You’ve just settled in your seat. Then it happens: a baby two rows back launches into a screaming fit. Or even worse, your seatmate starts arguing with fellow passengers.
As a traveler, you can’t control these situations, but you can control how to respond. Let’s discuss some strategies for staying calm and handling these types of disruptions during a flight.
Stay Composed and Manage Your Frustration
The first rule of surviving any in-flight annoyance is to stay calm. It’s easy to feel your patience wearing thin when a baby’s screams become the soundtrack of your flight or when a disruptive passenger is acting up.
Losing your temper will only make a bad situation worse. Here’s how to maintain your composure:
Take a deep breath
When frustration surges, take a deep breath and stay calm. Inhale for a count of four. Hold for four, exhale for four. This little breathing exercise can work wonders at 30,000 feet.
Remind yourself it’s temporary
No matter how loud the crying or how irritating the behavior is, it won’t last forever. Planes eventually land, and this, too, shall pass. Keeping perspective “I only have to endure this for a couple of hours, not eternity,” can help you cope.
Adjust your mindset
Try not to take the noise or nuisance personally. The baby isn’t crying to target you, and that unruly guy in 14B probably isn’t being obnoxious just to ruin your day.
Minimize the Disturbance
While you work on keeping calm internally, you can also take practical steps to minimize how much the crying or chaos affects you. For example:
Block out the noise
Put on your noise-canceling headphones or use earplugs or both. Play some music or a movie at a reasonable volume to help drown out the crying or commotion.
Distract your mind
Do something engaging. Focusing on in-flight entertainment activities will make you less aware of the noise.
Relax and breathe
If the ruckus continues, stay relaxed. Close your eyes, take slow breaths, or try a quick meditation; some flights even have guided meditations in the entertainment system. Calming yourself makes the disturbance feel more distant.
Change your setting
On a not-full flight, you can ask a flight attendant if it’s okay to switch to a different seat away from the noise. Sometimes, a few rows of seats are empty. Be polite and understand it might not be possible on a full flight.
Crying Baby on Board? Be Respectful and Maybe Supportive
Sitting near a crying baby can be annoying, but try to put yourself in the parent’s shoes. Avoid glaring or making snarky comments – the parent already knows their baby is loud, and your added judgment only increases their stress.
A bit of empathy helps more than you think. Sometimes, offering to play peek-a-boo for 30 seconds is all the baby needs.
Of course, if you’d instead not get directly involved, that’s okay too – just don’t add fuel to the fire by showing anger. And skip the unsolicited advice on how to calm the baby. No frazzled mom or dad needs to hear “Have you tried…” from a stranger at that moment.
You should understand that patience is your friend here. Remember that the baby isn’t crying forever. They’ll calm down or fall asleep. By staying cool and showing a little compassion, you make the best of a noisy situation and help maintain a more positive atmosphere.
Dealing with a Difficult Passenger
Stay polite at first.
If your seatmate is doing something mildly annoying, start with a gentle, polite request. A friendly “Hey, do you mind…” is enough since many people aren’t aware they’re bothering anyone.
Don’t match their anger
Resist the urge to snap back.
Being hostile will only escalate the situation. Instead, keep your voice calm and measured. Better yet, decide not to engage at all.
Think of it this way: if they’re acting like a tantrum-throwing toddler, you’ll get better results by staying cool than by throwing a tantrum of your own.
Set firm boundaries
If someone is crossing the line – say they’re being inappropriate – it’s okay to be direct. A firm tone can assert your boundaries.
This lets the person know their behavior won’t be tolerated and signals to those around you (and the crew) that there’s an issue.
Know when to disengage
Some situations aren’t worth trying to fix yourself. If the person keeps being disruptive, then it’s time to loop in flight attendants.
You can also move away by going to the restroom. The goal is to avoid a confrontation. Your safety comes first, so don’t wait too long to remove yourself and get help.
When and How to Involve Flight Attendants
If an issue starts to get out of hand, don’t hesitate to get the flight attendants involved. They’re trained to handle these situations.
For a crying baby, there’s not much a flight attendant can do to stop the noise. They might check if the parent needs anything, but you wouldn’t flag down a crew member just because a baby is crying. Flight attendants aren’t magicians — they can’t hush a baby when they know the parent is likely doing their best.
For an unruly passenger, involve the crew sooner rather than later if you feel threatened or if the person is breaking the rules or disturbing many people. You can discreetly press the call button or find a flight attendant in the galley to explain the situation out of the offender’s earshot.
Quietly tell them which passenger is causing the trouble and that you feel uncomfortable. That alone alerts the crew to the problem.
Once the flight attendants are aware of this, let them handle it and issue a warning, move the passenger, or involve the pilot or authorities in extreme cases. There’s no need for you to confront the unruly passenger further (and doing so could make things worse).
The professionals have it under control, or at least they’re responsible for dealing with it. You did the right thing by notifying them. Now, you can take a breath and let them resolve the issue.
Key Takeaways
You can’t control who you end up sitting near on a plane, but you can control your response. A crying baby or an unruly seatmate might test your nerves, but with a bit of patience and preparation, you can handle it calmly.
Remember to keep your cool and call in the flight crew when needed. By the time
your flight lands, you’ll forget it even happened.
Frequently asked questions
A baby won’t stop crying. What should I do?
Throw on noise-canceling headphones or zone out with a movie. Remember that the baby isn’t doing it intentionally, so try to stay level-headed.
Should I say something to the parents?
Only if it’s to offer help or a little sympathy, try to avoid conflict and agitating the already-stressed parents.
My seatmate won’t be quiet and is being obnoxious. Now what?
Try a polite ask: “Hey, would you mind keeping it down?” If they ignore you, then earplugs are your next move. Involve flight attendants if the problem persists.
When do I get the flight crew involved?
If someone is aggressive or making you feel unsafe, hit the call button or find an attendant. Don’t wait for it to get worse.
How do I avoid getting into this situation in the first place?
Be mentally prepared to distract yourself and expect some level of noise. This will give you greater peace of mind no matter what (or who) you end up dealing with.
