The Most Meaningless Thing Someone Can Complain About When Flying?

Look.  We all get it.  Flying can be a stressful experience even without any travel delays or cancellations.  You are forced to share a confined space with hundreds of strangers and your flight experience is no longer straight from an episode of Mad Men.

Not Our Current Flying Experience

With that being said, being able to fly continues to be a privilege.  Even in a country as wealthy as the United States, it has been estimated that 1 in 5 adults has never flown in a commercial airplane before.  Despite air travel being a modern day luxury that is relatively affordable for many of us living in an industrialized nation, we are all very good at complaining about what we don’t have.

I will be the first to admit that there have been occasions where I have whined about some pretty meaningless things.  Like that time I was sour because my in-flight entertainment system was broken for a 3.5 hour flight, or when a thunderstorm caused a 5 hour flight delay.  With that being said, it is always humorous to see what other people find to be absolutely devastating when it comes to their travel experience.

Is This As Trivial As It Seems To Me?

Recently, a passenger traveling on Jetstar Australia had the “worst flight of my life” and shared her experience on their Facebook page.  Now when I think of “worst” flights, my imagination runs wild.  I was intrigued by just how horrific her flight must have been.  From her description of the experience, I learned:

• The passenger did not “pay extra to select a seat” because she was a “very regular customer” and did not “really care about what seat [she] got.”  However, despite not having paid for a specific seat, she somehow managed to pay “just as much money as everyone else” on the flight.
• The passenger is also “not one to complain” and is “not claustrophobic” but was “seated on the very last row at the back of the plane in a crampy little corner.”  Here, she was forced to listen to the “chatter and rattle of the flight attendants.”
• In this “claustrophobic stinky, loud corner,” the passenger concluded that the “row should NOT exist [and] should just be storage.”  This way, she could have avoided flying “thousands of feet in the air in a dark hole.”

My thoughts?

1. I’d love to let this passenger know about SeatGuru.
2. I am interested in hearing about how she felt in the bathroom on board.  Perhaps a reader can inform me – do the Jetstar bathrooms come complete with shower suites?
3. She should probably never fly SpiritAir.
4. I wonder what compensation package Jetstar offered her following her flight?

What is the most meaningless thing you have ever complained about when flying?