Monday, January 21, 2008

Personal space, airplanes and being passive agressive

Anyone who cannot afford to fly First class on an airplane in recent years knows that personal space on airplanes is all but non-existent. About the only true personal space is where your feet are.

This evening on a flight from Austin to Tampa, the man in front of me reclined his seat into what I consider my personal space bubble. The back of his seat was so close to my face that I could literally SMELL his hair ... and believe me, it was not a pleasant smell. Forget using the tray table, forget not bumping his seat when getting out to use the restroom. And truthfully, I may have bumped it a little more than was actually necessary. Especially after I politely asked him to not recline it so far since it was in my face ... he declined to adjust his seat. So every time I reached into the seat back pocket, I exaggeratedly bumped the seat back. I read my newspaper resting it on the top of his seat back and yes, his head.

It was probably not a very nice thing to do ... probably petty ... but it made me feel better none the less ... especially because I asked nicely for my space back.

I hardly ever recline on planes. When I do, I tell the person behind me before I recline and ask them to please let me know if they need more space or to get out of their seat.

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