A woman recently took to Reddit to share what is pretty much a flight horror show: Her fellow passenger decided to remove her shoes, remove her socks, and prop her dirty, bare feet on top of the headrest of the seat in front of her.
In a post titled "This is the one thing I am most worried about before getting on a plane," the woman posted a photo of her furrowed brow underneath a pair of feet that are just dangling over her head. The photo exploded on Reddit, with users who were aghast at the other passenger's behavior and also eager to share their own flight horror stories.
Reddit user Darth_Hoodieness offered sage advice —"Just get up and tell them to stop and if they don’t listen tell a flight attendant" — that was quickly met with agreement or derision, depending on the mood of fellow commenters. Animeisfordorks sent back a zinger that I heartily agree with: "That’s too sensible. Grab a pen or something and tickle and poke at them first."
Other users offered more sensible advice, such as this: "I wouldn’t even bother addressing them directly. I would ask the flight attendant to tell them to sit normally or ask to move my sit cuz apparently person sitting behind me needs 2 places for themselves. Plus if it escalates further, the airline should fine ppl like that. That is, in a way, inappropriate behaviour that disturbs other passengers."
And my personal favorite: "Pro-life tip: Always carry bubble gum. Chewing it alleviates pain from inner ear pressure. You can also blow bubbles onto feet like these. 'Oops! So sorry, turned around whilst blowing this bubble and didn't expect to find anything behind me.'"
Other commenters recounted stories of when they had behaved similarly, like this one: "I felt like an [expletive] when I had to put my foot up on the front wall of the plane when I was flying 11 hours with a broken foot. How is this person even able to live with themselves? I had a moon-boot and then a sock and a slipper and I still assume everyone thought I was some kind of mannerless, recently caught feral child who just put their gross feet anywhere they want."
They also shared other truly awful flight tales: "I had a baby barf over the top of my seat down onto my back… Then continued to scream at the top of its lungs the rest of the flight. While the guy next to me acted like an [expletive] about it but I was the one puked on… It could be worse."
There was plenty of delightfully wicked advice: "The single answer to every seat kicker, seat pusher, feet placer, etc is to lean forward, then violently slam back into the seat and making it shake. 2-3 times is usually all you need and it has a 100% success rate in my 100+ flights."
And: "I had someone try this with the gap between the seat and the plane, and my armrest. I lightly elbowed back and the foot disappeared, halfway through the flight they tried again. What the [expletive] is wrong with people."
Reddit user z3anon advised going full throttle: "Nope, that [expletive] ain't gonna fly. Get the attention of a flight attendant, announce loudly that someone's dirty feet is being shoved into your face, and that you demand to be seated elsewhere if they're not stopped permanently. Don't bother giving the human trash that did this the opportunity to settle this quietly, or else they'll never learn from the shame and WILL do this again to someone else."
And many people, like Reddit user roraima_is_very_tall, celebrated the original poster's decision to share her plight: "Best: 1) get photo; 2) turn around and ask politely not to do that; 3) post to reddit. Second best: photo, flight attendant, post to reddit. 3rd: photo, fake/real sneeze on feet/other dissuasive, negative reinforcement measures, post to reddit."
Many commenters were simply surprised that anyone thinks this kind of behavior is kosher. "I’m not a confrontational person and I am also super patient with people. If this happened to me I would stand up make eye contact and ask the individual, 'What makes you think this is ok?'"
Unfortunately, the original poster has yet to update about what happened on the flight and if she ever confronted the person behind her, but hopefully we'll all hear from her soon. Until then, we can ponder the eternal question this raised: "How do people lack self-awareness to this degree? Is it too much to ask for people to not do [expletive] like this on their own, without having to be asked or told what to do by someone in authority?"
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
