It is already day 7 of our 10 days of passengers we love to hate lineup.

Today's annoying passenger is a relatively new phenomenon, and has been slowly going from bad to worse in recent years.

I'm of course talking about people who never learned basic phone etiquette.

As a geek, I should be more immune to these annoyances, but there is something about the loud Bluetooth headset wearing passenger that makes me want to punch them in the face.

For some unknown reason, as soon as some people clip their headset to their head, they turn into really annoying people. Even people who are normally quite quiet think the airport is the perfect place to make random loud calls to people they'd normally not talk to.

I have a theory about it - these people think that talking on the phone at the airport makes them look important. They see "real" business travelers around them, and have the urge to try and blend in and look impressive.

Well, I have news for you - if you walk through the airport wearing your headset and talking loud enough for the entire terminal to hear you - you are a dork.

The worst offenders are people who don't hang up and remove the damn headset when they are talking to someone else. Ever been behind one of these jerks? They are in line waiting for a ticket agent, and kill some time on the phone with their stock broker/money manager/bookie/therapist. Then when it is finally their turn, they think it is cool to continue their phone call and try to have the ticket agent help them.

I love technology, and I think the Bluetooth headset is a great tool, but unless you are expecting phone calls 24/7, just put the headset away. Really, you are not that important.

Filed under: Airlines, Airports