Drunken pax at LCY
May 17, 2018, 9:44 pm
#31
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Those my father always referred to as 'serial offendeds'.
May 17, 2018, 10:50 pm
#32
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I witnessed something very similar at LHR prior to a flight to NCE.
The passenger was very wobbly, slurring her words, and approached the boarding gate before any sort of announcements had been made.
The gate staff engaged in some sort of conversation with the lady, and must have told her that her carry-on was too big, because she then screamed loudly, shrieked, slammed the case down onto the ground, and headed towards me (I was sat to the side of the gate finishing a phone call).
She sat one seat away from me, and as my call ended, she burst into tears. I offered her a tissue, at which point one of the gate agents came over and told the lady that she might be denied boarding due to her drunkedness, and suggested she goes for a walk.
I'm still not sure why I did it, but I decided I'd go for a walk with the lady. I told the gate staff that I'd be back just before boarding, but to not close the gate if we were a few seconds late (thinking if this lady vomited, it might take a little while to tidy her up!).
To cut a longer story short, her Father had died the week before the flight, and she was going down to NCE to see the body before burial. She was understandably distraught, and had started drinking early that morning.
We got back to the gate on-time, and I explained to the crew that the passenger was in a fragile condition. They upgraded her to CE, put her by herself one row behind me, and she fell asleep before we took off.
She was much better when we landed, but it made me realise that not all situations are as clear as they may appear.
M
The passenger was very wobbly, slurring her words, and approached the boarding gate before any sort of announcements had been made.
The gate staff engaged in some sort of conversation with the lady, and must have told her that her carry-on was too big, because she then screamed loudly, shrieked, slammed the case down onto the ground, and headed towards me (I was sat to the side of the gate finishing a phone call).
She sat one seat away from me, and as my call ended, she burst into tears. I offered her a tissue, at which point one of the gate agents came over and told the lady that she might be denied boarding due to her drunkedness, and suggested she goes for a walk.
I'm still not sure why I did it, but I decided I'd go for a walk with the lady. I told the gate staff that I'd be back just before boarding, but to not close the gate if we were a few seconds late (thinking if this lady vomited, it might take a little while to tidy her up!).
To cut a longer story short, her Father had died the week before the flight, and she was going down to NCE to see the body before burial. She was understandably distraught, and had started drinking early that morning.
We got back to the gate on-time, and I explained to the crew that the passenger was in a fragile condition. They upgraded her to CE, put her by herself one row behind me, and she fell asleep before we took off.
She was much better when we landed, but it made me realise that not all situations are as clear as they may appear.
M
May 17, 2018, 11:31 pm
#33
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This was on my mind re original post. Dealing with a group that has overdone it as a part of some lifestyle event is very different to dealing with someone having some form of crisis. It's not ideal, but I'd like to think the relevant airline would reaccomodate the passenger on a later flight on the condition that they come back sober.
May 17, 2018, 11:40 pm
#34
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+1
May 18, 2018, 12:18 am
#36
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People like that should get their status removed by BA and their membership terminated, assuming they are in the BAEC. Staff have a right to go to work without the fear of being assaulted and she sounded lucky she was not arrested and locked up until sober to appear in front of a Judge.
May 18, 2018, 12:31 am
#37
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American_(pejorative)
This however was the stereotype I deliberately avoided to avoid any pejorative statements. My intent was not to classify anybody but to describe the scene I watched and restrict myself to the largest extent possible to facts. That she was US American, whether you like it or not, was more than obvious as she showed everybody her brand new US passport (and I know her name, which I did not put into the story) and her accent (not to say the language) was again even for a non-natiive speaker so obviously connected to a certain state or region (which I avoided to mention too). And the behaviour was indeed totally different from the drunken Germans, English, Danish or Chinese, just to mention a few, I know very well. This, however, is my personal opinion and this is certainly covered by the First Amendment whether somebody likes it or not.
May 18, 2018, 12:33 am
#38
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May 18, 2018, 12:46 am
#39
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If you think that the 1st Amendment has any relevance to your being allowed to post on a privately owned internet message board, you may not be a very good lawyer.
May 18, 2018, 1:06 am
#40
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May 18, 2018, 1:46 am
#41
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I have extended family in Ireland and unfortunately in a couple of cases, relatives have succumbed to alcoholism.
By the brief account the OP gave, it's possible she is a well person who was behaving badly but her actions more suggest to me (from personal experience) someone whose world is coming apart due to the booze. When you get to the point of fighting with uniformed staff at an airport, you're a long way from shore and night is falling
By the brief account the OP gave, it's possible she is a well person who was behaving badly but her actions more suggest to me (from personal experience) someone whose world is coming apart due to the booze. When you get to the point of fighting with uniformed staff at an airport, you're a long way from shore and night is falling
May 18, 2018, 1:52 am
#42
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And while I took it pretty calmly, I have to say sitting alone in that tiny 737 on the way up to PIK was possibly one of the longest hours of my life. I quite deliberately didn't have a drink until I was back landside in Glasgow specifically because I didn't want to have any chance of such a situation.
I doubt the person sitting next to me even quite realised what was going on, over and above the fact that the guy in the window seat was probably visibly a bit upset. But goes to show you never quite know the full story of the passenger next to you and the poster above did a noble thing in my book. Chapeau.
May 18, 2018, 1:59 am
#43
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As a number of readers have pointed out to the mods, this isn’t one of FTs finest threads, and since there’s no relevance to BA, we’ll close it now.
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