Originally Posted by
kokonutz
Ok, so why in the hell would I accept a bun when I paid for a hot dog!? That's just crazy.
Let me give your analogy another try. On a short Q400 flight, everyone is getting plain hot dogs - it doesn't matter if you paid the steak price or the hot dog price. F cabin passengers are still getting a hot dog, just maybe a jumbo hot dog with mustard. I understand there's a principle involved - you paid steak prices, so by G-d you should get a steak. But we've both been in F on Q400s on short hops and we both know that the "steak" is really "a Heineken, a banana and a package of almonds."
Originally Posted by
kokonutz
This is a bizarre argument. The airline doesn't decide where I sit. I do. I pay for a seat in my ticketed cabin. If some crazy lady decides to try to steal that from me, I say not just "no," but 'HELL NO.' Just like if a crazy lady tried to steal my meal at a restaurant. I really don't give a crap what the waiter says. Or the waterboy. Give me the meal I paid for and get this crazy lady out of my meal. NOW.
Oh hell no. If a crazy person demanded the meal I paid for at a restaurant, I don't give a rat's arse about how the waiter feels. He or she better give me my meal or I will see that they are fired. But in this case the waiter was trying to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of the patron who paid for the meal.
Saying it loudly doesn't make it true. You do not decide where you sit. The airline does. It's their airplane. You can decide whether or not you fly, but ultimately you're sitting where you are told to sit.
Following your restaurant analogy, you may own the food but you don't own the table and chairs. The restaurant does. You'll sit where the restaurant tells you to sit or you'll dine elsewhere. (Please set aside that restaurants that treated its patrons as shabbily as UA customarily does would go out of business in a month.)
Originally Posted by
kokonutz
Bottom line: show the crew your boarding pass, stand back and let them resolve the situation. No need to get involved.
I think we agree that it's up to the FA to seat passengers properly and not the responsibility of the passenger. A better FA would have ensured that the poacher was seated in her assigned Y seat and that the OP was properly seated in his assigned F seat. But discretion is sometimes the better part of valor, and in this case the OP chose to not press the matter.