NRT-DTW passenger SHENA
NRT-DTW last Saturday. Completely full in the back. Dude gets on, immediately approaches FA's at the front. Claims he was promised an exit row by "lady on the phone" when he switched onto this flight at the last minute. His current aisle seat is "completely unacceptable".
I know the story is shaky because I also changed flights last minute (about 16 hours earlier), and was warned before I made the switch that only seats left were middles. No aisle, no exit, no bulkhead, no soon to be EC, nothing. Just 15 hours in a middle seat on an old 747. I'm miserable.
Anyway, as expected, FA says sorry, ignores him as she's trying to get plane boarded.
He goes to a different FA. Drops his first DYKWIA. Claims he's going to call the DL VP of Marketing on his cell. Drops a few more DYKWIA's.
UNBELIEVABLY, she caves and GIVES HIM THE LAST BE SEAT. Not "sends him back up to the gate and let's him use miles to upgrade", not "asks GA to check his flight record to see if his story is even plausable", not "take your assigned seat and I'll see if a different one is available once we're fully boarded". Just let's him stroll up front and settle into BE.
I waited 5 days to post this, and I still can't decide how I feel about this. Right now I'm leaning towards 80% mad at FA for breaking about 10 different rules, 10% pissed at Mr. exit row for his arrogance, and 10% pissed at Mr. BHMike for not at least trying something like this before I sentenced myself to 15 hours of hell.