Abusing Grandma on an Aircraft

[Syndrome]

This isn't exactly a theme park SGT but it was a flight to MCO so it sorta/kinda counts. I was on SW, which has no assigned seating, and was fortunate enough to get the exit row window, with someone already in the aisle (I was flying solo). Across the aisle and one row back, somone had the window and there was a dude on the aisle spreading his stuff on the middle in a transparent attempt to scare people away. It worked with a granny who eyed that seat, then plopped down in the middle in my row. Once the door was closed and we were ready to go, SGG (Stupid Greedy Guest) moved his stuff and she realized it was open.

She asked me if I thought it would be okay for her to pop over there for takeoff as she really wanted to see her grandson's face in the row accross, since it was his very first flight (that was why she had wanted to that seat). I said, "Sure, it's Southwest, it's open seating." So she pops over but returns once we were airborn and said, "That man was really upset that I sat there." I told her not to worry about it, and she stayed in my row.

You'd think that would be the end of it, but when we all got up to wait to deplane, SGG lays into this poor old lady! He's all in her face telling her how rude she was to dare to step over him and sit in that seat. Finally I had to jump in to inform him that if he wants assigned seats, maybe Southwest isn't for him. I got the sense he didn't like a woman, and one in an Avenue Q t-shirt, jeans and flip-flops to boot, giving him a dose of reality (I had been in Chicago for a whirlwind theater weekend. So he says in his most condesceneding tone, "Well, I've probably flown a little more than you." In my sweetest little voice, I said, "Don't judge a book by its cover. I happen to own three businesses and have probably traveled more in my lifetime than you could ever hope to." (Probably quite true, since I didn't see his butt up there in a A-List line, were I was the third person to board).

His intelligent answer to that was, "Blah, blah, blah," and then he pushed in front of everyone and left the plane. The grandma thanked me, and another passenger also reassured her that she did nothing wrong and was just dealing with a jerk. Dude obviously forgot to take his meds this morning.

[SRT_GB]

I think that anyone who has an overblown sense of entitlement like this SGG while flying on Southwest needs to get their head out of the clouds (or their ass, whatever the case may be).

Just hope this clown wasn't headed to WDW.

[smart1hermione]

Poor grandma! It's sad to know that people are still living by playground ethics: grab what you can and then it's YOURS.
Unassigned seating is a great idea for a lot of reasons, but airlines seems to forget people are human (some more than others) and therefore, irrational.

[Mayonnaise]

This sounds like the same kind of jerk that lays into people for sitting on the same park bench as them, at the other end, and/or insists on a 1 empty seat buffer on either side of their party in a sold out movie theater.

And that whole "I've flown more than you," gambit he tried on you was such BS. I'm glad you were a REAL frequent flier able to shot him down. Half the time when people say that sort of thing, it's a lie anyhow. they think if they claim to be some how "more experianced" at whatever with no back up at all, you'll concede to their superior knowledge, and let me tell you, being an infrequent flier myself, that probably would have worked on me and then I'd have been all taken aback and ashamed at my lack of airline knowledge.

It's the same as when older teenagers tell younger kids lies about what being "grown up" lets them do, so the younger ones won't tattle on them for smoking in the restroom, reaching up the vending machine, or whatever. The younger kids don't know any better and believe them. Without you there, poor grandma might have doubted herself and felt embarrassed for her airline faux pa.

Good on ya telling him off.

8^)

[Syndrome]

Yeah, that's why I like keeping a low profile and not necessarily looking like you would expect for someone who spent two stinkin' years commuting by air every week or a business owner or a doctor or psychology. It makes the words taste so much sweeter when I shock the poop out of someone like him and he realizes that a line of BS won't work with me.

Heck, maybe I should told him I was a shrink, handed him one of my cards, and offered him a discounted rate for his obvious anger issues. Then I could have winked at him and said, "Anyone who attacks old ladies has some obvious issues with their mommy, eh?" :twisted:

[February]

Heck, maybe I should told him I was a shrink, handed him one of my cards, and offered him a discounted rate for his obvious anger issues. Then I could have winked at him and said, "Anyone who attacks old ladies has some obvious issues with their mommy, eh?" :twisted:

ROFL!

I got the sense he didn't like a woman, and one in an Avenue Q t-shirt, jeans and flip-flops to boot, giving him a dose of reality

"It sucks to be him. . ." *whistles* I guess he didn't have a BA in English or he'd have been able to express himself more eloquently than BLAH BLAH BLAH

ROFL

Bru
(too many musicals in my head. . .)

[ktulu]

I would have lied to him and told him I was a pilot :D:

[Syndrome]

"It sucks to be him. . ." *whistles* I guess he didn't have a BA in English or he'd have been able to express himself more eloquently than BLAH BLAH BLAH

Double ROFL! I'll bet it sucks to be him even more than to be Gary Coleman! :p: Too bad he didn't trip in the jetway so the rest of us could have indulged in a little Schadenfreude.

[Big Wallaby]

I would have lied to him and told him I was a pilot :D:

For me? It wouldn't have been lying.

Of course, the fact that I don't mean I'm an airline pilot means nothing in this case, but he doesn't need to know that.

Great response to him would have been to ask how much he's flown, then ask him how much you've flown. Let him stammer for a while before allowing him the truth. Then, if you're ahead of him, have difficulty getting to your bags, but make sure he can't get by. Hope he doesn't attack you, because if he does he goes to prison for a wonderful, all-expense-paid vacation with Bubba, who I understand might be looking for a wife.

[mechurchlady]

I would have gotten up and gotten a steward in private and explained that the dude would not let the old lady have a seat then lie and say he called her a "the B word" when she tried to sit in the seat to see her grandson. I would make up the best story line possible and get the steward to do something. and if not he would get his chair back and butt well massaged by my foot as I can make life a living hell.

Come to think of it I would take the seat next to him and make his life hell. You just got to deal with thejm and teach them that it is skinny quiet granny or fat stinky broad with problems, lol.