We’ve all been through that nerve-racking experience of sitting next to the inquisitive aunty on a long haul flight. She just won’t give up till she knows everything about you, from your grandparents’ origin to your rishta-status to your next career move; and pretending to read a book isn’t going to fend off this interrogation!
It may be some comfort to know you’re not a lone sufferer of these ‘plane attacks’. GfK, a global market research company, conducted a survey for Expedia recently, releasing a list of airline faux pas’ travellers found most offensive. Most on the list will sound familiar:
- Seat-kickers took the top slot as the most annoying. We’ve all been through the torture of that tap-tap-tapping from uncontrollable knees and feet from behind our seats.
2. The study found inattentive parents second on the list. For some inexplicable reason, certain people feel that along with the plane ticket, they’ve bought rights to an open playground for their ‘can’t even sit for a minute’ kids, much to the misfortune of the hundred-odd other passengers on the aircraft.
3. Armrest and baggage-bin hoggers aren’t far behind on the offense list. They’ll be shoving their trolley bag into the first available overhead space, regardless that their seat is fifteen rows behind. When they sit, the posture is elbows-out, leaving you cringing like a mouse in the limited space left to you.
4. Chatty Chaudhry uncles are bad enough but it’s the curious aunties with them that are worse. The agony is in reverse; they insist on giving you all the details of their life, and heaven help you if they’re pungent foodies or suffer from mad-bladder syndrome, climbing over you to get to the restroom every twenty minutes.
5. Pakistanis are notorious for this last one… As soon as the plane lands, the queue-jumpers get into action. Travellers found these rushed individuals absolutely tiresome. Shouting into their mobile phones to announce their arrival, they eagerly trample everyone in their way to get to the airplane exit, in case the aircraft takes to the skies again before they’ve disembarked.
Lesson to learn from this list of annoying passengers? Don’t be one yourself!