1. Follow The Rules
I fly pretty frequently which means that I’m well aware of the rules of the sky. Like when you touch down you’re not supposed to leave your seat until the plane is done taxiing. I’m on this flight where after we land a bunch of people not only stand up but they proceed to take their carry-on bags out of the overhead compartments.
The plane is nowhere near the gate and has literally just touched its wheels on the ground. It’s super dangerous to be standing up and moving around bags while the plane is still in motion.
The crew is clamoring for the passengers to get back in their seats and fasten their seat belts until the plane comes to a full and complete stop. Many of the people standing up just brushed them off the order and continued to stand.
Suddenly, the plane came to a halt which caused all the passengers who were standing up to fall down. I think the pilot may have heard what was going on and decided to teach the rule breakers a lesson.
The flight attendants then said, this is why we have rules so one gets hurt.
2. Pizza Pizza
I was flying from Philadelphia to Portland and the middle seat next to me was empty. I was in the row that comes right after first class. Since this was a long fight I was hoping the seat next to me was going to be empty.
We are about to close the airplane door when a huge sweaty man runs onto the plane with a box of pizza. You guessed it. He is about to sit right next to me.
Even though all the overhead bins had been closed (this means that they are full) he kept opening them in order to find a place to keep his pizza. One of the flight attendants (she) told him that he wasn’t allowed to keep it up there.
He said he was afraid that someone might step on the box if he kept it on the floor.
She told him to just put it under the seat in front of him and to take his seat because the plane needed to take off. He told her he’s always put his pizza up and never had to keep it on the ground. I wondered how often this man flies with pizza.
He finally gave up and slid the box under the seat in front of him while also taking his seat and fastening his seatbelt.
As the safety demonstrations begin he gets on his phone and is making a call. I just assume he’s calling American Airlines support about the pizza debacle.
Turns out he’s talking to his landline provider.
He hadn’t paid his monthly bill on time and was trying to get them to waive the late fee. The customer service representative on the other end isn’t budging. He continues to plead his case as the plane has left the gate and is making its way to the runway.
The flight attendant comes back and says that he needs to put away his phone as we were about to take off.
He tried to buy extra time, but she says it needs to be put away now. He ends the call and puts the phone away.
The flight attendant goes to take her seat.
He then proceeds to stretch in his seat. I do my best to stay out of his way as he lifts his arms above his head and also side to side.
He then decides to crack his knuckles and this is what ends up getting him in trouble. As he’s cracking his knuckles he flips off the flight attendant. I wasn’t sure if she saw it or not, but at this point I just wanted to get in the air.
Instead of getting ready for take off we seem to be heading back towards the gate.
The plane door is opened and the cockpit door opens as well. The captain comes to my row, and tells the man who is sitting in the middle seat that harassment is unacceptable and that he needs to leave the plane immediately.
Pizza guy tried to ask the people around him if he had done anything wrong, but we just stayed quiet. The captain wouldn’t move and eventually the pizza guy picked up his pizza and trudged off the plane.
The door closed and we finally were clear for takeoff. Even though that wasted so much time, at least I got an empty middle seat out of it.
3. Waste Of Time
I was coming back home to San Jose after my trip in Las Vegas, but first the flight had to stop for a layover in San Diego. There was a family who was flying standby who managed to get on the aircraft without being given the green light by the airline. Because they had no assigned seats they were asking the already ticketed passengers if they would give up a seat for them.
They told the flight attendants they had to be on this flight because they had to get to San Jose for a family gathering. This back and forth went on for well over an hour.
The rest of the plane was so fed up with their behavior. I wanted to physically remove them from the plane myself. I was still hungover from the night before and just wanted desperately to get home.
4. Dress Debacle
I had a passenger who began to throw a fit because I made them put their wedding dress in the overhead compartment. The dress was huge and was blocking the aisle as well as a number of seats.
Even if they had to pay to get the wrinkles out of the dress, it’s better than having it stepped on or run over by the beverage cart.
It also was a safety issue and I wasn’t going to take any chances over a dress.
