Flying is the perfect place to witness clashing generations.
Seat tugging
When you’re getting up from your seat, maybe for a restroom break or to stretch, have you noticed this?
Lots of older passengers grab forward on the seat in front of them to lift themselves up when standing. Due to natural human aging processes related to core strength and leg muscles deteriorating with age, they transfer most or all of their body weight to the plastic seat frame in front of them when pulling themselves up.
In doing so, they abruptly yank the headrest all the way back, which startles the person seated in front of you, sends drinks flying, or makes them awake from a sound sleep.
If you’re a younger passenger who makes a conscious effort not to touch other passengers’ seat armrests, recliners, or trays, these continuous kinetic explosions can register as collective ignorance.
Cabin royalty
There seems to be a large disconnect between generations when it comes to understanding what a flight attendant’s primary job duty and authority is while onboard an aircraft.
Older generations, particularly Baby Boomers, often see flight attendants through a dated, almost 1970s hospitality framework, resorting to behaviors like snapping fingers, thrusting trash their way, or demanding custom drink concoctions.
Federal Aviation Administration regulations and policies require passengers to know that flight attendants are there first and foremost as professionals trained to lead passengers through an emergency evacuation and onboard medical emergency.
Gen Z-ers understand power dynamics and are highly empathetic to workers being disrespected, so seeing someone yell at flight attendants like mindless robots makes them cringe.
Traffic jam
When they get off of a busy airport terminal escalator or swift moving horizontal conveyor belt, many senior citizens will come to an instantaneous stop to rearrange their luggage, read an airport directory map, or stand by for another passenger.
By halting abruptly in such a congested spot, they create a static blockage of passengers trapped on the moving belt with no escape route.
This sudden stop sends shockwaves through the surrounding crowd, forcing rushed travelers to swerve, stumble over bags, or make physical contact. And these speedier commuters are easily frustrated by this sudden pause in movement.
The lift
Please do not board a plane with an overweight rolling carry-on suitcase that is obviously too big for you to lift up yourself and then hesitate to put it in the overhead bin.
Rather than checking the bag before boarding like normal passengers, some elderly travelers expect someone, usually the passenger sitting next to them or a flight attendant to lift it up for them.
When younger passengers decline the request, elderly travelers love to complain about how rude millennials are or how there’s no respect these days.
The switch
Is there anything more common than boarding a flight to find some elderly couple picking on you because you were smart enough to pick your own seat when you booked, and they did not?
Now, instead of sitting where they messed up and didn’t book early enough to choose, they feel the world owes them and you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They decide to bully you into giving up your aisle/window/premium seat that you rightfully earned by checking in early or paying extra for.
When you, as a young person, stand up for yourself and your right to sit where you paid to sit, they start guilt-tripping you in front of everyone or flipping out.
Loud flight screens
Rather than bothering with headphones, one of the most common (and highly documented) pet peeves among senior citizens is listening to films, mobile games or watching video clips on maximum volume during the flight.
Internal flight trend reports from international airlines have found that passengers not minding “digital quarters” is now at the top of millennial travelers’ flight complaints.
A lot of Baby Boomers never had earbuds constantly in their ears growing up, so they often don’t realize how much their amplified audio bleeds into the tight confines of airplane cabins.
For Gen Z, who see their noise-canceling headphones as essential gear, this ambient sound feels like a direct affront.
Aisle rush
Right after the airplane lands, the wheels touch the ground, and the flight attendants turn off the seatbelt sign, there will always be those passengers, usually among the elderly, who will bolt up and take up position at the front of the aisle as soon as possible.
They push forward instead of patiently waiting row by row.
You’ll find them creeping half a row in front cutting people off to their seats just to get off half a minute sooner. It really doesn’t save that much time though.
Over-asking
Once upon a time, striking up a conversation with the person next to you on a flight was just seen as good manners. For some older people, it’s still just idle chitchat.
The problem is that small talk can quickly escalate into an interview. For some, the questions are just a springboard to talk about themselves.
Most Millennials and Gen Z don’t socialize on flights like older folks do. They just want to put on their headphones, watch a show, and unwind in peace. Questions about work, your relationship, or hometown might feel like interrogation.
Some people don’t take the hint if you put your headphones back on or give short responses either.
Folder panic
You’d think with most of us storing our boarding passes, hotel reservations and check-ins electronically on our smartphones these days, the big travel folders would’ve gone extinct long ago. But many seasoned travelers prefer having hard copies of their documents.
I frequently see older travelers rifling through a large folder full of confirmations, itineraries and paper copies of documents at airport security checkpoints and boarding gates. When they can’t locate the document they’re looking for immediately, the entire line behind them is forced to wait.
For younger travelers who can plan their entire trip using only their phone, it can seem antiquated to watch someone walking around with a binder full of documents just for one journey.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
