An OMAAT reader shared an unpleasant experience he recently had with a seat mate on a Qatar Airways flight, and asked for my take on the situation. I figured I’d write about it here, as I’m curious how others would’ve dealt with this situation.
Qatar Airways business class passenger lacks basic manners
This story involves a recent Qatar Airways business class flight that someone took from Phnom Penh (PNH) to Doha (DOH). Let me just quote the main part of what the reader shared:
I’m seated in 1A on a 77W (2-2-2 configuration). The gentleman in 1B, however, decided to stretch his left foot — thankfully, in socks — onto the console between our seats. I found this pretty off-putting, so I pressed the call button, hoping the flight attendant would notice and ask him to move his foot. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to be bothered by it. So instead, I asked for a sparkling water and hoped for a second chance.
When he came to serve it, he had to carefully work around his foot, but no action was taken to address the situation. I was honestly pretty shocked. Does the flight attendant really think this behavior is normal and acceptable?
Later on, this gentleman seemed to have trouble connecting to the Wi-Fi. Another flight attendant came over to assist him with his phone, and again, his foot was resting on the console the entire time — still no intervention.
Below is a picture of what this situation looked like (he provided more pictures and videos to show this was a consistent problem, but I think everyone gets the point, hopefully). 😉 To be abundantly clear, this console is the same place where the crew often places food and drinks, so it’s not intended as a foot rest.
What’s the correct way to handle this situation?
Okay, I suspect some people are probably yelling at their computers right now, saying “you should’ve just confronted the passenger directly,” since that seems like the obvious solution. I’m a bit conflicted about that approach, personally:
- Someone who positions their feet like this probably doesn’t have much respect for how their decisions impact others, and therefore may also not be great at taking feedback when confronted
- You don’t want to get into a situation on a plane where something escalates, especially if you’re stuck sitting next to this person
- This is a weakness of mine, but I go great lengths to avoid awkward social interactions, so… 😉
How would I have handled this? Personally I would have gotten up as if I’m going to the bathroom, and would have stepped into the galley to discreetly mention this to a flight attendant, so that they can hopefully resolve it.
I know some people might think it’s weak to snitch on someone rather than confronting them directly, but people can act weird on planes, and you don’t want something to escalate.
So, why did the crew not proactively intervene when they saw where this man placed his feet? At most Gulf carriers, customer complaints are taken seriously, especially from premium cabin passengers. So I imagine crews would often rather avoid a confrontation out of fear of the customer complaining, rather than doing the right thing.
After all, they’re probably more scared of a complaint regarding what they did do, rather than a complaint about what they didn’t do. I’m of course not saying that’s right or how it should be, but I can understand culturally why this would happen. I imagine many flight attendants at US airlines would have joyfully told the man to remove his feet from the center console, without even being asked.
Bottom line
It’s sad (but not surprising) how little respect so many travelers show to their fellow passengers when it comes to etiquette. A Qatar Airways business class passenger recently thought the shared console between seats was an appropriate place to rest his feet.
I don’t think there’s one right or wrong answer as to how you should handle an occurrence like this, as it all depends on the person’s vibe, the crew, etc. However, it is disappointing when the crew seems something like this but doesn’t act.
How would you have handled this situation?
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