It’s somewhat crazy in this day and age that people have to bring this kind of thing up. But how you smell, and what you do with heavy perfumes, colognes, and perfumed lotions, can effect the people around you. Especially if you are in a confined space – like, say, an airplane!
I just got off of a 30 minute flight from AVL to ATL, cramped in a tiny CRJ200. The lady in front of me was wearing perfume. A LOT of perfume. Enough that even with the air vent turned on full blast, she was still bringing tears to my eyes.
The poor girl next to her; she had her fan going and was fanning herself. By the time we were descending, the girl was sneezing almost non-stop.
Fragrance intolerance isn’t some passing fancy; it’s real, though people tend to just shoo it away as if the sufferer is just being “sensitive”. I remember one trip, a 10 hour flight from MSP to AMS, sitting next to a woman who was bathed in perfume. Within minutes I was sniffling, and by the time we took off, I was sneezing. I literally had to stand in the back of the plane for probably 8.5 hours of that 10 hour trip, to get away from her.
People scream and shout if the person next to them on the plane is obese and takes up part of their seat. I, myself, stood in the back of an MD80 for almost 4 hours on a flight from DFW to LAS, because the man sitting next to me was so large that he took up all of his and nearly all of my seat. That’s not right. And it’s not right that I have to suffer the smells of another person throughout a flight. Sitting next to an obese person may get you a few frequent flyer miles or such, but putting up with overwhelming stench for hours on end will get you nothing.
So be kind when you fly. You’re sharing a small space with other people. You wouldn’t bring on a boom-box and blare it during a flight, would you? So why would you blare your smell? Forego your perfume or cologne, and all of the other stinky stuff for the flight. Your fellow passengers will be glad that you did.