As a conscientious world traveler with an American passport, I take exception to the arrogant belief that Americans are rude travelers while enlightened Europeans are models of politeness and civility. My Finnair flight from Helsinki to New York demonstrates exactly why. The truth is a bit more complicated.

My Rude Seatmate On Finnair

You can read my full business class review here, but there was one element of the flight I left out of the review: my seatmate.

Shortly after settling in–before we even took off–I noticed my seatmate behind me had wedged into my personal space beside my seat.

I suppose I could have thanked him for not putting his socks or bare feet up, but instead wrapping his foot in a blanket.

How do I know he was European? He spoke Finnish to the flight attendants and had a red passport (EU passports are primarily burgundy due to a decision by member states to adopt a common passport design, including the color, as a symbol of European identity and unity).

Picture the seat like this:

Candidly, wedging your foot like that seems contorted and uncomfortable. It was a tall guy, but it made no sense to me why he put his feet up instead of in the fairly large footwell under the monitor.

I solved the issues by leaning my elbow on his foot. He quickly got the message and did not try that again during the flight…

On “Ugly Americans” Abroad…

I’m reminded of the cliche that Americans are horrible when overseas…a bunch of fat people in cheap sneakers who order hamburgers and French Fries and are loud and obnoxious.

Of course, some travelers fit that description…but I’m so sick of the idea that most American tourists are like this. Take your bigotry and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.

It’s sort like the trend of movies and TV shows over the last three decades where the father is the butt of every joke; the dunce who has to rely on his wife or kids to get anything done. I find that destructive and counterproductive.

In the same vein, I also loathe the “ugly American” cliche. I teach my kids to 1.) treat people the way you want to be treated, 2.) be respectful to others and 3.) that kindness goes a long way. Most importantly, I try to model this behavior for then when we travel together. Many Americans do the same…and many Europeans are just as rude and nasty as Americans are accused of being.

There’s no need to hurl blanket accusations against people…

CONCLUSION

My rude Finnish seatmate is a perfect example of how foolish it is to say that Americans are rude and Europeans are not. The truth is far more complicated and there are polite and rude people from every nation and every walk of life…even Japan.

While I do not deny that cliches exist for a reason, sometimes they take on a life of their own that does not reflect reality. I wish the “ugly American” cliche would be put out to pasture…