Rather Enraging Flying Experience
We made it to California, praise God, but not without some mishaps. We got in 3 hours late around midnight PST or 3am EST. We got off to a late start in Boston sitting out on the tarmac for an hour. Fortunately, our plane from Boston was also taking us to San Jose after a brief stopover in Denver so we didn't miss our connection. Unfortunately, we sat out on the tarmac in Denver for an hour and a half while they tried to bolt down a row of seats that were loose and then waited for the plane to be deiced. The following is a reconstructed conversation that occured while the seat belt sign was on and we were waiting on the tarmac in Denver, there's "man" and "flight attendant":
FA: Sir, you need to sit down and wear you seat belt. The seat belt sign is on, you may not stand up and go to the bathroom.
Man: I waited two hours in Denver, you have to be nice to me. Speak nicely to me.
FA: I'm sorry sir, you have to sit down and wear you seat belt.
Man: You're not being nice to the customer, I'm a customer and you're not speaking nicely to me.
FA: Sir, you need to sit down.
Man: You need to be nice to the customer.
FA: OK, you have two options, either sit down and be quiet or we'll pull into the gate and you can get off.
Man: You're not being nice, the customer is always right.
FA: I'm going to repeat myself, you have two options, sit down or get off.
Man: You're not nice to me.
FA: Sit down or get off.
Man: [finally sits down and shuts up]
Oh my goodness, I'm not one to become easily enraged and curse, but I wanted to scream, "Shut the f*&$ up, do you not understand that she'll throw you off the plane and you'll delay the rest of us for another hour because you won't f*&$ing shut up and sit down." Wisely, I rolled my eyes and kept silent since I didn't want to get flagged by the flight attendant for having "air rage." Later, in flight, his cell phone rang twice and he was talking on it while we were flying. I fantasized about kicking him in the shins when we got off in San Jose and running away, but I can't run very fast and I was kinda scared of the scofflaw even though he was a slight Asian man and we've established that my husband Adam is six one and a"really dirty blond." If he was capable of keeping his phone on in flight and standing up when the seat belt sign was on, what else was he capable of doing? I shudder at the thought, but fortunately, we're now in the great state of California. Hooray!
2 comments:
Not that the man's behavior was appropriate (I would have felt the same way in your situation), but I don't think the airline was particularly justified in keeping the seat belt sign illuminated. Reducing the workload of the flight attendents is not a good reason.
It's also widely aknowledged that there's no safety reason for not allowing cell phone use in-flight (takeoff and landing are more ambiguous). Phone use is restricted in-flight because it creates a certain amount of trouble for the terrestrial cell phone network.
You've got a good point CAD Cowboy. It was more the thought that he was going to refuse to sit down and the rest of the plane who'd been patiently obedient would possibly have to wait for him to get off the plane and be further delayed that was annoying.
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