Row 42, Seat D - Airline from Hell (Part 2 of 2)

Submitted by Bloggeek

Well, I do believe I’ve had ample time to calm down from my horrendous experience. In fact, I am on my best behavior as I am, again, out of town, left to the mercy of the airline Gods to get me home safely. My trip yesterday was a breath of fresh air when I consider how horrible that infamous ride with Delta (oops, I said it again) to Vegas was.

The way home from Vegas began without incident. I was fed, on-time, and was not hyperventilating from having to sprint 400m due to any fault on my part. In fact, as I recall, the flight itself was just fabulous; it was those few moment stuck on the tarmac that really bit the big one…

I got on the plane and took my seat next to a few teenagers. As I sat down, this young blond struggling to “stuff” her bag in the overhead storage compartment caught my eye. Now, you’ll note that she caught my eye, however more poignant was the elderly lady with an accent yelling to the blond from her seat that caught my ear. Now I certainly heard the elderly woman yelling, and I could tell others that were seated could hear as they turned their heads to see why the heck she was yelling, but for whatever reason, the young blond did not. This was the jump-start to my flight back home.

The ederly woman began to holler for the flight attendant that this young-whipper snapper was “stuffing” her bag with great force in to the compartment, sure to crush the fragile items the elderly lady had in her bag. The flight attendant asked the blond to use another bin, but it was too late. The elderly lady was quite put-off that items were potentially broken and felt it was entirely acceptable to let the rest of the plane know of her displeasure. Honestly, I think the lady was just drunk. It’s not like the blond raised her leg and began kick-stuffing her bag, but your guess is as good as mine.

So that was cool and over in my mind. I tuned the elderly lady out. Down the aisle, came two young “ladies”, somewhere in their late twenties. What was completely amusing about the pair, is the ridiculously large carry-on luggage they felt it quite appropriate to bring on to the plane; probably in an effort to avoid the checked baggage fee most airlines have seemed to adopt recently. What was equally ridiculous is that they made it all the way on to the plane without anyone suggesting their luggage was entirely too large. Wow, did they ever hold up traffic. Again, the flight attendant came to assist. I’m not sure, but I guess she stowed the luggage in some top secret location known only to God and flight attendants and the two took their seats somewhere behind me, mouthing off how displeased they were with the lack of adequate storage on the plane these days.

Then boarded about 6 or 7 young men from Panama…I know cuz I asked the cute one… They laughed and spoke loudly in Spanish and I strained to understand them on the sly. As they were getting ready to stow their, and might I add VERY LARGE, carryon luggage, in an innocent yet totally inappropriate move, they began removing some of the other passengers bags to probably reorganize. Oh Lord.. An elderly man that was sitting next to the blond popped up and began screaming in a language I did not recognize what I can only imagine were expletives on why the heck these young guys were touching his bags. The young Panama guys just kind of stared at him which seemed to infuriate him even more. Back and forth, “Blah, blah, blah”. Translation, “What the Sam H- do you think you are doing, you little Sh!t?” “I’m sorry Sir, I did not know.” “Well you most certainly better put my bag back before…” “Sir, look, I said I was sorry, don’t talk to me like that…” “Blah, blah, blah” some more. It would have almost been amusing if I weren’t sitting directly underneath two grown men fixin to fight over location and relocation of some freaken luggage.

Great! At this point the drama seemed over;

the blond nursing her pride from the embarrassment of getting publicly flogged,
the elderly woman was tippin’ a few extra back for the ride (I’m guessing),
the two young ladies sat in the back, actually quiet, but not after a disgusting complaint about “these damn immigrants”
the elderly guy sat seething staring out his window with his arms crossed, and
the Panama guys, joked, mocked, and had some young studly fun.

At this point, the “cute one” was engaged in a serious texting session on his cellphone. By this time the announcement had already been made that the cabin doors were shut, cellphones should be off, and we were moving in to position on the tarmac. The poor flight attendant that dealt with all the drama this one flight had already offered, did a quick check and stopped at the cute one’s row. She was quite exasperated that the guy was still texting. I guess this was the straw that broke her back because she stood there to ensure he was turning his device off. I guess she could tell he didn’t and his response was, “I put it in airplane mode, what’s the deal?” “No, sir, your device must be off for take off. You have already given us a hard time, I’ve had about enough of you.” What I don’t understand, is he why continued to argue, but then in a completely sudden move, she exclaimed, “I have enough of you. I want you off the plane.” Now forgive me, I’ve NEVER heard anyone say this to a passenger and I felt my ears perk up at this new drama that promises to be most interesting. I dared not have the heart to suggest she was overreacting. She stormed to the back of the plane and I heard her on the phone.

The plane actually STOPPED!! I couldn’t believe it! At this time, the CAPTAIN, looking quite dapper in uniform, travelled to the back and asked the cute one to kindly gather his things and follow him. Okay, well I don’t know how you can argue with that. That must have totally eclipsed the blonde’s embarrassment by far!

Following an announcement stressing the importance of ALL equipment being in the ‘OFF” position, the guy did get to return to his seat and was VERY quiet for the rest of the trip.

All in all, this lone experience has not deterred me from flying, that would be silly. I will say that Delta is on the top of a very short list of “what-nots” until they can get their customer-service-crowd-control-make-me-feel-like-a-valued-customer act together again. Thankfully, I’m flying American Airlines back home in a few days…

If you missed it, Row 42, Seat D – Airline from Hell (Part 1 of 2).

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