TravelSkills

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Delta: Bad behavior gets you banned for life

You won't see this guy on any more Delta flights. (Image:

You won’t see this guy on any more Delta flights. (Image: Emma Baum/Facebook)

>Delta bans disruptive passenger for life, refunds fares to all passengers on Atlanta-Allentown flight 

Following a major embarrassment on the Internet over the past few days, Delta Air Lines is cracking down on passenger behavior aboard its aircraft.

The embarrassment involved a very vocal Donald Trump supporter on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Allentown last week; the passenger stood up in the aisle and chanted “Trump,” peppering his outburst with profanity and a reference to “Hillary bitches.” The problem for Delta: Another passenger made a video of the rant and posted it on Facebook, where its viewership quickly passed the 2 million mark.

The ranting passenger was not removed from the flight, to the dismay of others who found his behavior seriously offensive. As a result, Delta CEO Ed Bastian felt compelled to issue a public apology and is also refunding passengers on the flight for the cost of their tickets.

“This individual displayed behavior that was loud, rude and disrespectful to his fellow customers,” Bastian said. “After questioning the customer, our team members made the best decision they could, given the information they had, and allowed him to remain on the flight. However, if our colleagues had witnessed firsthand what was shown in the video, there is no question they would have removed him from the aircraft. He will never again be allowed on a Delta plane.”

He said the airline is committed to “acknowledging our mistakes so we can learn from them,” and noted that all passengers on that flight have been given a refund and an apology. “The heightened tension in our society means that now more than ever we must require civility on our planes and in our facilities.”

Still, you have to wonder – what would Delta have done in the absence of a viral video of the incident? What would you have done if you witnessed an outburst like this?

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Air travel: It’s great, except for the other passengers

Is there such a thing as in-flight etiquette any more/ (Image: Chris McGinnis)

Is there such a thing as in-flight etiquette any more? (Image: Chris McGinnis)

The U.S. airline trade group Airlines for America is predicting that the crowds of air travelers during the Thanksgiving period this month will be the biggest in eight years. So if you’re planning a trip on those busy days, better steel yourself for some unpleasant in-flight experiences on a fully packed aircraft.

A new survey of more than 1,000 consumers from Expedia identifies some of the most irksome aspects of modern air travel and fellow passengers, including an analysis of one of the biggest flashpoints of air rage — the reclining seat.

RECLINE WHINE: Almost one-third of the respondents in the Expedia-sponsored survey said reclining seats should be banned altogether, or that seat reclining should be limited to specific times on short-haul flights. About the same amount said they would never recline their own seat. Of those who do push back their seats, 30 percent said they only do so to sleep and 28 percent said they would recline only on a flight of more than three hours. But an annoying 13 percent said they lean back immediately after takeoff no matter what. (That’s the person who always sits in front of me!) Another 13 percent said they recline their seat only when the person in front of them does the same.

But the survey uncovered more of the dark side of seat reclining as well. More than a quarter of respondents said they would recline their seat “punitively” if they considered the person right behind them to be rude or aggressive, Expedia said. Twelve percent said they would recline even if the passenger to their rear was noticeably tall, and 10 percent would do so if the passenger behind them was obviously pregnant.

CONFRONTATION? We’ve all seen stories of flight attendants trying to deal with misbehaving individuals, but how would fellow passengers react if they saw someone exhibiting blatantly bad in-flight behavior? According to the survey, 49 percent would do nothing — but one in five said they would confront the misbehaver directly. One out of 10 would use their phone’s video  to record the action, and three percent would “shame” them by putting it on social media.

Parents who don't control unruly kids are high on the list of bad behaviors (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Parents who don’t control unruly kids are high on the list of bad behaviors (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

KICKER. The most hated behaviors or characteristics of fellow passengers are about what you’d expect. Seatback kickers topped the list, followed in order by parents who fail to control their unruly kids and by passengers who — let’s be honest — stink. But there are a lot of other unwelcome seatmates as well, from boozers to over-talkative individuals.  (Last year, TravelSkills listed Chris’s personal picks for the kinds of passengers he least likes to sit near.)

And buried in the Expedia report was this nugget: “Just over 1% of Americans report membership in the Mile High Club, having been ‘intimate’ on a plane, either with a traveler they knew, or a traveler they met on board.”

Readers: What’s the worst/most annoying/most disgusting behavior you’ve seen or experienced from your fellow passengers? Post comments below. 

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Ugly Chinese worse than ugly Americans?

An Air China 747 landing at LAX (Photo: Aero Icarus / Flickr)

An Air China 747 landing at LAX (Photo: Aero Icarus / Flickr)

Remember when Americans had to be so careful about appearing to the “the ugly American” abroad?

Well, according to NPR and other sources, that boorish baton has been passed along to the Chinese who now rank as the world’s ugliest tourists. (And I think that maybe the ugly German and ugly Russian tourist held that baton intermittently over the years…)

China now contributes more money to the global tourism industry than any other nation according to the NPR story and last year, Chinese took 109 million trips abroad, a 20% increase over 2014.

The idea of the ugly Chinese tourist is embarrassing to the Chinese government– so much so that it’s launched new rules for Chinese citizens traveling abroad— those that don’t behave properly abroad could face big problems back home, from taking a hit on their credit rating, to inclusion on a black list that could forbid any future trips.

As examples of bad behavior abroad, NPR cites the incident in which feisty airline passengers tossed hot soup in the face of flight attendants on a Bangkok to Beijing flight, as well as the infamous story of a Chinese tourist who carved his initials on a temple in Luxor, Egypt.

“Spitting, shouting and sloppy bathroom etiquette have made the Chinese look like the world’s rudest new tourists, from London to Taipei and beyond,” reports the Economist.

The BBC reports that this video of a Thai woman ranting about hordes of Chinese tourists who don’t know how to stand in line attracted huge interest in China and has been viewed nearly 2 million times.

The Diplomat decries loutish Chinese behavior that includes “a family who had their child empty his bowels in the aisle of an international flight, only to be handily outdone by parents who made their child defecate directly into the seat…”

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reports that ill feelings toward the throngs of mainland Chinese visitors have increased 40% recently.

So what do you think… have the Chinese assumed the role of the world’s worst tourists? Do you have any bouts of boorish behavior to share?

What could ugly Americans teach ugly Chinese about proper behavior abroad? Please leave your comments below.

–-Chris McGinnis


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