Flying the Crazy Sky's
Recently I had cause to take an unplanned trip - so I had a last minute flight booked with a one-way ticket. I knew I'd be red-flagged for that, so I wasn't at all surprised when I got selected for a special search. As the girl waved her wand all around it beeped on my butt....and she said something to the effect of "Our sensor has gone off in a sensitive area so I will be patting the area down with the back of my hand." So I guess my rear end is a high sensitive area. Then the fella meticulously went through all of my carry-on belongings...even going as far as taking every item out and opening things like my wallet and planner up. As much as I was standing there with a semi-grumpy look on my face, I was impressed with just how careful bag-searching-guy was at being nice to my belongings.....something I have rarely seen before.
So I thought my red-flagged search would be the limit of my excitement for this flight, but, I was wrong. As I approached my window seat in the plane I was pleased to see that there were only 2 seats in my row. I got situated, but then decided to go use the restroom. When I came back there was a big guy sitting in the aisle. After some people passed I asked him if I could get in. Sure he probably had just sat down and it's never convenient to get back up, but he turned and gave me an ice cold look as he got up. Alrighty then. So I moved over to my seat thinking that it was much more pleasant for him to get out than for me to attempt to climb over him, but perhaps he disagreed. Whatever. We both kept to ourselves as we waited for takeoff, but at one point we made eye-contact. An unplanned moment of eye-contact with your seat-mate usually elicits half-smiles or, for the non-smiling types, at least awkward nods of acknowledgement. Not from Mr. Aisle Seat. No, Mr. Aisle Seat greeted me with another ice-cold stare laced with some sort of anger that I had no idea what I had done to deserve. I made a mental note not to make eye-contact again and lowered down the armrest inbetween us, which I thought I had already done, but I guess not. Big Mistake!
Mr. Aisle Seat: "WOULD YOU STOP PUTTING THAT DOWN!!!!!" This was said with something that was about as close as you can get to a yell without (I think) actually being one. And, as I had come to realize is to be expected from Mr. Aisle Seat, it was delivered with the frigid stare and the angry eyes.
Now keep in mind, I thought I had put the fricking armrest down (because if you had been greeted by icy-cold, angry stares you would want a divider between you too), but when it was up again I figured I had simply forgot.
I said something to the effect of "I'm sorry I thought...."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "I HAVE PUT THIS UP THREE TIMES AND YOU KEEP PUTTING IT DOWN."
Shababbler: "I didn't realize you had put it up."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "EVERY TIME I PUT IT UP YOU PUT IT RIGHT BACK DOWN!"
It has been a bit more than a week or so since this happened, so the words are probably not exact, but the anger coming from him was insane to me. I don't scare easily, but I knew for damned sure I didn't want to sit next to the big, angry man for a full 2 hours. People had been switching seats, so I reached up and pressed for the attendant to come over. She came right over and I said "This man was just very rude and very hostile to me and if possible can you please move me to another seat."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "SHE STARTED IT! EVERY TIME I PUT THIS UP SHE PUTS IT DOWN AGAIN - I WAY 275 POUNDS AND I CAN'T HAVE IT DOWN."
Shababbler: "I didn't realize you had put it up!"
Mr. Aisle Seat: "YES YOU DID!!!!"
At this point the flight attendant told me to follow her and she took me up front and had me stand in the little cubby area where they stand. I told her I didn't realize he had been putting it up and she told me that he was being ridiculous and that it's my right to have it down anyways. I told her if he would have asked me to leave it up, I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have done it. She was very reassuring and went to try to see if there were any other seats.
All the while she was off and about she would come back and talk to me, and she told me every time she walked by Mr. Aisle Seat he would hand her over one of his vicious stares just daring her to challenge him. Unfortunately, the flight was full because some woman was being very bitchy about giving up the non-paid for seat she had her baby's carrier (and the baby in). Even though I was standing in the cubby, I heard the attendants talking and there was talk about booting Mr. Aisle Seat to another flight! Holy crap! I didn't want this mountain of anger to be displaced! I just wanted to be far away from him!!
I made sure to tell one of the flight attendants near me that he didn't threaten me, and she said they knew that. The original flight attendant came back in and I told her I hadn't wanted him booted, and that I'd even take a middle seat, but I just didn't want to be next to him. She told me that they didn't want to fly with a hostile passenger. As much as it probably would have been the noble thing to offer to take a later flight, my ride was already scheduled, so I couldn't. And as much as I could have said "Oh nevermind" - I don't scare easily, but this guy freaked me out and my pulse was racing.
