My favorite is when I find gum smushed in the middle of a a/c emergency safety card!
Agreed. I couldn't help but think *what the hell is wrong with people???* when I cleaned aircraft.
At the end of my shift when I worked for Air State* and I found all kinds of lovely things. A lot of the time, it was just downright disgusting.
Honestly, I think if you plotted the amount of disgusting behaviour and overlaid the ticket price versus average personal income, you'd find that there's a correlation. I think as ticket prices have gotten cheaper against personal income, more and more people get access, and with more people comes the higher risk of disgusting behaviour. That's all added to the fact that if you can easily afford it and it's nothing special, you won't respect it as much.
I'm not talking about inter-year variation of ticket price versus income. I'm talking about the decline over time in which airline travel went from high-class privilege to glamourised motor coach. A while ago, passengers dressed up to fly, not just non-revs and their guests.
I understand, too, that no matter what there will be some out-of-the-norm behaviour, related on my theory. It's a theory. It isn't perfect and I'm not saying it applies in all circumstances. Rich people flying on an expensive first class ticket can also be disgusting. I just think it's less likely in most cases.
(Yes, I am vaguely insinuating that rich people tend to be less likely to be disgusting. No, I am not trying to insinuate that all people who aren't rich are always disgusting slobs.)
*Name changed to avoid the ridiculous company from Googling its name (again) and freaking out (again).