5. Duh It’s Obvious
I once flew from San Francisco to Singapore which is an extremely long flight. There was a passenger who seemed to not understand how the airplane experience worked.
Since this was a long international flight, the seats were in a 3x4x3 formation. The four seats in the middle of the plane consisted of two aisle seats and two middle seats. This passenger was seated in one of the middle seats in the middle section.
She complained to the flight attendant that she couldn’t sit in the middle because what if she needed to go to the bathroom and the people next to me had fallen asleep. The flight attendant gave her a puzzled look and said that was her assigned seat and if she needed to go to the bathroom she could step over the passenger next to her or wake them up.
I thought to myself, has this lady ever flown before? Maybe it was her first time.
6. Is It Life Or Death?
I’ve been a flight attendant for 15+ years so I’ve seen my fair share of medical emergencies. On one occasion, a passenger in business class had fainted and had yet to regain consciousness.
Two of us were with him as we were attempting to give him CPR. The other flight attendant was seeing if there was a doctor aboard the flight as well as coordinating with the captain.
While this was taking place there was a passenger in economy class who kept pressing the button for flight attendance assistance because he wanted a Sprite. He kept pressing the button and yelling for someone to serve him.
Finally, one of the neighboring passengers told him to shut up and have some decency because a medical emergency was going on. I was so grateful for that intervening passenger.
7. Bag In The Way
A lady who boarded the plane near the end of the boarding process was having trouble finding a spot for her bag. She left her bag in the aisle while she went to the back of the plane to find overhead bag space. Her bag was blocking the aisle which didn’t allow any other passengers to get to their seats.
She found space in the back and had the audacity to tell me that I should bring her bag to her.
I told her that she needed to move her bag, because she was blocking everyone’s way. She proceeded to tell me that I needed to lift her bag and put it up. I refused.
A nice man decided to help her with her bag. Then she accused me of stealing her muffler when I didn’t. I called over a flight attendant who then had her removed from the flight.
8. Lunch Stealer
I usually pack food from home for long flights because I generally don’t like airplane food. The woman sitting next to me on the flight saw my sandwich and chips and told me that I should give it to her. I politely told her that the food was mine and I would not be sharing it with her. She told me she was starving and was really desperate.
I completely ignored her and proceeded to take a huge bite of my sandwich.
8. Power Of The Pretzel
Air travel is not a pleasant experience for me as I’m 6’4” and have long legs. Everytime I sit in my seat my knees are always jammed into the seat in front of me.
If the person in front of me decides to recline, I have to straighten out my legs and put them under the seat in front of me.
I was on a flight one time and I noticed that the seat in front of me was reclined much more than normal. His head was so close to me that I could smell his hair. I asked him if he could pull up his seat, but he refused.
I could tell the seat was broken so I called the flight attendant over to see if she could convince him to stop reclining. She also noticed that the seat was reclining well past where it should and asked him to pull his seat up.
He told her that he didn’t want to and she told me that there was nothing else that she could do as she couldn't force him to not recline his seat.
My mom is with me and she has a brilliant idea. Since his seat is broken his face is quite close to me. A lot closer than it normally would be if the seat wasn’t broken. She gives me a bag of chips and tells me that I should chew with my mouth open so crumbs fall all over him.
I start to eat the chips as crumbs are falling out of my mouth and onto him.
He finally notices and asks me if I can stop. I told him no, and when he saw how many chips I had left he finally put his seat up.
9. Not A Race
I was on a flight when I witnessed a man launch into an angry tirade because they let the four flight attendants board before any of the passengers. He said that he paid for business class and should be treated better.
He said none of them paid so why do they get to board first.
The flight attendant’s responded that it’s airline policy to have flight attendants board first because they need to oversee the boarding process. There also were only four of them on the flight so it’s not like he had to wait long to board.
He continued with his nonsense for another 15 minutes. Not sure what exactly he thought he was going to accomplish.