They drew the curtain where I was and pulled him off to talk to him - some of which I could hear, but not all. He was NOT HAPPY. They started talking about having him take a later flight and he was pissed (understandably so). He was saying things like "I don't like the girl - but if I have to compromise I'll leave the damned armrest down!" Etc., etc., etc. He refused for a while to take the later flight, but finally realized he had no choice. In the meantime they were announcing over the speaker that it would just be a couple of minutes while they resolved a seating issue." Mr. Aisle Seat didn't know where I was, and there were attendants blocking where I was, but if he had seen me, at the very least I think he would have been analyzing every last detail for when we met again in the future.
All of the drama was resolved and Mr. Aisle Seat was given the boot. I walked back to my seating area, feeling the stares of dozens of disgruntled passengers whose flight had just been delayed by 15 minutes because of me. Needless to say I avoided eye-contact. I think the people near me hear his explosion and certainly wouldn't have wanted to sit next to the mountain of anger either, but oh well. When I arrived on the other end I made sure to remove some identifying details just in case Mr. Aisle Seat had a ride waiting for him who he had asked to find me.
So - much more excitement and drama then I'm used to in a flight. Oh - and ironically, because another man had been displaced several times due to the complication's caused by the woman's baby carriage, he got my seat and I was stuck in Mr. Aisle Seat's spot.
So I thought my red-flagged search would be the limit of my excitement for this flight, but, I was wrong. As I approached my window seat in the plane I was pleased to see that there were only 2 seats in my row. I got situated, but then decided to go use the restroom. When I came back there was a big guy sitting in the aisle. After some people passed I asked him if I could get in. Sure he probably had just sat down and it's never convenient to get back up, but he turned and gave me an ice cold look as he got up. Alrighty then. So I moved over to my seat thinking that it was much more pleasant for him to get out than for me to attempt to climb over him, but perhaps he disagreed. Whatever. We both kept to ourselves as we waited for takeoff, but at one point we made eye-contact. An unplanned moment of eye-contact with your seat-mate usually elicits half-smiles or, for the non-smiling types, at least awkward nods of acknowledgement. Not from Mr. Aisle Seat. No, Mr. Aisle Seat greeted me with another ice-cold stare laced with some sort of anger that I had no idea what I had done to deserve. I made a mental note not to make eye-contact again and lowered down the armrest inbetween us, which I thought I had already done, but I guess not. Big Mistake!
Mr. Aisle Seat: "WOULD YOU STOP PUTTING THAT DOWN!!!!!" This was said with something that was about as close as you can get to a yell without (I think) actually being one. And, as I had come to realize is to be expected from Mr. Aisle Seat, it was delivered with the frigid stare and the angry eyes.
Now keep in mind, I thought I had put the fricking armrest down (because if you had been greeted by icy-cold, angry stares you would want a divider between you too), but when it was up again I figured I had simply forgot.
I said something to the effect of "I'm sorry I thought...."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "I HAVE PUT THIS UP THREE TIMES AND YOU KEEP PUTTING IT DOWN."
Shababbler: "I didn't realize you had put it up."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "EVERY TIME I PUT IT UP YOU PUT IT RIGHT BACK DOWN!"
It has been a bit more than a week or so since this happened, so the words are probably not exact, but the anger coming from him was insane to me. I don't scare easily, but I knew for damned sure I didn't want to sit next to the big, angry man for a full 2 hours. People had been switching seats, so I reached up and pressed for the attendant to come over. She came right over and I said "This man was just very rude and very hostile to me and if possible can you please move me to another seat."
Mr. Aisle Seat: "SHE STARTED IT! EVERY TIME I PUT THIS UP SHE PUTS IT DOWN AGAIN - I WAY 275 POUNDS AND I CAN'T HAVE IT DOWN."
Shababbler: "I didn't realize you had put it up!"
Mr. Aisle Seat: "YES YOU DID!!!!"
At this point the flight attendant told me to follow her and she took me up front and had me stand in the little cubby area where they stand. I told her I didn't realize he had been putting it up and she told me that he was being ridiculous and that it's my right to have it down anyways. I told her if he would have asked me to leave it up, I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have done it. She was very reassuring and went to try to see if there were any other seats.
