photo: pixabay
Yesterday, I was on my way home from Northern Quebec. I had two flights, both on Air Canada. The first was from YUY (Rouyn-Naronda) to YUL (Montreal-Trudeau) and the second was from YUL to LGA (New York City).
On the second flight, I sat next to my friend and colleague, Andrea. Throughout the flight, we spoke to one another. The topics ranged from our travel through Quebec to travel generally to our work to lifestyle. We didn’t speak about anything intimate and we never spoke loudly.
That is why, after landing, we were both quite taken aback (and a little weirded-out) when the gentleman who was seated in front of us stood up and recited in detail everything Andrea and I had just spoken about – including exactly where we live and the name of her child and of our respective significant others.
Creepy, right?
Honestly, an airplane is not a place with a huge expectation of privacy. And frankly, we’ve all eavesdropped from time to time when seated in a plane or train. Sometimes, I’ve even joined a conversation when, for example, passengers behind me spoke of travel I was interested in or running marathons. So too, if I was ever disturbed by a passenger kicking my seat or speaking too loud, I will not hesitate to turn around and politely ask him/her to stop. But I wasn’t kicking his seat and I didn’t use the entertainment system, and nor do I think that Andrea and I were speaking loudly.
His peculiar recital and the sneering manner in which he reeled off the specifics of our conversation was disconcerting. I don’t think he was dangerous, but I do think he was a creep. Nevertheless, we waited a minute or two after deplaning for him to walk out of the terminal so as to be sure he wouldn’t initiate any further contact with us.
Welcome home to New York, right?
Now it’s your turn to share – have you ever had a creepy encounter on a plane?
A New York frequent flyer who elegantly combines her passions for worldwide travel, running a gazillion marathons all over the globe and staying fit ... without sacrificing her fancy for good wine and food.
Obviously this creepy person thought you were talking too much & or too loud. His solution to his misery, recite back your conversation. Weird. Sometimes I find it creepy when the person next to me reads what I’m reading and then asks me about it or why I read / buy a certain book / periodical. And then comes the “when you’re done, can read that / have it”.
Do you really maintain you weren’t talking loudly? With the ambient noise on a plane, the individual would have had to have had remarkable hearing to garner all those details unless your voices carried. In my experience, I can’t make out the details of my seatmates conversation if they lower their voices at all.
I’d hazard a guess that he was rudely informing you of the loud nature of your conversation.
good theory, but we were speaking softly (even taking into consideration the ambient noise issue).
youre probably annoying loud. you just dont know it. most people hate loud talkers and ppl that dont shut up
Brutal…
see above. I’m not a loud talker. thanks for your theory, albeit wrong.
I agree with Steve, but in a more tactful manner it sounds simply as if the passenger tired of listening to you and Andrea talk and recited the soon-to-be-forgotten details because he was annoyed, not because he was “creepy”. We are all crammed in there and listening to incessant chatter “throughout the flight” (in your words) can be quite tiresome.
I’m going to second Steve. You were probably annoying him (and others seated near you). Planes in general are NOT a good place for long conversations due to the enforced close proximity. Clearly if he could recite all these details it means you were talking loud enough for him to hear. If it isn’t possible for you to find a volume loud enough for the person next to you but NOT for the person in front of you to hear….then you shouldn’t be having the conversation… Please be considerate for those sitting around you.
thanks for your thoughts, but I believe he went out of his way to listen in on our conversation rather than our conversation being thrust upon him. This was about his weird exertion of power rather than the decibel level of a conversation.
How was he going out of his way to listen in? Did he turn around and look at you over the seats the whole conversation? Did he recline his seat and jam his ear into the gap to get closer???
He heard all those details because you two were being too loud and inconsiderate! Now you can argue that he didn’t not handle it the best way. You can argue that he was being passive agressive in waiting to the end and reciting the details. But at least acknowledge your own failings too.
The guy in front obviously had good hearing and memory skills and/or was annoyed by the conversation going on behind him and made it a point to show how much he could overhear the conversation and annoyed by it.
Not sure it’s as much a sign of him being a creep as much as of him wanting quiet and being annoyed by a long and detailed conversation of loud enough level for him to capture all those details from people behind him.
I don’t find a good memory for details to be creepy, but people with poorer listening and memory skills may find it creepy that someone can do so and then manages to playback the details to show their capacity.
Hm, not getting a lot of love here. I agree with others that it’s hard to hear the details people one row up or back with the ambient noise of a plane, especially if they are speaking softly. Clearly this person heard and did not find your conversation endearing. And, to be fair, also lacks some basic social skills.
You’ve struck a nerve here of all of us who have ever wished that a yapper would stop yapping in cramped quarters, but also wanted to avoid confrontation.
You may not be one of these people at all, but there are quite a few men and women who find the sound of their own voice and details of their lives somehow magical and assume that others do too.
I’m so thankful somebody finally reacts. Shut the fup on aircrafts. Want to talk for hours? Go to a Caffè. An aircraft should be quiet as a church, because… Surprise… They are jam packed and certain people do not want to her your voice for hour. Perhaps you were lso barefoot going to the toilet and putting feet on armrest, or cutting nails. I just wish you have a neighbor like this when you want or need a quiet environment.
The problem with every single one of the haters theories is that this guy passive aggressively waited until the end of the flight to snarkily recite your conversation, instead of as a mature adult, asking you politely to talk more quietly when it first annoyed him. This is indefensible. Period. Either say something nicely or don’t say anything at all or you are rude and a creep. So even if y’all were loud and crazy, unless someone politely says something (hey I am having trouble hearing my movie, or reading my book, could you speak more quietly please, for example) they have no defense to saying something at the end of the flight. Especially a guy to two females in such an aggressive manner.
Thank you for your thoughtful response!
Out if curiosity…. Did you say anything to him after his recital of details? Isn’t it even more passive agressive to say nothing to him at the time and then blog about it?
You can argue what he did was inappropriate…but you have to acknowledge your actions, speaking too loudly, enabled him to be inappropriate.
Yes, he was creepy. Yes, you shouldn’t talk so much on planes.
I guess he did not have his noise cancelling head phones on! They seem to block everything except loud crying babies behind me!!He needed to get a life !!
The same happened to me in a train while i’m travelling to Mumbai (India).