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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2009 15:00:19 GMT
Two vastly different sets of people sitting next to me on the plane to and fro. En route to NY I was seated next to a couple who (the woman in particular) was as chatty as a magpie. Nice enough, but ,had a question or comment for everything. I generally will engage in some chit chat initially, and then don my headphones or put my nose in a book,maybe catnap. No go with this one. If I looked out my window,it was ,"what do you see out there?",book; whatcha reading, camera";whatcha taking a picture of?"and so on ad nauseum. I was really ok with it to a point. Finally, I did feign sleep until right before touch down and up she started.
On the way back,thank goodness,a young couple,foreign,Scandinavian,polite small chit chat and then to themselves.
What's your experience like with this when travelling?
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Post by happytraveller on Sept 23, 2009 16:06:49 GMT
I have been lucky and always had really quiet seat neighbours. I like to be quiet and sleep or read a book on my flights. Once I flew from Zurich to Singapore I had a couple of Aussie guys sitting next to me and we started chatting. They were member of the quantas club and gave me a guest card which I could use in the Quantas lounge in Singapore airport. I had champagne and breakfast and a shower for free !
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2009 16:46:54 GMT
My anti-talking techniques work more than 90% of the time, although they did not work on my last flight. Luckily the person next to me was quite interesting, which is really rare.
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Post by bjd on Sept 23, 2009 16:48:00 GMT
I usually prefer to have chatty people beside me. On the long-haul flight this year, on the way to Quito I had a young Ecuadorian guy who was living in London -- we talked much of the way and the 11 hours went by fast. For the return, there was an Ecuadorian woman who put a shawl over her head at takeoff and slept the whole way to Madrid. Since I don't sleep well in airplanes, and hate wearing earphones for movies (and in any case, Iberia doesn't have the little screens in the seat backs), it felt like a long flight.
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Post by imec on Sept 23, 2009 17:15:17 GMT
I don't make eye contact - that usually works.
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Post by fumobici on Sept 23, 2009 18:17:21 GMT
The last time I flew out from Seattle to Amsterdam I had a pretty well known painter in the seat next to mine and as we are both visual artists we got some nice "shop talk" in. The return flight, I had a "sleeper" as a neighbor which was great except for feeling bad for waking him when I had to get up to use the facilities as I had a window seat to watch the eight hour sunset.
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Post by lola on Sept 23, 2009 19:48:34 GMT
I'm in the minimal chat camp. Recently I sat next to a pilot who nodded, then rolled his jacket up and went right to sleep. Perfect. On approach, I was able to steal glances at him to see whether he seemed worried about the turbulence.
In Colorado last year I was fortunate to sit next to a man who had really interesting things to say about water use and urban sprawl in the high plains.
On our way back from London this spring I had the bulkhead middle seat of three, with considerate daughter on one side. My other seatmate had the "determined not to let you chatter at me, you potentially annoying person" look on her face, not an iota of eye contact for thousands of miles which was fine with me. It was her territorial nature that got on my nerves: she planted her forearm well over the armrest and did not relinquish a millimeter the entire trip. I almost admired her determination. Then kept her feet propped in such a way that people walking around the cabin had to step over her legs. I would hate to be stuck on a lifeboat with someone like that.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2009 20:00:44 GMT
Oh, I despise those people, and I take back territory whenever they make a mistake. If they have to go to the toilet at any time, they are done for! ;D
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Post by Deleted on Sept 23, 2009 21:25:45 GMT
Oh, I despise those people, and I take back territory whenever they make a mistake. If they have to go to the toilet at any time, they are done for! ;D I suppose being a very tall person you could really make someone miserable in this regard. The fellow directly in front of me was exceptionally tall and when he went to lounge back it was a rude awakening especially as I had my tray table out. I wonder how many spills occur because of this? The no eye contact thing is Mr. C's trick. |
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Post by happytraveller on Sept 24, 2009 8:20:15 GMT
I don't make eye contact - that usually works. That is so true ! |
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Post by tillystar on Sept 24, 2009 10:22:47 GMT
Me too. I am a quiet well-behaved space sharer, but if people are pushy and elbowy they better beware BIG TIME. I can get eeeeeeevil.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 24, 2009 12:04:08 GMT
A few chatty people, one lovely experience I recall with an interesting Parisian man with a pet carrier on the seat in-between ours. In the carrier was a small black cat. He asked if I minded if he took her out to stretch her paws a bit.
He adopted the cat when she was a tiny stray kitten at Père Lachaise, and was moving to Montréal because he was in love with a Québécoise, and they were to be married. (As my mum said, "hope she likes cats").
I've later seen the two (humans) with a small child, but I didn't introduce myself to them or ask about the cat. It was a nice encounter, but just as well to leave the story on the plane.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 24, 2009 16:52:08 GMT
What a lovely, cinematic story, LaGatta!
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Post by rikita on Sept 29, 2009 22:35:32 GMT
well i haven't been flying a lot lately, so i don't remember... but i regularly travel with mitfahrgelegenheit - a car sharing service (people put ads up in an internet site when they are going from where to where, and people can ride along and pay a share of the gas)... so there each ride is different, in some we talk the whole time through, in others each is quiet or sleeping (well except the driver) in others, some talk others stay quiet... it can be really fun at times, though sometimes i really need to read something and feel a bit annoying if there is too much talking...
next ride is on friday, so if i remember i can tell you afterwards how that one went.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2013 18:50:20 GMT
En route to NY via Baltimore (where I had a 3 hour layover due to weather), I took a window seat , the middle seat was vacant, and, a young man in the aisle
seat.
