Weird things people do on planes, from toenail clipping to donning pyjamas, and what to do about them

What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen a passenger do on a plane? If you said “change into pyjamas midflight” then maybe you were on my red-eye from Orlando, Florida, to Frankfurt, Germany, during which a passenger disappeared into the toilet and emerged in a nightgown.

It happens more often than you’d think. John Gray, who owns a company that sells gift baskets in London, admits to changing into his pyjamas on long flights.

“I like to wear my Pikachu onesie,” he says. “It’s super comfy and helps me get a good night’s sleep on long-haul flights. I usually get a smile from everybody who sees me and nobody has ever said something weird.”

There is a subset of airline passengers such as Gray who take hitting 30,000 feet as an invitation to make themselves at home.

Lauren Guilfoyle, of Emirates Airline, says the carrier hands out sleepwear with “moisturising” qualities to first-class passengers.

“The natural ingredients of shea butter and argan oil are released as you move, so your skin stays moisturised and protected,” she says.

Whatever it is that causes some air passengers to put on their pyjamas prompts others to take off their shoes and socks. This can turn ugly when those same passengers feel it is acceptable to rest their feet on the seat backs or armrests in front of them.

“It’s a personal-space invasion,” says Lori Geoffroy, a frequent air traveller from San Francisco who channelled her distaste for this type of behaviour into her business. Her company, Ickerz, sells a line of novelty stationery products featuring cartoon animals stuck in “smelly situations”.

Todd Brown remembers a recent flight from Hong Kong to Istanbul. A man across the aisle calmly removed his shoes and socks and began clipping his toenails.

“After finishing his toenails and fingernails, he then got a bottle of clear nail polish and proceeded to start painting his nails,” recalls Brown, a sales manager from the US state of Pennsylvania.

So what can you do if you find yourself getting a very close look at a fellow passenger’s pedicure?

From my experience of mediating travel disputes, both in the air and on the ground, your options are limited. Dirty looks only ratchet up the tension. Your best option is to move. Find an empty seat or ask a flight attendant to reseat you. Do not make a scene.

If another seat isn’t available, try hanging out in the galley at the back of the plane. You may have to take your seat if you hit turbulence, and a crew member might shoo you back to your seat during meal service. But it’s preferable to the alternative.

Maybe it’s best to take the oddness in stride. Flights do not last forever, and most of the unusual behaviour isn’t offensive – but may be photo-worthy. Of course, there’s an Instagram account for that: @passengershaming, which is run by Shawn Kathleen Howard, a former flight attendant.

But you should probably wait until after you land to share an image of your seatmate.

The Washington Post