Your Feet Smell, or Airplane Etiquette 101

When we're not scrapping for an upgrade, both Crosscheck and I are likely to be taking in a baseball game. We long ago discovered Murray Cook's Field Blog. Major League Baseball's chief groundskeeper travels the globe to build and resuscitate ballfields in countries you've never even heard of, and logs many air miles in the process.

We were thrilled when Murray blogged about his frustration with the lack of flying etiquette displayed by so many travelers. We'll let you read his full post for yourself, but here are the ones we thought most on target:

• Too-big Carry-ons
• As Murray points out, sneaking a steamer trunk on board doesn't entitle you to let it smack me in the side of the head as you head to your seat.
• Aggressive Recliners
• We agree with Murray: check to see who's behind you and what they are doing before you crush their laptop screen or splash their drink into their lap. Then recline gradually.
• Headphone Intruders
• If we have headphones on, guess what? We're listening to something other than you and we don't want to start a conversation.
• Kicking Kids
• I'm talking about kids you wish you could kick because of their behavior. But it's the parents who deserve the kicking – that is, if they don't even try to prevent their precious babies from kicking the back of your seat, or touching your head from the row behind you, or playing a handheld game with the sound on and no headphones...et cetera.
• Shoeless Joe
• Even clean feet are disgusting. You've been hoofing it through airport security and running the concourse to get to the gate, so your filthy, sweaty, stinking sock (or worse, bare) feet are not welcome outside of your shoes. Especially if you put them up on the bulkhead. Gross.

We'll cover more pet peeves in future posts, but this seems like a good start.