10. Sad Story
The only people you’d expect to cry on planes are babies or little kids. One time there was a woman who began to start crying uncontrollably a couple of hours into the flight. Many of the passengers around her just stared awkwardly unsure of what to do. When none of them bothered to ask her what was wrong she started screaming.
She then attacked the man who was sitting next to her.
The captain had to execute an emergency landing in Dallas just to kick her off the flight. She continued to cry nonstop till she was finally removed from the flight.
11. Alcohol Fiend
I once witnessed a passenger who was so desperate for alcohol that he was asking the flight attendants for it prior to us being in the air. He became more and more unruly which prompted the flight attendants to give him a warning. After another warning, he said some curse words to one of the flight attendants as he walked away.
He turned around and told him that we were going back to the gate and he would be kicked off the flight. We went back to the gate and he was swifty escorted off the flight. After waiting 30 minutes for his bag to be found in the baggage hold, we were finally off.
I told the flight attendant that he did a great job with the whole situation. I also emailed Delta to let them know what a great job the crew did.
12. No View
I was seated in an area of the plane where my seat had a window, but the row behind me did not have one. What looked to be a grandpa and his granddaughter were seated behind me. The grandpa asked me to bring my seat forward so his grandkid could get a better view out the window.
My seat wasn’t even reclined at the time so this was an odd request. I explained this to him a few times, but he just kept on getting more and more agitated. I just put my headphones in and ignored him.
The other passenger in my row gave me a look acknowledging that the guy behind me was a little bit nuts, even though we hadn’t talked the whole flight. I decided to just pull down my window shade to end the debate once and for all.
He immediately got quiet as soon as my window shade was down.
13. Ignorance In The Air
I was on a flight from Miami to Cabo and there was this man who kepting saying these really horrible things. He seemed to have an issue with the fact that many of the passengers were communicating in Spanish.
He was most annoyed with these two older women who were sitting behind him and having a conversation in Spanish. He turns to them and says this is the reason why we need to build a wall.
The ladies just looked at him with a blank expression and were silent for the rest of the flight. I felt horrible for them. How did the guy not get that we were on a flight to Mexico. What language did he expect people to speak on the flight?
14. Always Be Kind
My daughter and I were flying from Charlotte to Las Vegas and we had a connecting flight in Denver. Our flight from Charlotte to Denver was fine, but our plane from Denver to Las Vegas had a mechanical issue and we were forced to stay the night.
The flight attendants instructed us to go to the airline desk where they would help us find a hotel for the night. When we arrived at the desk there were two men who were yelling at the top of their lungs at the gate agent.
They were upset because they had an important meeting the next day and the mechanical issue is going to cause them to be late. The agent was completely calm and she gave them new tickets as well as a voucher for an airport hotel.
The men then complained about the hotel stating that it was “lowbrow” and not a place they would ever stay at. Even as the agent tried to explain, the two men kept interrupting her.
After a few minutes the men left, but they continued to grumble as they walked away. When my daughter and I talked to the gate agent we were super polite as she rebooked our flights and gave us a hotel voucher.
In addition, we received $600 dollars in flight vouchers. We were about to leave when she also gave us an additional two flight vouchers. She was unable to give them to the two men from before because they kept interrupting her.
Looks like it always pays to be kind.
15. Frequent Flyer Privilege
I remember this one time I was on a flight with really bad turbulence. Bad enough that the entire crew was seated and belted. Obviously the fasten seatbelt sign was on.
Some genius in first class tries to make his way to the lavatory and in the process he ends up elbowing a lady and breaking her nose.
My jump seat was next to the bathroom and I told him that he needed to sit down immediately. He brushed me off saying that he was a gold frequent flyer and it was fine for him to be up.
As much as his arrogance and entitlement enraged me I had more important things to take care of. The lady who’d broken her nose was yelling as blood gushed out.
I go over to help her and notice that the man is calling out from the restroom for assistance. I ignore him and he comes out of the bathroom a minute later upset that we didn’t respond to him.
He had ended up urinating all over himself due to the severe turbulence. Maybe next time he’ll think twice about getting up.
