The plane wasn’t packed and there was an empty seat between me and the woman next to me. My carry on usually fits both under the seat and in the overhead compartments, but since I was in the last group of people to board, there was no space for my bag in the overhead. I have to say, my bag was nothing huge, it was just an adidas duffle bag, but it was packed a little high so it didn’t quiet fit under the seat in front of me. However, since there was an open space between me and the girl next to me, I just left it on the floor at my seat (so my feet were on top of it) and it took up a little bit of the floor space of the empty seat.
It was fine there through the whole flight, and take off… then we started to land. We already started to land when the flight attendant started her last sweep of the plane to make sure everyone had their tray tables up, etc. She gets to me and gives me the DEATH LOOK. She said, “You have to put [your bag] under the seat or in the overhead compartment.” Since it wasn’t a problem when we were taking off, I assumed it wouldn’t be a problem when we were landing, so I hadn’t tried to get my bag under the seat. It was sitting on my floor space under my feet as it had been since I got on the plane.
So, I start trying to shimmy my bag under the seat in front of me. She saw it wasn’t coming easy so instead of offering to check to see if there was any overhead space anywhere (since she was already standing and the seatbelt lights were on), she said in the RUDEST tone, “You can’t have it just sitting there. You can keep trying to get it under the seat but I can tell you right now it’s not going to fit.” Stunned, I asked calmly, “Is there any room in any of the overhead bins?” She rolled her eyes, opened a bin about 6 rows up from me, pointed at it and said “You’d better move quick because we’re about to land and the seatbelt lights are on.”
You know what? I know that job probably sucks. And who isn’t cranky after a flight? I’m sure it’s worse if you’re the one who has to hand out soda and peanuts to cranky people. However, if she’s that miserable, she could just fucking quit and look for a job she doesn’t hate or perhaps just not act like a total bitch. I could understand if I’d done something to provoke her, or if I was doing something to annoy other passengers, but I was just sitting there. I was only taking up space that was either mine or flat out not being used, and THIS WASN’T A PROBLEM WHEN WE WERE TAKING OFF!
*sigh* Damn it woman.