I've never really had massive opinions on flying, I love travelling but the actual action of flying on a plane is one I find a little mundane and especially now I have children, it adds extra complications to the mix and is never really smooth sailing. I know all of these are incredibly fortunate problems to have, to get to complain about travelling, but after recently heading on a press trip that involved a nine hour flight, I definitely got time to think about some things that really irk me when I fly. I think having little ones too really does heighten your awareness to absolutely everything so that when I was without my boys on the long haul flight recently, I so much time on my hands to really have a look at what was going on around me, without the distraction of them.
Judging passengers with children
I truly think that some people forget they were ever a child, I cannot fathom how some passengers can board a plane and truly grumble when they realise they are sat beside or in the vicinity of children - as if they expect aeroplanes to be child free zones. I know my view is obviously going to be bias given I have children, but even flying without them I would be more than happy to be sat beside a child as we took to the skies. We've always been really lucky that whoever we have been around has been super child friendly, but on a recent flight I noticed an older couple really grumbling when they realised a baby was sat in the row behind them, before the baby had even made a sound they were already pretty set on making their annoyance known and I just can't understand that behaviour. Why anyone would purposely make someone else feel uncomfortable, we all know as parents it is daunting getting on a flight with babies as we just never know how they will behave, the added pressure of a strangers judgements just aren't necessary. I think it's admirable that so many people push worries aside to travel far and wide with their family, despite the added stress hauling kids on and off planes can be.
Being an impolite passenger
Having just experienced this first hand, I really could rant about this all day long and honestly this was the inspiration for my post. As I said I recently visited Canada, and right up until the last moment it looked as though I would be sat completely solo for the journey home, however as it's always the way, quite the opposite happened and I ended up sat next to possibly the rudest man I could have imagined. As soon as he threw himself into the chair beside me I knew he was going to be a nightmare, I had chosen to sit on a row of just two when every other row ahead of us was three, meaning to his right he had plenty of room to stretch out where the other seat would have been - did he do this? Absolutely not. Instead he insisted on not only man-spreading his knees into my legroom, but also pushing his elbows way over the arm rest until they were positively prodding me in my side. The..whole..flight. It got better when he began playing a game on his phone without headphones, ensuring I definitely couldn't sleep during the overnight flight. At one point he even reached over and opened the window panel I'd quite clearly shut as I was attempting sleep, thus disturbing me in the process. Maybe it's a British thing to be extremely polite, but I felt his behaviour was so ridiculous I couldn't help but do the stereotypical thing and complain to John on the phone as he was still sat next to me, loudly as we landed. I was not happy.
Booking seats apart.
Now I know and am well aware that paying to have seats together shouldn't be a thing, it certainly shouldn't be optional especially when you have children. Most airlines are slowly rectifying this and if you have a child under a certain age then you have to be sat together, however this has happened on almost every single flight I have been on. A family boards, usually pretty last minute and appears shocked when they suddenly realise they aren't sat together, because they didn't pay to do so. I know it's irritating that you have to pay to sit with your family but so does everyone else on that plane and I find it really annoying that then other paying passengers are disturbed or asked to move, to accommodate the people who chose to opt out of doing so. It almost feels like a bit of a cop-out now as I refuse to believe people don't realise they have to pay to set together these days when booking a flight. Our outbound flight to Canada ended up being delayed on the tarmac for almost an hour because they had to find seats for a family that had fallen victim to this, however this family were all definitely over the age of 18 so I'm not entirely sure why the need to be seated together was there, however Air Transat did their best and eventually managed to get them together.
In general I think I'm quite a good flyer, I'm definitely not guilty of any of the above, nor do I hope I have ever been or will be going forward. I really don't mind travelling, of course if I could miss it out and just hop on over to a country of my choice then absolutely I would, especially with children. I'm not one of these people that think the holiday begins at the airport, absolutely not. The holiday begins for me when I have an alcoholic beverage in hand and sand under my feet.
No comments
*