16. First Class Horror
I had some health issues when I was a teenager which allowed me to pre-board for most flights. I got extremely bad migraines and cluster headaches which sometimes caused me to lose my vision or pass out.
My dad and I were headed from New Orleans to Cleveland when a large woman in a wheelchair told me that I shouldn't be pre-boarding. She said that I looked young and able and should be able to stand up.
I told her that I could only stand for short periods of time due to my migraines. She continued to complain which just made my headache get even worse. I was slowly starting to lose vision.
I ended up passing out right in front of the gate desk and the woman thought I was faking the whole thing.
My dad told her that he wasn’t going to move and that she was just going to have to wait her turn in line. She started screaming even more, and at this point airport security had to calm her down. They told her that either she could get it together or she’d be spending some quality time with the TSA.
I was given a wheelchair and wheeled onto the plane. I was allowed to pick whatever seat I wanted.
I’m not sure exactly whether I was in first or business, but I remember it being an amazing flight.
17. Tantrum Before Takeoff
I was flying between Indonesia and Singapore, when a large group of tourists boarded the plane about ten minutes before takeoff.
They were making a ton of noise and weren’t paying attention to their bags and ended up hitting people who were seated. They soon realized there wasn’t any space in the overhead bins for their stuff.
However, this didn’t stop one member of the group from attempting to take other people’s luggage out of the bins in order to put her luggage up. Other passengers quickly objected.
The flight attendant said that he would move his stuff to an employee area to make more space for their luggage.
This was just the start of all their bad behavior. They wouldn’t stay seated during takeoff, made an unseemly amount of noise, and just didn’t respect their fellow passengers.
The lady who had earlier attempted to move other people’s bags is eating a bowl of noodles as she is yelling at the flight attendant in Mandarin.
She was told that she couldn’t have her tray table down since we were about to land. After a minute of yelling, she throws the hot noodles and soup on the flight attendant.
I had never seen anything quite like this. The flight attendant handled things well and luckily he wasn’t burned. When we landed in Singapore she was taken in by authorities for assaulting the flight attendant.
18. Middle Seat Monster
I’m going from Vancouver to Toronto to attend an important conference for my job. I’m sitting in the window seat and the two seats next to me are empty. Right as the airplane doors are about to close, a lady and her two year old daughter sit right next to me.
She starts to throw a fit because she wants to walk around and not stay in her seat. Her mother didn’t bring anything for her to do so she’s just sitting there yelling that she wants to get out of her seat.
Her mother decides it’s ok to let her walk around the plane as we’re about to take off. The flight attendants bring her back to her seat, but by this point it’s too late. We’re in the air and I’m going to be stuck with them for the rest of the flight.
It was the worst six hours of my life.
19. Arrogant Passenger
Whenever we fly into or out of Washington DC we also have a federal air marshal on board. Sometimes they are the first ones to board which happened to be the case for this particular flight in question.
There was an older couple who was in first class who had just boarded the plane and the woman asked why there were already people on the plane.
She said that they paid extra so they could be the first ones on the plane.
This is crazy talk because wheelchair passengers and a few other groups get to board before any other group, including first class. I thought of the perfect response to her lunacy. I told her that the captain had invited them personally because they were veterans who had served in the Korean War.
She didn’t have a word to say after I told her that. It really irks me that some people are so full of themselves that they believe they should get to sit down on a plane before anyone else.
20. An Intentional Mistake
I was flying from Madrid back home to Athens and was sitting in the aisle seat. I had noticed that the guy behind me had dug his knees into my back.
I understand that air travel is uncomfortable, but there are ways to give yourself more space. If he was really tall he could’ve stretched his legs underneath my seat.
Or you can move one of your legs slightly into the aisle, and pull it back when the beverage cart comes by.
I thought maybe he was unaware of what he was doing. I put my hand behind my back so his knee would feel my hand, and he would realize that someone was sitting there. He moved his knee for about a minute, but then it was back.
