phobia of vomit and spent the entire flight fighting a panic attack with my back fully turned to the woman. it was also my first solo flight and at the time i was also very nervous on planes. genuine nightmare scenario.

Sat next to a guy outta SF that scratched his j*** every 30 seconds to a minute for the entire 4-hr flight. Outside and inside his pants.

I once had the people behind me change their toddler's poopy diaper right there at the seat and oh god it was awful. We all turned the vents on to blow it away but it was pretty futile. People were gagging.

I was taking my girlfriend to London and this guy sat next to me and he started making small talk. Eventually it got weird, and he told me that I sat next to him on a flight to London with my mom when I was a baby, and he had saved up his whole life to go to London and try to make the Royal Guard laugh but because I cried so much he couldn’t rest and was too tired to make them laugh and since then he’s waited and waited for his revenge and so he dug through my trash and found my itinerary (I think he got bit by a rat, but he said it wasn’t gross) and he said he was gonna cry the whole flight. He started to yell, and then the flight attendant said he was in the wrong seat and he asked why he couldn’t just pick his seat because you can at some concerts but they made him move. The rightful owner of the seat accidentally stepped in the way he had to go to get to his seat and he got mad, but he eventually took his seat. After that I listened to music and the next day my girlfriend and I had our dream London vacation.

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