I don’t know what prompted me to think about this, but during lunch today, I recalled a moment in the recent past that made me cringe in hindsight. It involved a terrible combo – nail polish and flying. Yeah, you know where this is heading…
I always like to think of myself as a considerate and respectable seat mate, but a few months ago, I did something which I later deemed to be shamefully-rude and tacky… I painted my nails in flight.
I swear I’m not a diva, and frankly, I really don’t know what happened, but I guess my girlie instincts got to the best of me, and I couldn’t stand blankly staring at my awfully-chipped nails any longer. So, something in this crazy head of mine thought it would be a brilliant idea to just whip out my pink nail polish and throw on a quick coat before landing.
The terribly-dirty looks from my seat mates instantly confirmed my thoughts that maybe my impromptu quick fix was an awful idea to begin with. Even after apologizing profusely, I still got the look of death from everyone around me. I felt like a dog with its tail between its legs for the rest of the flight.
So here’s my open letter to everyone who was on SW165 on November 23, 2012:
Dear lovely neighboring seat mates eager to get to LAS,
I still apologize for being inconsiderate in flight. From now on, I’ll stick to no-chip gel manicures.
Love,
The girl with the bad manicure.
Have you ever done anything in flight that you’ve later regretted? If so, please share!
Let’s connect:Â 
Since you were flying SW, I’ll forgive you. :D
Constantly farting.
Stories like this always remind me of my dad, years ago a flight attendant handed a fellow passenger a glass of milk with ice in it. He was not happy about the ice, he berated her nearly to the point of tears. My dad took the glass from her and told her ‘ice was the best thing that ever happened to milk!” He was such a classy guy.
I don’t think I ever did anything really rude but one time on a flight I bought some burger king and had it on my lap before take off and the lady next to me went crazy said it was dangerous and I had to stow it under my seat. I probably said something rude to her after but she started it. lol
The passenger in front of me leaned his chair back while I was reading a newspaper. I let the newspaper flop onto his head several times. He may have been upset but I never saw a reaction from him – nor did he raise his seat.
Sleeping in a KLM C-class seat, while turning around, I accidentally knocked my neighbor’s glass of water (which was standing on the middle console) on him. Given the stream of profanities he shouted at me in the middle of the night, he was not delighted…
Once I rudely rebuffed by seatmates attempt to engage me in conversation. When I finally broke down and talked to her, I found out it was a friend’s grandmother. Yikes.
Once I fell asleep on my seatmates shoulder for probably half the flight (transcon). It was super awkward when I woke up as I didn’t know the person.
Once my bf and I were on a flight from SFO to ORD on a 757, seated 2nd row back in E+. He was seated next to the window and had the extra space in front of him as the row in front does not go all the way to the emergency exit. He did not have much sleep the night before and slept most of the flight. And by most of the flight I mean he had some bad dream and started to kick. He hit the arm rest of the seat in front of me (middle seat) and knocked the guys drink in front of us all over him. Then he quickly fell back to sleep leaving me to deal with the fall out!
I was a BOS-SFO flight in 1999 or 2000 and was somehow in first class. During the flight, this very posh-looking woman in her 60s starts painting her nails. The smell filled the cabin, it was awful. However, to my surprise, a flight attendant asked her if she could wait until the flight was over…and she did.
It could have been a little more awkward if you would have painted your toe nails too!!!!
On the bright side, that nail polish is a great color!
I wish I had talked to my seatmate more. He ended up being a Producer of the Emmy’s, Super Bowl Half-time shows, the Tony’s, etc. Biggest missed opportunity ever.
I don’t have a problem with polish as long as its not a really strong smelling one. I do have a problem with people who file and clip their nails in flight.