I guess I’m the only one frustrated by people who stand in the aisle while stowing their bags in the overheads instead of stepping out of the aisle to let others pass while doing it. I know this only affects a small part of the flight, but I bet it cumulatively adds 10 minutes to every boarding time. But there’s certainly nothing wrong with using your share of the overhead space instead of checking bags. That’s what it’s there for, and it gets you in and out of the airport much more quickly. If it fits in the sizer it’s fair game.

I think public nursing is fine so long as it’s done beneath a blanket. The benefits to the child of breast milk are so overwhelming that it should be encouraged.

The bottom line is, you spilled your soda on a passenger, he asked (understandably) to have you moved back to your assigned seat. (Yeah, stinks that you got a middle seat – but so did most of the OTHER passengers on that plane…you do not deserve one any more than anyone else.) This left an empty seat beside the young man, which he (understandably) spread into. This ticked you off, so you made some kind of mean-spirited comment suggesting he’s a terrorist, loud enough for others to hear you. Somebody reported you, and you were reprimanded. The truth is you have no idea who reported you. It may very well have been the passenger you muttered to! I know I wouldn’t appreciate some mean-spirited, ticked-off lady talking about terrorists on MY plane, ESPECIALLY only a year away from 9/11. It was a rash, foolish thing to do, and you deserved every bit of that reprimand.

You keep talking about this as if the young man was, in fact, a member of Al Qaida. You seem to forget that you have no idea whatsoever what he was…what race, what nationality, what religion. He was just a young man who appeared, to you, to be “iddle Eastern”. Because you were jealous of him having an open seat next to him (which you could have kept, until you spilled your soda on him – accidentally or not, you did it, and those were the consequences), you chose to bring up the topic of terrorists, on an airplane, in flight. This was foolish, shameful and, yes, RACIST. You branded him a terrorist because of his apparent race.

You wrote (in caps, which I will spare everyone from): “Most people in the iddle East probably hate them to.”

Hate who? Themselves? Or do you mean terrorists? Or Al Qaida? So you actually think the poor, spilled-upon young man WAS a terrorist? And you know this…how???

You did say one intelligent thing in your last post: “I never should have mumbled that to a passenger inline that he overheard”. That is right. The vast majority of travelers these days know full well that you don’t toss around comments like that on an airplane, or even in an airport. You are likely to get slammed to the floor and handcuffed by the nearest air marshall.

In any case, I’m very happy to hear that you learned to take a few books and ignore other people. I’m sure this makes for far more pleasant travel for your fellow passengers.

This whole shameful episode, which has now been dissected ad infinitum, does serve as an excellent lesson for other air travelers – one that, fortunately, most people already know just through basic common sense, but a few people such as yourself might need reminding: in this day and age, DO NOT MENTION TERRORISTS, BOMBS, HIJACKINGS, AL QAIDA, or any other similar topics while traveling by air.

I doubt the ‘Middle Eastern’ man called the police from the plane to complain about whatever Barbie said. Most likely, he reported her comment to an FA, who decided (for whatever reason) to report it to law enforcement.

I’d much rather people feed their babies than allow them to scream. That said, just because something is a natural, beneficial bodily function doesn’t automatically mean that it’s appropriate in a public setting. People are certainly entitled to their own opinions on that subject.