Mar 18, 2019, 10:00 am
Advice: Parent kicked out of seat by "celebrity"
Mar 18, 2019, 12:59 pm
#136
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How did the OP’s father manage to snag 1A in the first place? One has to assume it was amazingly available at check-in/OLCI, whereas the DYKWIA (or his PA) left it too late?
Mar 18, 2019, 12:59 pm
#137
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Mar 18, 2019, 1:02 pm
#138
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Mar 18, 2019, 1:09 pm
#139
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Contrast this about 6 years ago, January 2013, with a similar experience. My ex-gf and I were in row 1 on the 744 LHR-PHX. Dan Rooney, former US Ambassador to Ireland and senior executive for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was on the flight and wanted 1A. Ex-gf was paged at gate and request to switch was made, we declined. Same request was made on board, FA clearly said we don't have to switch if we don't want to. "It's an ambassador, one of yours actually."
Mar 18, 2019, 1:13 pm
#140
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I actually had a similar experience today tho not with BA. Flying with an airline I don't use regularly, I decided to pay for an exit row, my priorities are legroom and choice of meal. The only ones left were middle and I chose front and left
Getting to my seat the man in the aisle had put his mobile and other belongings on my seat. I smiled and said I was in B. He immediately said there were seats on the other side free where I could sit as he was going to work. 2 crew members came over and told me to wait till after take off and then move. It wasn't an order exactly but there was an assumption I would comply. No one asked my opinion. To resist I would have had to be quite assertive, even rude.
Anyway sat in my allocated seat wondering what I would do. Last minute the occupant of the window appeared and said could he sit somewhere else. As boarding was complete, cc said yes and I solved the issue by moving into the window seat, which suited me.
At some point csm came along and said to my neighbour something like oh good you got your space, anything else we can do for you. Not anyone famous, we were in y, but I'm guessing high status with the airline.
I can completely understand how with an assertive passenger reorganising and crucially the crew seeming to go along with it; it's easy to feel like you don't have a choice.
Getting to my seat the man in the aisle had put his mobile and other belongings on my seat. I smiled and said I was in B. He immediately said there were seats on the other side free where I could sit as he was going to work. 2 crew members came over and told me to wait till after take off and then move. It wasn't an order exactly but there was an assumption I would comply. No one asked my opinion. To resist I would have had to be quite assertive, even rude.
Anyway sat in my allocated seat wondering what I would do. Last minute the occupant of the window appeared and said could he sit somewhere else. As boarding was complete, cc said yes and I solved the issue by moving into the window seat, which suited me.
At some point csm came along and said to my neighbour something like oh good you got your space, anything else we can do for you. Not anyone famous, we were in y, but I'm guessing high status with the airline.
I can completely understand how with an assertive passenger reorganising and crucially the crew seeming to go along with it; it's easy to feel like you don't have a choice.
Mar 18, 2019, 1:13 pm
#141
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Mar 18, 2019, 1:42 pm
#142
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Contrast this about 6 years ago, January 2013, with a similar experience. My ex-gf and I were in row 1 on the 744 LHR-PHX. Dan Rooney, former US Ambassador to Ireland and senior executive for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was on the flight and wanted 1A. Ex-gf was paged at gate and request to switch was made, we declined. Same request was made on board, FA clearly said we don't have to switch if we don't want to. "It's an ambassador, one of yours actually."
Ambassadors typically behave with extreme grace and deference as that is the image they wish to portray of their home country.
Mar 18, 2019, 1:48 pm
#143
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I think it is safe to assume there are a fair number of passengers who don't read FT who could be intimidated into giving up their seat. I also think it's wise to not publish the name of said individual. I know laws are different in the UK but in the US there was a defamation law suit successfully litigated on behalf of a public official against a (relatively speaking) private individual for over $1,000,000.
Mar 18, 2019, 1:49 pm
#144
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I think it is safe to assume there are a fair number of passengers who don't read FT who could be intimidated into giving up their seat. I also think it's wise to not publish the name of said individual. I know laws are different in the UK but in the US there was a defamation law suit successfully litigated on behalf of a public official against a (relatively speaking) private individual for over $1,000,000.
I'd like to add that only boring part of this thread, a common problem on every online forum, is the useless and uninteresting speculation about whether the story presented by the OP is true or not. Discussion of the issues presented - how you would react, did the crew respond appropriately, what you think the crew should have done, like that - is, or at least can be, illuminating. This is the case regardless of the level of absolute veracity in the OP. In other words, unless we are only interested in sworn depositions, we kind of have to deal with a post at it's face value.
Discussing whether the OP is a liar or not, is simply a waste of time. And in the end, doesn't even matter a whit to the debate that the OP engenders.
On FT, to me anyway, this always comes off as apologists simply trying to devalue a discussion that may not show their preferred carrier in the most positive light.
Mar 18, 2019, 1:52 pm
#145
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Mind you, he was almost a nobody by then.
Mar 18, 2019, 1:54 pm
#146
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Mar 18, 2019, 2:30 pm
#147
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Yes I understand that, I should have made it clear that I meant the crewmember dealing with the “celebrity”.
Now as a SCCM I really don’t know how I would have handled the conversation with the OPs father, would I have offered to move him back, probably not, I would have been very sympathetic and made sure he was given lots of attention. What I most certainty would have done is speak to the “celebrity” how strong a conversation would have depends on what I had been told by the father.
Now as a SCCM I really don’t know how I would have handled the conversation with the OPs father, would I have offered to move him back, probably not, I would have been very sympathetic and made sure he was given lots of attention. What I most certainty would have done is speak to the “celebrity” how strong a conversation would have depends on what I had been told by the father.
Mar 18, 2019, 2:34 pm
#148
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I was harrassed and bullied by a man sitting next to me on a Virgin flight. I requested help from the crew who told me we'd both be met by police on arrival unless we stopped causing trouble. I have wondered since whether they're trained to avoid conflict by appeasing bullies, rather than defending the bullied. This may be what happened here too.
Mar 18, 2019, 2:37 pm
#149
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Milliband only had protection when he was Foreign Secretary, once he left that post for a non protected position he wasn’t entitled to protection.
Mar 18, 2019, 2:37 pm
#150
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Yes I understand that, I should have made it clear that I meant the crewmember dealing with the “celebrity”.
Now as a SCCM I really don’t know how I would have handled the conversation with the OPs father, would I have offered to move him back, probably not, I would have been very sympathetic and made sure he was given lots of attention. What I most certainty would have done is speak to the “celebrity” how strong a conversation would have depends on what I had been told by the father.
Now as a SCCM I really don’t know how I would have handled the conversation with the OPs father, would I have offered to move him back, probably not, I would have been very sympathetic and made sure he was given lots of attention. What I most certainty would have done is speak to the “celebrity” how strong a conversation would have depends on what I had been told by the father.
