Do Air Passengers Have A Right To Daylight?

Are passengers in the window seat of an aircraft obliged to pull down the shade for the convenience of other passengers?

It’s now routine for flight attendants to ask passengers to pull down the window shade so that others can see their movie screens better. On a recent flight, a passenger across the airplane complained to the flight attendant that she couldn’t sleep because the glare from my window was getting in her eyes. When the flight attendant asked me to close the shade,  I did it — while the offended passenger stared daggers at me.

This issue doesn’t come up for me often because I much prefer an aisle seat, especially if I’m traveling alone, but it arises now and then. And despite the fact that I think people need to be especially cooperative and considerate when using mass transit, something in me rebels on the window issue.

Why should I seal off my contact with the outside world  to enhance the experience of others whose attention deficits require them  to absorb passive entertainment? What if I’d rather look out the window? What if I prefer to read by natural light? I’m just asking. What do you think?

Bad Tourist, Hawaii Edition

Here’s another installment in my study of how thoughtless people can be when they travel, this one collected on a long trip to and from Hawaii:

5. A young man at the gate in O’Hare carried on a long, mushy cell phone conversation while simultaneously listening to a music video on his laptop — without headphones.

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Cautionary Tale For Unruly Passengers

Here’s a tip: when your plane makes an unscheduled landing and you’re thrown off, accused of starting a fight, and you are somehow miraculously not arrested even though it’s been less than a week since another serious terror attempt on a jet, don’t make a scene in the airport. The Toronto Star explains why.

Southwest Apologizes After Removing Toddler From Plane

Southwest Airlines has apologized to a California woman who was booted from a plane with her screaming 2-year-old, the San Jose Mercury News reports. But Southwest did not apologize for tossing them — just for the inconvenience it caused. The flight attendants had to remove the mother and toddler because other passengers couldn’t hear the flight safety instructions, an airline spokeswoman said.

The Week In Unruly Passengers

Sunday: A passenger who looked sick on an Air India flight from Dubai to Mangalore became violent when the crew approached him, The Times of India reported. He apologized for his behavior but within half an hour was running amok and was restrained by other passengers. As the plane was landing, he broke free and was restrained again. Re-restrained, I guess.

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Unruly Crew Brawls At 30,000 Feet

As if unruly passengers weren’t enough, now we have a tale of unruly crew. The pilots and flight attendants on an Air India flight from the United Arab Emirates to Delhi got into a scuffle in the galley, AFP reports, and at one point there reportedly was nobody in the cockpit. That would mean, nobody flying the plane. You have to hate it when that happens.

Bad Tourist: Five Thoughtless Things In DC

My niece Amy and I visited the District of Columbia last weekend, and I returned with a fresh installment of Bad Tourist, listing five transgressions I saw travelers commit.

5. A woman at the Kennedy gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery loudly called another member of her party over, despite several signs asking for quiet, and then argued with the guard who tried to shush her.

4. A man laden with cameras at the National Zoo, offended when when a giant panda turned its back, commenced to whooping and shrieking at the animal to try to get it to turn around. (I later saw a woman clapping at a tiger.)

3. On landing at BWI, a man seated on the aisle toward the back of the Southwest jet leaped out of his seat, grabbed his bag and pushed his way to the front of the cabin.

2. A man visiting the National Museum of the American Indian arrived in a T-shirt bearing slogans insulting immigrants. (I found him worthy of his own blog entry.)  

1. OK I cheated on this one — it’s from my visit to DC earlier this year. A boy among a group of teenagers at Union Station sneered at a man wearing large sunglasses: “Nice sunglasses, dude.” The man was blind.

Standing Up To Rude Travelers

If you’ve ever been frustrated by the rudeness of strangers, you may enjoy this New York Times column by a guy who reports standing up to it. His best story: calling a woman who was annoying everyone on a plane to interrupt her loud phone conversation.

Amtrak Quiet Car Getting Even Quieter

I heard an announcement Sunday on Amtrak’s Northeast Regional heading back to Hartford that starting today there will be absolutely no talking on the quiet cars.

So brush up on your sign language, people.

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No Watering The Geyser

Two seasonal concession workers at Yellowstone National Park were fired after a Web camera caught them urinating on the Old Faithful geyser, the Associated Press reports.

What is with volcanic activity that brings out the puerile in people? The husband and I watched several visitors, of several different nationalities, posing at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island  in such a way that a distant volcanic plume appeared to be emerging from the seats of their pants. Nose-holding was optional.

Tacky, yes. But unlike peeing on a geyser, not a crime.