Most people would agree that some things are no-no's on airplanes, but they still happen. Among them:
＊ Applying nail polish.
＊ Shoving a dirty diaper into the seat pocket -- or handing it to the flight attendant.
＊ Reading over a seatmate's shoulder, whether it be a magazine or a laptop.
＊ Hogging the bathroom.
＊ Repeatedly pressing on the bathroom door even though it says "occupied."
Other matters fall in the gray area. Closing the window shade during the movie? You don't have to, but it's a nice gesture to your fellow travelers who want to see the screen. The armrests? "It's an unwritten rule that the middle passenger should get two armrests," Rodriguez says.
Taking off shoes to get more comfortable? That's OK, as long as they don't reek.
Climbing over a passenger in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? Well, you have to do it, but do you politely wake her up, or just maneuver your way past her, hoping for the best? That seems to be up for debate.
Fortunately, many of these problems arise infrequently.
"I actually think people are fairly well behaved," says Taylor, who calculates that he's flown 6 million miles in the last 30 years. "And when things get ugly, I go into my own mental zone."
Once in a while, however, someone is so annoying that he can't resist stepping in.
"Once I was on a flight from New York to Dallas right before Christmas and there was an ice storm, so we put down in Shreveport," he said. " I was in first class, and this little fellow goes up to the galley where the pilots are having coffee while we're waiting and says, `I've got to get to Dallas. We've got to go.'"
Taylor said the man sat down, then later jumped up and started harassing the pilots again.
"I closed my computer and tapped him on the shoulder until he turned around," he said. "I said, `Sport, we're all damned important here in first class, but we all want to live. Why don't you just sit down?' The fellow looked embarrassed. And the captain said to me, `Thank you, you just said what we all wanted to say.'"
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