Everytime I put my hand behind my back he’d move his knee, and as soon as I’d move my hand his knee would come back. I’m at my breaking point.
The knee is on my back, and I take my hand and squeeze his knee as hard as I can through the seat cushion.
The knee is off my back and I don’t feel it for the rest of the flight. When we deplaned I avoided eye contact in order to prevent a confrontation.
He looked like a guy who had an average height and build. There was no need for him to knee me in the back. Hopefully I taught him a lesson.
21. I Don’t Know You
I took a flight when I was thirteen and was an unaccompanied minor. The person sitting next to me happened to be eleven and also an unaccompanied minor. He would not stop talking.
Since he was talking to me, other passengers on the plane kept giving us dirty looks that should’ve only been meant for him. He would scream wild things like doodoo butt and then laugh uncontrollably.
He also was bothering someone’s dog by making barking noises. Traveling in an airplane isn’t easy for anyone’s pet and he wasn’t helping with his antics. We both ended up getting berated by the owner of the dog.
Lady, I just ordered a Coke and am trying to enjoy my Gameboy. I don’t know who this kid is.
22. Stand Strong
I was on a flight from Albuquerque to San Antonio when I witnessed the creepiest passenger ever. He was giving all the flight attendants a hard time. He was yelling at the male ones because the flight was delayed, and he was hitting on the female ones.
He even tried to touch one of the female flight attendants on the butt. Shortly after, the flight attendants banded together and told him that he was going to be removed from the flight.
When this was announced, the entire area of the plane gave the flight attendants a standing ovation. I’d never seen this many people clap in unison on a plane. It’s definitely a unique story that I’ll never forget.
23. Always Prepay
A woman once confronted me because she wanted me to give up my window seat so she could sit together with her husband and daughter. They had clearly failed to pay extra to pre-select their tickets prior to boarding so that they could sit together.
I had picked out my window seat months in advance and paid the additional charge that comes along with selecting your seat.
How entitled was she? It’s ridiculous for her to think that I should give up my seat because she was either too cheap or failed to plan properly.
The crew told her to stop bothering me and her family sat in 3 different rows throughout the cabin.
24. Pets On A Plane
I once witnessed a man who tried to bring two cats aboard the aircraft in hard-sided carriers. One cat she considered her “personal item” and the other one was her “carry on”.
Neither of them were able to fit underneath the seat in front of her or in the overhead compartments. He said she would not go without his beloved cats.
The dilemma about where to put the cats delayed the flight by well over an hour. Flight attendants plus other airport workers were racking their brains about a solution.
I’m a big cat lover, but this whole situation was terrible and I’m sure the other passengers just wished she had left her cats at home.
25. Do You Have A Problem?
One of my friends who is a pilot for a prominent North American airline told me this story. There was a passenger on his flight who was being extremely rude and disrespectful to the female flight attendants.
About two hours into the flight one of them had enough and asked him what his problem was. His response was wild.
He said that in his culture women are slaves and are supposed to do whatever men want. She replied back that in her culture people like him are taxi drivers.
He blows a gasket and has to be held down by his neighboring passengers. Even though the flight attendant would’ve normally gotten in trouble for a comment like that, the passenger’s behavior was so appalling that they decided to let it go.
26. Long Way Home
I was getting ready to travel back to Portland from Buenos Aires. As you know, that is an extremely long trek. The universe looked like it was on my side as we were actually slated to depart 40 minutes early. We had boarded ahead of schedule and the runway was completely clear.
There was one big problem. The flight attendants were unable to get all the passengers to sit down. Many of them were walking, standing, and stretching throughout the aisle.
This wouldn’t have been a problem if it was just a handful of people, but I would say that it was about 30 people. The flight attendants would get a couple of people to sit down, but as soon as they moved on to the next group the people would get up again.
This went on for what seemed like forever (it was probably about an hour) before the captain yelled at everyone over the loudspeaker that he would not take off if people didn’t sit down immediately.
40 minutes early turned into 30 minutes late.
