This past week I was in Atlanta. Totally surprised at how terrific a city Atlanta has become by the way. Amazing food (JCT was one restaurant we loved), even more amazing the skyline with new artsy districts. At the airport returning home, here is what happened:
There were few empty seats, no room to plug in a phone. 3 seats held backpacks and plastic bags of bakery items, but were otherwise unoccupied for 30+ minutes. One seat was next to the power outlet. I told the remaining passenger, that I wanted to use the outlet and sit there and would be happy to move when the owner of the bag returned. After 35-40 minutes of no shows and a charged phone, I moved away. I left the bag next to the seat, carefully upright.
Here is what happened. A young woman returned, now it is 45-50 minutes of an empty seat with people standing. She screamed: Who the F___ moved my bag? Owning up, I said: “Miss in a very crowded airport, I sat there and used the charger above it; this is a public place”. Again: F___ you she howled.
Entitlement is an issue in travel. Curmudgeon am I? You are not entitled by the laws of ‘ public place niceness’ to: Keeping a seat when others have to stand while you wander around. You may not steal floor or seat space, from the passenger next to you on the plane. You may not move others’ bags around in the overhead racks without their permission (yup another lady last year was put on the no fly list for tossing bags around to squeeze hers in). You may not toss candy wrappers in the security bins at TSA (saw that too in Atlanta).
You may not tolerate horrible behavior in airports, planes and in immigration without saying something. That is a type of facilitation of nastiness.
The Women’s Travel Group organizes interesting and insightful tours for women from Paris for Christmas, Colors of India in November and much more in 2016. Call us at 646 309 5607 for information on trips or tips.
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