Originally Posted by
allaboutthemiles
Thank you to everyone for your advice. At this point, I think I’m just going to drop the matter. In hindsight, I should have used the call button. Instead my actions provoked the lead flight attendant and gave her an opening to accuse me of being drunk, give herself cover for her service failings, and shut me up. She played it perfectly. If I complain it becomes her word against mine. Lesson learned.
I really don't get the logic behind this assumption that a flight attendant schemed to falsely accuse you of being drunk because she thought then you wouldn't complain? You were already making your displeasure clear and it seems highly unlikely that a passenger who is so peeved about a lack of a fourth drink will just take kindly to falsely being accused of being intoxicated. And no one cares about embarrassing you in front of the other passengers - some people probably heard your complaint and sympathized with you. Others probably heard your complaint and thought poorly of you (especially if you mentioned your elite credentials). And others just paid no attention whatsoever.
You're ascribing a level of premeditation and spite that just doesn't make sense, and I don't think will make you feel better. Maybe accept the possibility that she thought you were drunk. After all, you'd had three drinks in what, two hours that she knew about?
As for the question as to whether a call button was the only option, of course not. You could just suck it up and wait til the FA comes back (which we know she did). You're not going to die without a *fourth drink* on a 4.5 hour flight.