Long-haul economy can be miserable enough without a seatmate leaning on you, touching you, and brandishing cutlery at you. The line between “annoying” and “threatening” often comes down to context, and 14 hours is a long time to feel trapped.
A passenger’s video about flying Qatar Airways coach from Doha to New York is blowing up right now — even though the flight happened nine months ago, and the videos were posted last month. It features cramped economy seating, an unruly seatmate, flight attendants who don’t seem to fix things, and a meal service butter knife that becomes a weapon.. maybe.
- The customer was at a window seat and her neighbor in the middle was an elderly woman traveling alone. That woman leaned on her shoulder, spread into her space, used both armrests, and kept mkaing physical contact.
- At one point the woman held her metal meal knife that seemed to threaten. She captioned, “I’m taking this knife hold as a threat.”
- Later, the woman lies on the floor of the cabin, bracing herself against the passenger’s leg, and also partially sitting on her.
- She asks for flight attendant help several times. They eventually had the aisle seat passenger move, givin gthe elderly woman the aisle and her middle (a reward!) but her legs still extended into Essie’s space.
After the trip, a report was filed with the airline but they didn’t acknowledge the incident or apologize.
Now, I’m not super worried about the buffer knife that came with catering. It wasn’t a “security incident.” But the passenger’s behavior with it seems inappropriate and they don’t get a pass because of their age. And crew here could certainly have been more proactive but on Qatar this doesn’t especially surprise.
Meth use apparently isn’t just for the youngins.
In my many leisure economy travels to and through through the Middle East, including QR, I have learned that the only passenger more entitled than the stereotypical Western K@r3n is the elderly female passenger from some Old Country in the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. I can sympathiize with Essie, here.
Granny should lay off the meth pipe.
I feel sorry for Essie having to deal with this. Essie seems like a nice person.
@George Nathan Romey — 3rd times the charm!
Shame on you Qatar Airlines! This paying customer should NEVER have endured this your flight crew should have made adjustments for this paying customer!
NOT Cool!
@Lisa — More like, shame on that other passenger for using the “buffer” (sic) knife… (Gary’s typo, see the post). Recall, crazies can be on any airline. It’s less a Qatar problem, and more a human problem, but, hopefully, the additional attention on this assists the victim in reaching a settlement with the airline, if applicable.
Middle seat gets both armrests…
Window gets the window and the far armrest.
Middle gets both middle armrests.
Aisle gets the aisle armrest and the open space.
???
Are you suggesting Window and Aisle get two armrests and Middle just phases out of existence? Or is it everyone gets one arm rest and one is left unused as is customary for the ghosts of flights past?
You do fly, right?
Alex you missed the whole point of this trying to prove how smart you are about arm rest/seat etiquette! Wow!
Old woman looks Middle Eastern. The poster is black. I’m willing to bet this has something to do with why the airline didn’t care that the Middle Eastern elderly lady was being extremely inappropriate.
I flew that same route a couple years ago. A woman behind me took her shoes off and put her foot on my arm rest. I immediately brushed it off ! For the next hour all heard was oh my god I can’t believe he did that !
The crazier this situation got, the more I thought that the elderly woman had signs of dementia. Even if that was the case, her behavior was off the charts.
I’m sorry you had to go through that. I had a middle seat on a flight from California to Florida. A husband and wife were on either side of me. They kept passing things back and forth and tried to get me to move. I told them I paid for this seat and it was not moving. I was getting over a cold and just kept coughing and coughing ( more than I needed to just to irritate them). It was not a pleasant trip but I refused to give in. The only other seats available on the plane were middle seats. I offered for them to seat next to each other but they refused. So be it!!!
I was raised to respect elders so when I was younger I would have put up with this. Today she would have touched me or threatened me exactly once. I had a 78 yo man jump a counter and threaten me at my job once. He had me trapped between him and a huge copier. At that point I hissed at him he could either get back behind the counter or I could put him on the ground. He got back on his side of the counter. Said elderly lady would have gotten the same treatment. Touch me and you WILL be sorry. But always be recording first. You got a have that recording to CYA.
Essie made a new friend. Hope she got Grandma’s number and invited her to come stay with her for awhile.
Interesting how the title photo for this is the image of an elderly Caucasian/American female brandishing the knife. Yet the reality was completely opposite. The manipulation of information is tiresome.
I flew QR SFO-DOH last week – excellent flight. Staff were fantastic.
I flew DOH-PHL on AA in J last year and was chatting with F/A’s when they all of the sudden one required my help. An elderly pax in Y wanted to open one of doors! It took me about 60 minutes worth of chatting (with mostly repetitive) to finally get him to calm go back to his seat and sit down. I realized he had some mental issues after talking to him for just 5 minutes. I’m surprised his family allowed him to fly alone, especially such a long haul trip knowing his mental condition. I’m even surprised he made it on the flight..LOL.
@jacobin777 — Niiice! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you on here. (Was also hoping occasional commenter @Sully of Doha would chime in too.) Oh no, opening doors once ‘armed’ is a huge no-no. You’re a good person to lend them a hand in that situation. Phew!
I think this was 1000000000000000% racial.
@Robert T Harter — If it’s merely your opinion, you could’ve gone with “99.99%,” still leaving a little room for error, but to suggest anything more than 100% is hyperbole.