Don't you hate it when people recline their seats all the way and then give you dirty looks when you have to hold on to their seatback so you can get into the aisle without falling over? <BR><BR>And don't you hate it when the mother changes the baby while she is still sitting in her seat?<BR><BR>Any other things that upset you about your fellow passengers?

Yea, I hate it when people whine about how everybody else does things on planes. We're all uncomfortable and need to make the best of an uncomfortable situation. If these things bother you, then get a life.

And where should mother change the baby? Trying to stand up in the tiny lavatory while the plane is flying and throwing the baby all around, while mom is trying to hold the baby down inside the tiny sink? The only safe place is while the mother is seated in her seat.

Mmmm. . . . reason 101 not to bring baby to Europe.

The baby and the diaper whine makes me laugh. I can't help thinking of my dear mother-in-law traveling home - alone - from Germany in the early 1950's. She was a new mother who had given birth in a foriegn country just two months before. She needed to go home because her parents needed her. Her husband had to stay behind - where he was serving his country. . . My husband was just a tiny baby. He was very, very ill on the plane. Here was this poor woman struggling, alone to take care of a sick baby on a 14 hour flight. I wonder what she would have thought had she even imagined that the people around her were fussing about where she changed the baby or why she had such a tiny person on the plane . . . . Some people on this board really need to check in with the realities of living. . . . .

I guess what bothers me the most is how men spread theirs legs out so it is impossible for me to keep mine away from theirs, especially is there is a man on both sides of me. And I wish there were rules for sharing the armrests. How come men always think that if a woman is sitting next to them then the man gets the armrest?

I gotta agree with the poster above - An armrest rule would be nice. I was on a 5 hour flight just last week next to an overweight, and even worse "crabby" woman who insisted in overflowing over both armrests. To top if off, she had a ton of long hair that she kept brushing into my face, getting in my food, etc. ugh - give me the young mother with the baby any time!

Grrr, you hit it. I thought I was the only one about the armrest. Why do men think they own the whole armrest for the entire trip? <BR><BR>But I do have to hand it to the airlines. The greatest innovation thus far in the 21st century are the individual video screens, when they work. It seems to cut down on some of the incessant talking groups of people indulge in, loudly, during trans-Atlantic trips. Have you ever been on the plane with a crew going to or coming from offshore drilling? I would rather be in hell with a broken back.

I guess I never realized how difficult it would be for a mother to change the diaper in the bathroom. You are right and I am wrong about that one. (but I sure do hate to drop something when I am in my seat and then reach down to find it and come up with a dirty diaper. That has happened to me twice!)<BR><BR>I will never feel that it is right for a person to put their seatback all the way for the whole flight. And they are wrong, wrong, wrong to give dirty looks to the people behind them who have to grab onto their seatbacks just so they can get out of their seats without falling. Extremely inconsiderate to keep your seat back like that when you aren't even sleeping!

elsa:<BR>are you saying that the dirty diaper was left on the floor or the seat???<BR>That's disgusting!<BR>I have seen mothers change diapers by putting a cloth or blanket under the child, change the diaper, wrap it up in papertowels and place it in a old plastic shopping bag and then dispose of it. I thought THAT was the right way to do it.

Each time I found the dirty diapers, they were on the floor. Once under my seat, and once under the seat in front of me. <BR><BR>I guess they don't clean the planes between flights. <BR><BR>Do they change the pillowcases?

<BR>Air France allows parents to use the crew quarters the rear of the plane for child changing purposes. Pretty good idea.<BR>I hate it when the first people on the plane place their stuff in the overhead bins in the front of the plane leaving no room for the folks who sit there.

&lt;&lt;I hate it when the first people on the plane place their stuff in the overhead bins in the front of the plane leaving no room for the folks who sit there&gt;&gt;<BR><BR>I finally solved that one. I ask all those sitting around me if the items in the overhead bin above my seat are theirs. If everyone says no, I remove them and put them in the aisle. The flight attendant finds out who put them there and they usually turn out to belong to someone at the very rear of the plane....

Lee:<BR><BR>Love it!

Interesting, this post is on the "Airline" forum:<BR><BR>"Message: just came back from london. flew the new 777 both ways. best seats we every had were the two seats in FRONT of the loo (window and aisle).<BR>they DID recline and the best part was that no one was sitting behind you - like a kid that is allowed to use your seat for a play gym or other older people that think the back portion of your seat is a device made just for them to get up and down in there own seat - very annoying."<BR><BR>It sounds like we're all very annoying to each other!

Re: armrests <BR><BR>It's not just the armrest that people think they are entitled to. A woman sitting next to me put her handbag (purse) on MY seat (I was already seated - she had to squish it between my leg and the armrest) and looked very surprised and hurt when I asked her to remove it.

Can I put in my 2cents? I travelled to Russia last year for the first time. One the flight from London to Moscow and on the return, my side passengers were Russian and both took out their newspapers, opened fully and proceeded to read the entire flight. I had a paper in my face the entire time and did not know what to do. Is this common? When I read a paper on a plane (and have lived oversead many years and flown many miles), I fold the paper to a managable size and read it article by article... funny experience, though. <BR>And regarding the children thread... I flew with 2 year old twin without my hubby many times and never, ever left a dirty diaper behind. Disgusting behavior...

In such close proximity, even normal things become annoying. Just listening (without trying to) to someone in a surrounding seat drone on about their life (which they think is interesting, but isn't) is annoying. But they have the right to talk. I have resolved to always travel with ear plugs. As for the seat, it is my right to recline, but if it interferes with the person behind me, I think they have the right to bump it or use it as a crutch (so long as they are not doing so just to get me back).

My seat goes back, I can sleep on a transatlantic flight. My seat goes back, and I don't get achey hips and knees. The guy in front of me puts his seat all the way back, and I can get out of my seat, eat my gourmet airline dinner and watch the video screen. I fly coach all the time, and I've never had a seatback end up in my lap. Guess I'm lucky; everyone else who flies seems to end up with a cabin configuration that allows seatbacks to go back too far. <BR><BR>And isn't the uncivilized behavior shown on an airplane the same behavior you see in supermarkets, on the highway, in restaurants, in theaters, in your own neighborhood? The airplane is like a mini-town, and the lousy behavior manifested isn't any worse than that found anywhere else. The only way to make behavior more civilized is for civilized people to take action (like Lee's solution to the overhead thing - no fit-pitching, no swearing or nastiness, just polite intervention) and not suffer in silence during the offensive behavior.<BR><BR>And don't ever underestimate the power of letter-writing: the dirty diaper under the seat deserves a letter to the airline. Again, no swearing, no high-horse comments "we taxpayers just bailed you out so you owe us", no "you people" comments - state the facts and your concerns ("this could be a health hazard, and fortunately I found it before someone else who might have really made trouble"). Fixing this isn't a "they" thing, it's an "us" thing.

I have to agree with the armrests, but I don't know about it being the men all the time, but definitely the most. The thing that gets me the most is when your watching a movie or trying to sleep and that darn pilot keeps coming overhead, interrupting everything to tell you how high we are up or where we are, I don't care I want to sleep so I'm not dead with the 6 hour time change! I know this doesn't happen very frequently, but once going to Italy form the US, the pilot came on every five mins. for about 30 mins because he kept forgetting to tell us something.