An air traveler is recounting their frustrating encounter with a fellow passenger, whom they described as an “aisle rusher.”
In a post on Reddit’s United Airlines forum, the traveler shared how a person occupying the middle seat next to them during a flight that day rudely contributed to a series of events that left them with “a headache” and a “smashed” bag.
According to the traveler, after the plane landed, a number of people began “climbing to reach the overhead containers” to retrieve their carry-on bags and belongings.
Among them, the middle seat occupier was trying to “push out into the aisle.” The passenger “somehow [slid] behind” the traveler — who was in the aisle seat — and, while attempting to pull his “heavy bag” from the overhead bin, dropped it on the Redditor’s head.
“I still have a headache an hour later!” they complained in their post.
Adding insult to injury, the traveler also discovered that the same passenger had opened the overhead bin after it was closed and “smashed” their bag prior to takeoff.
Despite the passenger’s pushy haste in trying to get off the plane, the Redditor griped, “We both had to wait for our bags at baggage claim anyways.”
Concluding their vent, the Reddit user wrote, “What’s the rush?!!! Sit the f down!!! People suck!!”
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In the comments, people sympathized with the traveler’s unfortunate flight experience, with some arguing that airlines need to crack down on such behavior.
“They should add some suggestions to the landing announcements and institute some minor penalties for passengers. Like 6-month travel ban for certain things,” one wrote. “People just act like animals.”
“Being crammed in a plane for many hours in sh—- chairs makes people go crazy,” another added.
Others shared their tried-and-true strategies for avoiding brushes with these so-called “aisle rushers.”
“This is my argument of choosing window seat over aisle. I get that aisle is more convenient and you can stretch and get up whenever you’d like. But with window you can wait until everyone else is out of your row and not have anyone climbing over you,” someone wrote, adding, “I’ve been doing window since I was hit in the head once and don’t regret it since.”
“Me, I stay seated until it’s my time to go,” another person chimed in. “That way there’s no space for anyone around me to go around.”
Yet another person joked, “I make myself look like the alpha silverback gorilla of the aisle. I don’t let anyone get past me. I let the old people pass first.”
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