Watch This Video of a Passenger Giving Her Seatmate an Inflight Pedicure
Here at TPG, we aren't strangers to the unexpected, weird and outright gross things people do on airplanes. For those of us who are a bit squeamish when it comes to feet, be warned: What we're about to tell you might be unsettling.
Lynee Ruiz was on a flight from Denver (DIA) to Milwaukee (MKE) with her husband, Jay, when she noticed the passenger sitting diagonally behind her delivering a full-on pedicure to her barefooted travel companion. Seriously. If the description isn't enough, Ruiz captured the entire thing on video for our viewing displeasure.
The woman was shown filing her seatmate's toenails, uttering, "This one's bad. This one needs attention."
According to an Inside Edition interview with Jay and Lynee Ruiz, the activity garnered quite a lot of attention from other travelers onboard the plane and made others understandably "uncomfortable."
Following the pedicure, Ruiz and her husband spotted the woman "crawling around on all fours looking for a sock." The two travelers in question also fed each other pungent burritos "airplane style." Totally normal, right?
Jay Ruiz had braced himself for a long flight after seeing the, er, nail technician at work. But eventually, he decided to simply "enjoy the show." After all, these travelers seemed committed to providing a variety of entertainment.
While there aren't any written rules explicitly banning passengers from giving or receiving onboard pedicures (or manicures, for that matter), varnishing your nails in flight could get you in trouble with flight attendants. And it's definitely not polite.
According to TPG readers, inflight mani-pedis are among the nastiest habits. Elizabeth N. once sat next to someone who kept going at her nails with a file: "I kept thinking about how the shavings were circulating through the air," she said. "Gross."
And bare naked feet are a nightmare for many travelers. Recently, Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White shared an equally cringe-worthy experience during a flight to Japan earlier this month, where the passenger behind him rested their shoeless, sockless feet atop his first-class seat.
We get it: When you're on an airplane, you should feel comfortable. But generally speaking, using your seatmate's lap for an inflight pedicure is just rude. Though, if you don't have to sit next to it, also pretty funny.
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