Amazing Feets in Air Travel

I’m an experienced air traveler. I hit something like 70,000 air miles last year, and I’ll do a good clip again this year. Heck, when, somewhere over Puerto Rico, the purser came over the intercom to ask if there was a doctor or nurse on board my flight last week, I barely woke up. I’ve done go-arounds, an emergency landing at Gander Airport, flown through a thunderstorm in a Swiss propeller plane and once, I sat next to an actor who had a in part in the movie playing on that flight. It takes a lot to surprise me.

Bearing that in mind, I had a new-to-me seatmate experience on my flight down to Buenos Aires last week. After we pushed back, I snagged a middle bulkhead row of three on our 767. I took the aisle and stashed my stuff in the middle seat. Halfway through our ten-hour flight, a woman moved over to that empty aisle seat in my block. She snoozed in her neck donut for a bit. I dozed. When I woke up again, she was gone.

Or so I thought.

Not quite. She was laid out in between the seats and the bulkhead on the floor, sleeping. Her head was in the aisle and her feet were slowly but surely encroaching into my foot space. I made an area defining kick, and she stopped. Etiquette aside, there is no way I would let my body rest on the floor of an airplane for any length of time.  Just—no.

Are things regressing so much for the flying public that I’ll have to watch my feet for signs of encroaching passengers from this point forward? Chris Elliott’s misreported story about standing room only seats on airplanes is starting to look mighty appealing--at least with those seats I wouldn’t have to guard below my knees.

Comments

[jen laceda]

Bet you never had to travel with a 7-month old infant, and given a basket-like container with a piece of foam disguised as a "baby bassinet", and was told to place it on the floor for baby to sleep in. Needless to say, I carried my baby in my arms for the 10-hour Toronto-Rome flight.

[alexanderbasek]

Yeah, the bulkhead is where they normally stash the tots, although don't some airlines have a doodad that flips down to hold the "bassinet"? Like, a baby cupholder, of sorts?

[master dissertation]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

[Zora]

"Neck donut"--ha. And that is truly a hideous new low in air travel. Shudder.

[jen laceda]

I wish they had those tot cupholders, but never really saw one. I think that's an airline myth. Please report back to me if you do see one!