27. Liar Liar
I was on a flight from JFK to Miami and noticed that the passenger in the seat beside me was acting like a total diva. He seemed to think he had chartered a private jet and needed service to match. I’ve never seen someone press the button that called the flight attendant over as much as this guy. He constantly had requests and I never once heard him say please or thank you.
He screamed at the flight attendant that he wanted vodka with a bit of sprite and not too much ice. Despite his demeanor, the flight attendant was very nice to him and kept a sunny disposition.
She gives him the drink and he looks it over before screaming that there isn’t enough ice. He refused to drink it and told her to make him another one. At this point she started to get annoyed.
She heads up the aisle and tells the head flight attendant what is going on. He comes over and tells the man that he needs to settle down.
He then tells the head flight attendant that he is friends with Mr. Y who is a prominent member of the airline’s executive committee.
He wants the name of the head flight attendant and the one who made him the scotch and soda. He is going to tell Mr. Y about how he was treated.
I finally speak up and say that if you’re really friends with Mr. Y you’d know his nickname that all his friends address him by. He has a confused look on his face and tells me that this matter is none of my concern.
The flight attendant tells me that there is no need for me to get involved.
I don’t listen to either of them. I then pull out a photo from my wedding day. It’s a photo of my wife and my in-laws. You guessed it. My wife’s father is Mr. Y.
I gave the photo to the flight attendant and told her that when I land I will call him and tell him that one of his friends is using his name and treating the members of the crew poorly.
I asked the man for his name so I could tell Mr. Y that he was about to lodge a formal complaint against the two flight attendants in question. You could hear a pin drop.
The head flight attendant gives me the photo back and tells the man that if he does anything else for the rest of the flight that the police will pick him up when we land at our destination.
After the flight landed I called Mr.Y (my father-in-law) and told him what happened. He found the name of that passenger and ended up having the airline ban him for life.
28. Judgy Much
I booked a first class ticket from Dallas to Toronto because my grandmother had just passed and I needed to make it home quickly. The only flight that fit my schedule happened to only have first class seats available.
I board the flight and proceed to settle in my seat. The passenger sitting next to me looks me over and asks if I’m sure that I’m in the right seat.
He said it looks like you wouldn’t be able to afford this seat.
I didn’t have the best outfit on, but I showed him my ticket and told him to be quiet. He didn’t say a word the rest of the flight unless he needed to get by me to use the bathroom.
Serves him right.
29. Bullies To The Back
When I was eleven years old the family was traveling to Barbados in business class. We were able to get first class because my dad was going there for a work trip and was able to get a discount on our tickets.
There was this woman sitting next to me whose husband was a couple rows back in economy. He comes over to me and asks me to switch seats with him so he can sit with his wife. Keep in mind I’m just a kid at this time and this is a full-blown adult.
I’m a shy kid so I just sit there quietly and do nothing. I obviously don’t want to move as I'll be separated from my family and miss out on my first experience in business class.
I still don’t say anything but I’m shaking my head to indicate that I won’t be getting up. He starts to try and intimidate me by getting in my face. My dad notices what’s going on and starts yelling at him. He says that I’m just a kid and he should be ashamed by the way he’s acting.
He told him to have his wife move if he really wanted to sit with her so bad. Other passengers overhear what’s going on and rally to my defense.
Some curse words are hurled between my dad and the man in question until finally a flight attendant comes over and makes the man and his wife sit in economy.
An older gentleman replaces his wife and takes the seat next to me. He was extremely nice and even apologized and even apologized for the ordeal even though it wasn’t his fault in the slightest.
Everyone in the section gives the flight attendant a standing ovation as the two jerks are sent to their new seats.
30. This Isn’t Southwest
My husband, toddler and I had gotten seats in the first row of economy so we could have extra legroom. This lady comes down the aisle and asks my husband if we could move so she could sit there.
I couldn’t quite catch everything that was said because I had my headphones in, but my husband said she had quite an attitude.
He told her that we paid extra for these seats because this is an international flight and we have a small child. There is no way we would be leaving these seats. Did she think this was Southwest or something?
