Funny F/C story ORD/SFO - Better than IFE

[jimmc66]

The gate check bag thread reminded me I hadn't related a story from my last ORD/SFO flight (connecting to SYD).

Sitting in F during the load in ORD, two GenY girls with tattoos and studs boarded and started down the aisle thru first. Both with rather large full-size bags as carry-on.

One said to her friend "I'm not lugging this down to row 37" and chucked it into the first class bin. An F passenger and 1K said to her "those bins are for those sitting here".

She threw a couple expletives his way and continued on.

A few minutes later, the G/A announced that late arriving passengers would need to gate check their bag. At the same time, two missing F passengers showed up to find the bin full. The 1K who got dissed by the GenY said "I'll take care of it", and took the girls bag to the G/A to be gate checked.

He pocketed the gate check ticket. We both had a chuckle about it.

We both sat outside at the gate on arrival at SFO, the girl came off last, ranting and screaming at the G/A that her bag "had to be somewhere". The gate was adjacent to the far end Peets, where two SFO PD were sitting with their bicycles. After hearing the screaming, they had a stern chat to the girl before letting her storm off to see if her bag was on the carousel.

It's the best IFE I've had in a while.



copyright 2009

[dearbee]

haha! that's awesome.

[woodway]

Originally Posted by jimmc66

We both sat outside at the gate on arrival at SFO, the girl came off last, ranting at the G/A that her bag "had to be somewhere". The gate was adjacent to the far end Peets, where two SFO PD were sitting with their bicycles. They had a stern chat to the girl before letting her storm off to see if her bag was on the carousel.

Why would the SF PD care about which overhead bin a girl puts her bag into?

[CactusFlier]

That is interesting! I feel bad since she probably will never figure out that her bag was gate checked and is at baggage claim...BUT she deserved it!

1) have respect for other pax's space 2) when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, dont curse at someone! admit your wrong and your caught! 3) just don't do stuff like that to begin with! I guess it took the 1k to teach her a lesson her parents should of taught her years ago

I get to fly on peak Thanksiving travel times in a few days, hopefully I will get some "IFE" but not too much! haha

Also, i think that the 1k had some guts, probably a little too much (perhaps drop the tag in the galley on the way our or something so it could be found), but cant just let people walk all over you.

[6rugrats]

Thanks for sharing. Sometimes the other passengers are the most entertaining part of travel.

[goalie]

Originally Posted by 6rugrats

Thanks for sharing. Sometimes the other passengers are the most entertaining part of travel.

yes and yes tho if i may.....

He pocketed the gate check ticket. We both had a chuckle about it.

that could (n.b. could) have gotten the dissed 1k into trouble and imho, the f/a should have taken the bag check stub and "presented it" to the "little girls" as you would not want the pax whose bag is was to start claiming theft of some other absurd notion. again, just mho but still a good story to read

[Baze]

Not funny at all. Yes, the girl should not have put bag there but what the 1K did is just wrong. Should have informed the FA as to who the bag belonged to and let them handle it. The 1K had no right to do that. I would bet the SFO PD was called because the girl had reported her bag as stolen as it was no longer on the plane and no one had told her it was gate checked. The 1K could have gotten into a lot of trouble.

[drummingcraig]

Originally Posted by Baze

Not funny at all. Yes, the girl should not have put bag there but what the 1K did is just wrong. Should have informed the FA as to who the bag belonged to and let them handle it. The 1K had no right to do that. I would bet the SFO PD was called because the girl had reported her bag as stolen as it was no longer on the plane and no one had told her it was gate checked. The 1K could have gotten into a lot of trouble.

My thoughts exactly.

The girls' actions were unacceptable and they certainly deserved to have their bags moved, but it should've been handled by the flight crew.

As soon as they walked away (after stowing their bags) the purser/FA should've been notified of the situation.

I love a good prank once in awhile (especially when someone really deserves it), but that's going a little too far w/r/t complete strangers.

[danville 1K]

Originally Posted by Baze

Not funny at all. Yes, the girl should not have put bag there but what the 1K did is just wrong. Should have informed the FA as to who the bag belonged to and let them handle it. The 1K had no right to do that. I would bet the SFO PD was called because the girl had reported her bag as stolen as it was no longer on the plane and no one had told her it was gate checked. The 1K could have gotten into a lot of trouble.

I agree. What if there was something of great value in the carry-on that disappeared between ORD and SFO? Clearly the young lady was a smart a$$, but this should have been pointed out to the purser at the time the bag was put in the overhead.

[TravelinWilly]

Cute story. It'd probably be funny, like, seeing it in a movie or something, but really, all that was accomplished was that it created a stressed out little girly who, assuming she found her bag, will still never know how it ended up checked and will likely blame the airline. Which is easy enough to do with UA for real reasons, so there's no need to generate ill will for UA for false reasons. It would have been better had the flight crew been able to address it directly and honestly with with the infant female in steerage, so as she grows into pre-teen-hood, she begins to better understand cause and effect, and the consequences of bad behavior.

So a teachable moment was lost, and only bad karma (and useless confusion) was generated.

[Mr. Mastodon Flyer]

I wouldn't have had the balls to do this myself, but I'm glad somebody did! The reason people pull that kind of inconsiderate, anti-social crap is because there are never any consequences. Betcha that girl will think twice before she breaks that rule again...

[ryan182]

funny I suppose but not too smart. What they should have done, and what would have probably been even more entertaining, was after mr37C demonstrated her inability to act in a civilized manner hit the call button and tell the FA the lady took the F bin and why and when you told her they were for F pax she cussed you out. Now given her response to a simple "those bins are for those sitting here" I would bet her next response (in the view of the crew this time) would solve the bag issue since it would be with her in the gate area.

[prestonh]

Amazing. Bits like this just fuel my paranoia of someone doing just that to my bag unbeknowing to me. That 1K was [a jerk] for claiming someone elses property and that's close to stealing. The girls were jerks for being rude. How did they know that the girls final destination was SFO? The girls have a good claim for involuntary separation. Should have left the bag checking to the FA to sort out, honestly.

[DeaconFlyer]

Seriously. What if they had a short connection, and forcing them to go out to baggage claim and then back through security caused them to miss their flights?

Is that really an apt punishment for using the wrong overhead?

[skylady]

It's a good thing that her insulin wasn't in that bag.