Surviving airline passengers

Unfortunately, all those who do not travel Business or First class travel Economy (also known as Coach). At one time or another (unless you are very rich) you will also have to travel this, the lowest of classes. This means that for many hours you may be trapped in the cattle cabin with all kinds of people, serial killers, child molesters, drug addicts - but mostly, and this is worse: people with bad manners.

There has been a great decline in the service and comfort level provided by the airlines for passengers in Economy. Therefore many people feel now, more than ever, that the small space (i.e. their seat) that they do get on the plane is their own realm, and thus they can act as though they were at home.

Sadly, this means you learn about the crazy and disgusting things people do at home (unless, they only do it on airplanes, but we do not buy that). Firsthand experience on a subject few are really interested in studying...

The one very best advice we can give with regards to surviving other passengers: speak up! Keeping all the aggression inside will help you very little, because:

1. The people doing stuff that annoys you are unlikely to stop unless you ask them (they might not stop anyway, but at least then you will have tried).
   
2. Arriving at you destination with a lot of negative energy built up inside is hardly a good way to travel. Think about going around being angry with someone on the plane for the entire trip!
   

If you do not know what we are talking about and think that flying in Economy is a pleasure then consider:

• A child in the seat behind you kicks at your seat for the duration of the flight
• The woman in front of you decides to use her deodorant midflight and sprays most of it on you!
• While you are trying to sleep in a long-haul flight the person next to you laughs hysterically at every remotely funny scene in the in-flight movie.
  

Once you find yourself in any of the above situations we are quite sure that you would like suggestions of how to solve them. We can give you some pointers here. If you postpone reading this and encounter a nail-biting-filing-redneck on your next flight odds are you will regrett not having given us some of your reading time.