The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after, are typically the worst travel days in the U.S. all year. And this year is no exception. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, projects 24.6 million passengers will take to the skies between Nov. 21 and Dec. 2, 2014.
Not all of them, unfortunately, will give a good accounting of themselves. But as with any kind of bad behavior, some airplane sins are worse than others.
Consider this a definitive ranking of the 15 worst things people do at 30,000 feet -- and also consider avoiding everything listed below, as a considerate gesture to your fellow travelers this holiday season.
15. Talking over other passengers
If you are a couple traveling together, maybe you think it was really clever to grab a window and an aisle. But the person who ends up sitting between the two of you does not agree.
The worst is when a husband and wife take the aisle and the window seat. Leaving that middle seat bare and avoid eye contact. @southwestair
— Joe Briggs, Esq. (@JoeBriggsEsq) October 24, 2013
There are three options here for considerate couples: 1. Sit in aisles across from each other. 2. Sit in windows in two consecutive rows. 3. Buck up and take the middle seat.
14. Forcing a flirtatious conversation
Sometimes you can meet a new friend or future spouse by striking up a conversation with the person seated next to you. That's lovely -- the stuff that rom-coms are made of -- but it requires mutual interest.
The worst offenders on this one tend to be looking for a hookup.
If you are romantically interested in your seat mate, heed signs they are not interested in you. Even if they do appear interested in conversing, wait until the end of the flight to ask them for their number or suggest a date. A "no" as you de-plane is pretty awkward. But a "no" with four hours left seated next to each other? Unbearable.
13. Trying to take another passenger's seat
Passengers that have a problem with their seat assignment should bring it up with airline crew. Better yet, pay for an upgrade and relish your legroom.
What is absolutely not okay: sitting in a seat you want, and then acting like maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you stayed in it when the ticket holder gets on the plane. It's not your seat. Stop trying to make that seat happen.
One caveat: Carriers sometimes do not help families sit together, so if you are asked politely to help a parent sit with their kid, have a heart.
12. Hogging the armrest
Most compassionate people agree that the person resigned to the middle seat is entitled to the armrests if they so desire.
But civilized middle seaters recognize the limits of that tacit agreement: the edge of the armrest is where their land rights cease. Do not infringe on the space beyond.
11. Hogging the floorspace
The space in front of your seat is for you.
10. Not using headphones
No one wants to listen to your music, and no one wants to hear your movie.
Please,play your music without headphones LOUDER while I wait for 20 min to get off this airplane. #why #strugglebus #abouttoscream
— Michelle Parz (@mission_parzial) November 24, 2014
If you forget your headphones, ask the flight attendant for some.
9. Bringing smelly food on the plane
Are you the kind of person who enjoys attention so much you don't mind when it's full of hatred? Bring some smelly food on a plane.
If you bring smelly food onto an airplane and then proceed to eat it I just automatically assume that you're bffs with Satan
— Sophie Bell (@sbellerina) November 23, 2014
That moment when someone is eating horribly smelly food on the airplane. #stewlife #commuterproblems #thosepeople
— Christi Beard (@concertchicklsu) November 21, 2014
Eating smelly food on an airplane :holds nose and looks sideways at you emoji:
— Samarth Bhaskar (@samarthbhaskar) February 14, 2014
If you can bring your smelly food onto the airplane, I should be able to fart on you. Fair is fair.
— Dan Wiedenhaupt (@D_Wied) December 2, 2013
Bonus points if you can make sure it's a dish with extra garlic and some kind of fish.
8. Being smelly
Proper hygiene is good for life, so consider this a PSA: Take a shower before your next flight.
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Post by Brian Anthony Hernandez.
7. Moving someone else's bag out of the overhead bin
The bag in the overhead bin where you want to put your bag was not placed there by accident. It is not a lost bag. It did not magically appear.
It belongs to someone seated near it, and they put it there first so passengers who get on the plane later have to find another place for their bag. The end.
This family moved MY bag OUT of the overhead because it was over their seat. When asked not 2 touch it they look at me like "I'm" crazy SMH
— Jeff Johnson (@Jeffsnation) December 19, 2013
On a Southwest airline and some lady just took my bag out of the overhead and moved it three rows back #whattheEFF
— John Albright (@johnalbright) February 24, 2012
6. Not doing anything about your screaming child
Kids are the most honest passengers when it comes to their feelings about modern air travel. Unfortunately, that honesty is often expressed through screaming.
A screaming kid in the seat in front of you on an airplane is the best birth control ever.
— Dara Kaye (@BelleDuJourNYC) August 15, 2014
Sitting by a terribly unhappy child whose parent seems uninterested in calming them down is frustrating beyond words. Same goes for kids kicking the seat in front of them.
5. Not having patience with a parent who is more miserable than you
Do you think that parent likes to listen to their kid freak out? Because they don't. They'd probably love any alternative to a cross-country flight with a toddler.
Alas, there really isn't one. So don't hate on parents who are just doing the best any of us could in the same situation.
4. Getting up repeatedly -- and forcing others to do so
If you can't sit still and need to get up frequently on a flight, sit in an aisle seat.
No one can really begrudge a passenger a couple trips to the bathroom. But if you are getting up every 20 minutes, that's not cool.
3. Taking shoes and socks off and putting feet anywhere but on the floor
An airplane cabin is not your living room. We did not pay outrageous ticket prices to see (and smell) your feet, and we certainly do not want to see them at the same level as the airplane food we're trying to eat.
Oh the wild cards you get in a middle seat of an airplane. Ma'am put your shoes back on. pic.twitter.com/CgLAphUCkz
— Wade Pittrich (@theWadeP) November 10, 2014
2. Pushing, pulling, kicking, jiggling or otherwise messing with another passenger's seat
When kids do it, it's bad.
Pretty sure hell is sitting on a small airplane with a kid kicking the back of your seat while you have an allergy attack. #randomthought
— Emmy Fortney (@EmmyFortney) November 13, 2013
When adults do it, it's inexcusable.
when a grown man is kicking your seat in the airplane pic.twitter.com/IYODn1WT5l
— Cazendra Luciano (@cazzygl) November 23, 2014
The infamous Knee Defender falls under this category: Preventing the seat in front of you from reclining definitely constitutes messing with a passenger's seat.
1. Delaying the flight
Flight crew, when faced with an unruly passenger, can take the somewhat drastic step of diverting the flight and landing in order to deal them. Do not be this passenger.
This summer more than one flight was diverted after a fight about reclining seats. Another flight was delayed after a passenger joked about having Ebola.
If the flight crew finds it necessary to call for outside help to deal with a passenger, we are talking about someone who has surpassed the usual level of annoyance.
Get to wait for law enforcement to come take someone off the plane who sat in upgraded seating without paying. Flying in 2014 is a hoot.
— Jessica Plautz (@jessicaplautz) October 17, 2014
They are literally the worst.
Ultimately, if you want to be a considerate traveler, there's just one thing you need to keep reminding yourself: you are not the only person in this metal tube in the sky.