Originally Posted by
swag
A few thoughts....
1. If there's any limit on drinks in the exit row, form of payment should be irrelevant. The fact that he paid with vouchers makes him no less drunk or sober than the pax paying by credit card.
2. If anything, the fact that he was paying by voucher diminishes the argument that the airline is only trying to maximize drink revenue.
3. What surprises me most about the whole story is this: you had an empty middle seat in an exit row? Clearly I must be flying the wrong routes...
This route is normally pretty light as it is a nonstop/direct flight (so uncommon with WN) and UA offers a nonstop/direct from PDX/ORD around same time. Most people are headed to O'Hare from PDX, and last time I checked, Midway isn't exactly right across the street from ORD. Most of the middle seats on this flight are normally vacant aside from the occasional family who takes up a whole row or two...
AND, IIRC, the middle seat on the other side's exit row was empty too.
Come fly with me some time. I got coups! Drinks on me...