Wankerific
Thursday, January 24, 2008 | Labels: rant, travel |For the post
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I'll preface this by saying I am fully aware the we are all, in one area of our life or another, inconsiderate jerks. We all, knowingly or unknowingly, have some undeserved feeling of entitlement in some way. (see GayProf's experience of the "entitlement" problem in college students).
That said, some people are undeniable twats.
And nowhere better to experience this truth then on an airplane.
For example, I'm boarding my flight to San Francisco, right? Because I'm poor and a nobody, I am always in the final boarding group.
As a result, I often end up with no place to put my approved carry-on bag. So the richer folks get the prime real estate, often filled with non-luggage like coats and suits, while the poor losers like me become the bad guys, as the attendants have to check my until-then-perfectly-ok bag among an air of general annoyance.
Well, this time, I'm approaching my seat, and I see there is definitely one space left! Joy!
But as I get close, one of the early-boarders at the seat in front of mine jumps up, while chatting away on his phone, and tosses his tiny jacket in the sole remaining space.
I might have turned red with anger, but the flight attendant must have seen this too, as her voice said over the intercom,
"Coats, jackets, and clothing are NOT to be stored in the overhead bin. Please remove any of these items so that other passengers may store their luggage"
First, I didn't know this, myself. Must remember this in the future.
But the jacket-guy ignores this.
The attendant rapidly makes the announcement again. This time he sighs a rolling-eyes queeny sigh (yes, I said it) and talks into his phone, "hold on, the lady is yelling at me something about my coat."
Regardless of his quip, he does free the space and, hooray!, I don't have to look like an ass this time.
All well enough. The flight is actually one of the smoothest and least bothersome I've had in a long time. Not even a crying baby, if I remember.
But then as the landing begins, I am reminded of the assholishness of the person sitting in front of me.
Now, who doesn't know the routine by now:
"Please turn off all electronic devices and return your tray-tables and seats to their upright positions as we prepare for landing."
In some ways, it's all very silly, but you can hear the whoosh of rustling as pretty much everyone does all this.
Oh, but not jacket-boy.
Observing him through the space between the seats, I see that after the announcement, he keeps clicking away at his Blackberry.
He's also got his table down and his seat back.
But, look, people sometimes take their time, and it's not like it's urgent - I'm sure he's getting himself sorted out.
The attendant comes by:
"Sir, you really need to shut off the electronics, close the table, and push your seat forward for landing."
He nods.
She walks down the aisle.
The rest of the plane has already complied.
He simply continues to click away and does nothing else.
Two minutes later, a second attendant passes by and says the same thing to him. And she stays until he clearly turns off the blasted crackberry. Then she walks away.
He then stares out the window, table down, seat still back.
Once again, an attendant tells him, yet again, to deal with the table and the seat.
She walks away.
He closes his table.
And leans back in a huff on his still un-adjusted seat.
And I decide the guy is a complete goddam wanker.
Now, let me be clear here. I am quite aware that, in all likelihood, leaving an ipod running will not result in the plane suddenly spinning wheelies in the sky. Nor does it really much matter, I'd bet, if your seat is at a back-straining 90 degree angle or at the airline-defined-luxurious angle of 94.2 degrees.
However, we do these little things mainly because it's no fucking big deal either way.
But after this behavior at both ends of the flight, this person appeared to think that such bothersome requests do not in any way apply to him. Or perhaps he thought he wasn't like the rest of us low-class, stupid "sheeple" and he wasn't going to follow orders.
Or maybe he was just an ass.
Anyway, once we landed, it took one second for him to whip out his phone and call his friend and say "this was such an annoying flight".
I wonder if he could feel my snarl.
For the post
above this line:
Atari,
First, why don't you delete the nasty comments you get? I think you should. I am writing because when I apologized to you for some rather nasty comments I made, I neglected to say that I honestly do find your chest sexy. Sorry for the previous comment. Ask your buddy Miss Darin and he will tell you that I am bipolar - I have these moments of depression followed by moments of extreme happiness. Well, I guess it is better than being a serial killer.
Sweet Jesus in the morning...I thought you were spying on me at work yesterday and repeating the story! Yikes. It sounds like a very average, normal day at my work. Yup,people are inconsiderate. Yup, they don't think. Yup, they act like children. Yup, they do things on an airplane THAT THEY'D NEVER DO AT HOME. Throw trash, trim toenails, cuss, spit, piss on the floor, yell, and the list goes on and on. Come fly with me sometime. i'll treat you like the royalty that you are. Giant hugs.
I always feel bad for flight attendants (like Lewis above, apparently). Their lives must be filled with cranky and uncompliant people.
Oh no no no. Thanks to years of New York City training, I would have gone directly to that guy and said "you need to take your jacket out of the overhead compartment" and then just stared at him until he did. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
And I would have kicked his seat until he returned it to an upright position.
I confess, I usually sit on my iPod and hide the headphone cord, and when asked, say it isn't on and that I'm using the headphones as noise cancelling devices.
But I'm quiet about it and keep my assholery to myself.
Unless provoked by the person with long hair in front of me whose hair drops onto my FOOD.
hey atari--long time, no comment.
good to see you're still posting quality stuff.
Lewis: Heh, ok, I'd appreciate a nicer flying experience for once!
GP: That must definitely be one of the down sides.
David: Ha! I should definitely try it your way.
m00nchild: BAD BOY! Actually, I just plug my headphones into the on-board system at that point - just gives me something to listen to for the last 15 minutes.
mkf: Oh wow, haven't seen you around these parts!
I don't get why flying has become so tedious. I just went to Lake Tahoe by way of Reno and I have to say it is the first time I have been on a plane that was landing that immediately sped up and took off to circle the airport.
Then when we did land, we waited for a plane to depart our gate.
Of course I also happened to lose my blackberry on the way to the airport ( I did the green thing and took light rail to the terminal). So I should have seen it all coming. Karma. Hmmm....
Lewis which airline do you fly???