All the while she was off and about she would come back and talk to me, and she told me every time she walked by Mr. Aisle Seat he would hand her over one of his vicious stares just daring her to challenge him. Unfortunately, the flight was full because some woman was being very bitchy about giving up the non-paid for seat she had her baby's carrier (and the baby in). Even though I was standing in the cubby, I heard the attendants talking and there was talk about booting Mr. Aisle Seat to another flight! Holy crap! I didn't want this mountain of anger to be displaced! I just wanted to be far away from him!!
I made sure to tell one of the flight attendants near me that he didn't threaten me, and she said they knew that. The original flight attendant came back in and I told her I hadn't wanted him booted, and that I'd even take a middle seat, but I just didn't want to be next to him. She told me that they didn't want to fly with a hostile passenger. As much as it probably would have been the noble thing to offer to take a later flight, my ride was already scheduled, so I couldn't. And as much as I could have said "Oh nevermind" - I don't scare easily, but this guy freaked me out and my pulse was racing.
They drew the curtain where I was and pulled him off to talk to him - some of which I could hear, but not all. He was NOT HAPPY. They started talking about having him take a later flight and he was pissed (understandably so). He was saying things like "I don't like the girl - but if I have to compromise I'll leave the damned armrest down!" Etc., etc., etc. He refused for a while to take the later flight, but finally realized he had no choice. In the meantime they were announcing over the speaker that it would just be a couple of minutes while they resolved a seating issue." Mr. Aisle Seat didn't know where I was, and there were attendants blocking where I was, but if he had seen me, at the very least I think he would have been analyzing every last detail for when we met again in the future.
All of the drama was resolved and Mr. Aisle Seat was given the boot. I walked back to my seating area, feeling the stares of dozens of disgruntled passengers whose flight had just been delayed by 15 minutes because of me. Needless to say I avoided eye-contact. I think the people near me hear his explosion and certainly wouldn't have wanted to sit next to the mountain of anger either, but oh well. When I arrived on the other end I made sure to remove some identifying details just in case Mr. Aisle Seat had a ride waiting for him who he had asked to find me.
So - much more excitement and drama then I'm used to in a flight. Oh - and ironically, because another man had been displaced several times due to the complication's caused by the woman's baby carriage, he got my seat and I was stuck in Mr. Aisle Seat's spot.
posted by The Shababbler at 11:29 AM
9 Comments:
Serves the bastard right. If he gets booted from more flights in the future maybe this will modify his behavior. Bastard deserves to be on the "no fly list" and I hope he gets red flagged for every damn trip and loses his travel-related job. There are far nicer and more cuteous people in the world who derserve cool-travel-related jobs. Bastard probably treats taxi drivers, hotel clerks and wait staff the same way too.
i'm still kinda fuming from reading that post. "Because I'm 275 lbs" man I never thought being overweight like me got one permission to act like an ass or get special treatment. Get out of my way I'm Fat! Roar. Let me move to the head of the line I'm Fat! Grrrrr. Waiter, bring me my food pronto I'm wasting away over here.
The flight attendant was right, you have the right to put that arm rest down so Mr. Fatass doesn't spill over onto YOUR seat that you paid for. If he needs room, he needs to buy another seat. It wasn't your fault. Hopefully that bastard will learn a lesson. Probably won't. Give his description to the stork of crap.
I here you on this one Ed. No amount of weight and size should justify a nasty attitude like that. Dude definitely need his ass kicked off the plane. Dude should even realize that his attitude is the reason why.
I was the one who picked up the Shababbler, she was shaken to say the least. Personally I think the guy has anger issues. My comment to the Shababbler was "if he's that big and wants that much space he needs to purchase two seats next time".
That guy's probably going to write a nasty letter too. Maybe we should write the airline thanking them for removing such a dangerous and disruptive passenger.
Who knows how worse he would have gotten later in the flight. Sounds like they didn't want to deal with him either. They've seen his kind before and know what those types can do.
What can I say, your story touched the traveller inside me. :)
Awwww....thanks everyone for the comments - I feel so protected =-). I'm getting ready for the return leg coming up, so I'm hoping not to bump into him again!
And as for the last post, thanks for the link, but it's not really my thing.
That link is all the latest rage. It's called comment spam. Damn bastards. If someone can send you crap to go to a website or something, they'll find a way.
Ya - quite annoying.
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