More than 155,000 members of the TripAdvisor web site have chosen the top 10 passengers from hell. Travelers from San Diego to Singapore, Seattle to Sydney and beyond, have probably sat next to some of them at one time or another.
TripAdvisor, which calls itself "World's most trusted travel advice", reviews hotels, flights, vacation packages, restaurants, offers trip ideas, and provides free travel guides. It currently lists over 30 millions traveler reviews and opinions.
In the order of highest ranking, meaning the most obnoxious, here are voting results:
CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) A child misbehaving; (BELOW UPPER RIGHT) A self-entitled and snooty person; (BELOW LEFT) Child kicking back of seat; (BELOW LOWER RIGHT) A woman sneezing, which some would consider a bio-hazard (All Photo Credits - Google Images)
A slide show of potential passengers from hell follows this article.
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# 1 - 39.0% OBLIVIOUS PARENT - Their kids kick your seat from takeoff to touchdown. But these parents might as well be miles away.
# 2 - 23.7% SPACE INTRUDER - This armrest hog's arms and knees invade your personal space.
# 3 - 18.1% BIO-HAZARD - Sneezing, sniffling, and sweating, this guy should have a HAZMAT (hazardous material) sticker affixed to his lapel.
# 4 - 5.3% CHATTER-BOX - From his divorce to his dental work, he's the tell-all talker - and you're the captive audience.
# 5 - 5.0% SMELLY SNACKER - Kimchi is delicious. So are egg salad and garlic. But 17 inches from your face? Really?
# 6 - 4.4% CARRIE CARRY-ALL - She's filled the entire overhead compartment and the space in front of YOUR seat with HER stuff.
# 7 - 2.0% SELF-ENTITLED - She treats the flight attendants as her personal servants, with a trigger-finger on the Call button.
# 8 - 1.0% SEAT SWAPPER - They troll the cabin trying to trade up, or give you their best puppy eyes and plead, "Can you let us sit together?"
# 9 - 0.8% NERVOUS WRECK - She whimpers over every sound and shudder, white-knuckling it all the way to Saskatoon.
# 10 - 0.7% ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR - He's blasting his tunes or watching car chase movies on his laptop - and you can't change the channel.
While it's all done in fun, there's more than an ounce of truth in these stereotypes. We've found some remedies that protect from such intrusions. These include ear plugs, noise cancelling headphones, a sleeping mask, powerful pills, a hooded parka, and sharp elbows. Failing these supplies, try using tolerance as a last resort.
Tell us about your experiences with passengers from hell. Please leave comments below or by email and subscribe to get future updates.
Comments
These are all good candidates for the worst people, especially misbehaving children. Perhaps add the pairs or groups traveling together who are so noisy and talk so loudly that you know more of their business than you'd care to know.
OMG, this is so funny. I thought it was going to be a list of actual passengers. LOL! I have to say I agree with the top 10.
Can't believe a kid that age knows what giving the finger is. I hate the oblivious parent. Once almost came to blows with one after I asked flight attendant to see if she could get the kid to stop kicking me. My favorite seat-mate was the really fat man who occupied both of our seats and told me he needed the space because he was big. And? There was a sympathetic FA and there was room on the plane and I was upgraded. We spent more time on the runway than in the air. Fly the wacky skies!
This is a funny list and I have seen some of this to one degree or another. Thankfully, I've never had a horrible seatmate...
You had some fun with the images for this one, didn't you? ;-) They're great, as are the remedies you list, all of which I use, including tolerance. My noise-canceling headphones do help me be A LOT more tolerant.
Great listing and slide show..we've all flown with these gnats. Funny stuff, Joel.
On flights out of Vegas, one could add "stinking, puke-stained drunks"...
Cheers..
I've flown nearly 36,000 miles this year, and am so fortunate that none of these stereotypes has been near me on any of my flights. I'm usually asleep before we get off the ground, so I'm fairly oblivious anyhow...
Another examiner wrote an article about this survey, but they did not have your hilarious slide show. Nice job.
What's a "hooded parker"?
I've met all these characters and they are from hell!
Very funny, very true. I love the title and the article. Thanks!
Regarding comments by "Looseleaf" below, thank you for catching that typo. You have sharp eyes. It should have read "parka", and has been corrected.
What a hilarious article! I've definitely encountered some of these types in my world travels ;)
Oh man, my last trip to Chicago was filled with these people. My personal favorite being the couple in front of me with a screaming baby. Now, I understand babies are babies, but as the baby screamed, the mom got up and decided to make everyone on the flight think they were in hell when she got up and proceeded to walk the baby up and down the whole aisle, ruining everyone's morning (instead of just mine). I could go on...I love articles like these.
Funny stuff, unfortunately true. And yes, tolerance,instead of the hooded parka---
we all have had unfortunate experiences with them. yes, children with parents who think it's cute or just don't care are the absolute worst (blame the parents).
THEE worst passenger we ever had on a flight was a claustraphobic lady that was afraid to go into the Lav. She WENT on the floor of the rear galley instead. The next worse was a young lady on her way to meet her new in-laws. She had a bout of explosive diarea and hit every surface in the lav and then had to be covered with a blanket and walked out to the gate covered in poop from the waist down. The cleanup took two hours. Oildry does a great job on that stuff. Turns everything to lumps and then can be swept out. I swear it happened.
How about the Flight Attendant from hell, Darla, a SW FA. On a trip out of CLE she led a singalong with 20++ drunk people that had just been to a bowling tournement in CLE. We were comming home from a relitives funeral and in no mood to hear all this music. WE asked her to stop but was told the people were haveing so much fun they wouldn't think of stoping.
Darla. We will NEVER forget her. Bet someone out there knows this happy happy SW FA.
And to think my tickets cost more now .. not less ...
On one otherwise insignificant flight, I had a window seat and two ladies (sisters, BFFs, whatever) had the other two seats in our grouping. The one who elected to sit next to me in the middle seat was wearing: 10 lbs of hairspray for her Jersey Shore rat's nest (pre-Snookie, mind you), an entire bottle of musky perfume, and stiletto pumps. As soon as she plopped down next to me, I could literally taste her perfume. I was trapped between the plane window and this Scent Monster! Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide! It was awful--for about a minute. Then the Scent Monster one-upped herself. She took her stilettos off and started massaging her (undoubtedly) aching feet. Her foot was inches from my body. All the while, this woman was just chit-chatting away with her friend like they were at the nail salon and pretending I was an empty chair. My personal-space bubble is smaller on a plane, but it will never be small enough to include your bare, sweaty feet practically in my lap.
The worst till date has been a patient and his attendant. They could not speak a word of english. The Patient ... has his head bandaged... The attendant took his sleeping pill I guess... And I was left trying to fit into half of my seat... as the patient ... crossed his legs.. and.. his arms all over the place.. If it was possible. I would have got of.. and taken the next one.. but alas.. it was an international flight.. and the only life saver was the FA... who finally got some blankets and placed them on my side of the armrest.. creating an effective screen sort of a thing.. and the double vodkas served.. Should have got her number .. :)
Now I always check who is next.. and try to wriggle out.. :)
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