Inside Passenger Shaming, the notorious Instagram of bad travel behaviour

When it comes to air travel, your fellow passengers can make or break the experience.Before 2020, travellers clashed over reclined seats, in-flight grooming and public intoxication. Then the pandemic ushered in a new genre of conflict.While we have been still dealing with the standard complaints of flying (like people going barefoot on planes), we have also been seeing passengers fighting over coronavirus issues (such as mask protocols).In the front row of the action – virtually speaking – is former flight attendant Shawn Kathleen, creator of the popular Instagram account Passenger Shaming. Even during a year when the number of people flying dropped to historic lows, Kathleen never stopped receiving videos of travellers behaving badly on planes.We caught up with Kathleen – who is launching a podcast this year – to hear what it’s been like to monitor the tirades and bizarre moments captured on phones throughout the pandemic.How has the content that people have been sending you changed since coronavirus started? It’s two things: In general, it’s been more physically and verbally violent. It’s people losing [it] on planes. Before, there was all of the hassle of flying, like you have to park, then go through TSA, et cetera, and now we’re adding…
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