I was exhausted from having been up since 4a.m. and fell asleep with the middle arm rest raised, I fell into a deep deep slumber. Unusual for me but, I was that tired.
All of a sudden I awaken to this rumbling, tumbling sound. I dreamed I was experiencing an earthquake and awoke to grab the young man's arm, thinking he was my husband (in the dream). I said, "T wake up!! We're having an earthquake!!!".
I finally became oriented and realized where I was etc.
Needless to say, I was terribly embarrassed but, he was very kind and understanding.
The flight crew had never come around to give us the fasten your seat belt alert.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2013 22:05:04 GMT
How much earthquake experience do you have, casimira?  Actually, there was an earthquake in one of my dreams last week, for the first time in years. Since I was inside a building during the dream, I was wondering if it was going to collapse on top of me, but it turned it to be one of those "wimpy California earth tremors" which give Californians a false sense of security. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2013 8:58:34 GMT
I have never experienced any earthquake activity.
I guess my subconscious made that determination. It was a bumpy landing.
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Post by rikita on Dec 30, 2013 22:33:23 GMT
i guess i never kept my promise of saying how that car ride went - and now i don't remember.
last flights were those to/from india, and there i had mr. r. with me so i mainly spoke to him.
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Post by htmb on Sept 19, 2014 12:33:54 GMT
The twenty-something sitting next to me on the 6:00 AM flight out of Gainesville this morning was so blitzed he couldn't even sign his name when he ordered a Bloody Mary. I suspect he'd been up all night, and at one point his head went back on the seat and he started snoring with his mouth open. At least he was a happy drunk, didn't throw up on me even though we hit lots of bumps, and the flight was only an hour long.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2014 13:31:51 GMT
I'm suprised they served him a drink at all, htmb, if he was as far gone as you say.
The most memorable seat companion I ever had was a little boy, about eight years old, who was flying from Vancouver to London all by himself (I don't think that would even be allowed these days, this was years ago). We shared three seats between ourselve, but he was quite tiny. Now, I'm normally not big on kids, but I do make exceptions when they're clever and quiet, as he was. He also had a melancholy that made me feel quite protective towards him.
He was flying back from a visit to father, his parents were divorced. He said, "I don't think my Dad's family like me because I'm brown", which just broke my heart. We read and played games and watched movies together. The we both settled in for a nap. When I woke up a few hours later, I found that the cabin crew had slipped a full bottle of very nice wine into my bag as thanks. I guess they had the responsibility to keep him entertained, and were pleased to see I took over the job. I often wonder how he grew up, and I hope he became very tall and slapped his grandparents upside the head.
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Post by htmb on Sept 19, 2014 13:58:11 GMT
Lizzy, I doubt attendant even noticed until he was signing and by then he was halfway through his drink. He was all happy and sweet, but fairly quiet, and it was a short, full flight.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2014 18:25:19 GMT
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Post by mossie on Sept 20, 2014 18:48:44 GMT
I don't think I want any cake watching that.
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Post by mich64 on Sept 20, 2014 20:36:52 GMT
Have always pre-booked seats and always get two alone. On our flight to Munich this week we had two young men ahead of us who kept their seats reclined at all times, flight attendent had to ask them each meal service to sit upright and also on landing. Everyone was asked to open their window shades on landing as well. Smallest seats we have ever encountered
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Post by htmb on Sept 20, 2014 20:38:57 GMT
Really disgusting stuff.
My son had a country music station on in the car today and this song came on the radio:
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2014 20:53:08 GMT
I am not a country music fan, but I enjoyed that song.
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Post by htmb on Sept 20, 2014 21:07:27 GMT
Have always pre-booked seats and always get two alone. On our flight to Munich this week we had two young men ahead of us who kept their seats reclined at all times, flight attendent had to ask them each meal service to sit upright and also on landing. Everyone was asked to open their window shades on landing as well. Smallest seats we have ever encountered Mich, have you already gone and returned from your trip? |
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Post by htmb on Sept 20, 2014 21:18:09 GMT
I am not a country music fan, but I enjoyed that song. I don't listen to country music either, Kerouac, though I have picked up a lot of country music knowledge over the years despite my not caring for it. I laughed over the song because, as I am sure I've mentioned here before, I quietly sip something strong during most flying trips. Yesterday it was a thermos of lemonade with a little lot of added gin. It gets me to where I need to go. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2014 21:26:08 GMT
My basic knowledge of country music is through the rare crossover hits, but if I spent more time with my brother, I would have to listen to a lot more of it, because he and his wife are totally hooked.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2014 22:27:38 GMT
I think my worst airplane companion (and, I can't believe I didn't incorporate it into my original OP) was a shuttle flight from Logan airport in Boston during my freshman year of college to NY during Thanksgiving holiday.
I was in the very front seat next to a middle aged woman doused in some cheap perfume.
I was massively hungover from the night before and it was an early flight.
I came as close to reaching for the
barf bag" as I ever have, it was unbearable, claustrophobic, a wall in front of me and seemingly no escape.
The other was sharing a cab with a salesman to the airport in Chicago, he, on the cell phone frantically texting away, at one point, I realized it was with his wife. (I eyeballed the text screen as he seemed so nervous and distraught). In other words me being nosy.
He was doused with an expensive men's cologne, not too bad a scent but very cloying.
When I commented on it to him, he laughingly referred to it as "whore lure' and proudly let me know it was Prada.
When my husband picked me up at the airport in NOLA he commented to me that he smelled some cologne.
I demurred by telling him the story of of the salesman who proudly wore some kind of "whore lure" and he laughed,saying, "leave it to you C. to share a cab with a salesman who douses himself with "whore lure"!!!!
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