DYKWIA | 2020/21 edition
Nov 6, 2020, 9:01 am
#436
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: LDN / NY
Programs: BA GGL, Marriott Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 538
On the above.
Have any DYKWIA sightings actually ever come forward in here after being spotted? I would love to hear 'confessions of a DYKWIA' so we could get inside the minds of these troubled individuals and understand what happened to them that particular day to go on their rampage.
Have any DYKWIA sightings actually ever come forward in here after being spotted? I would love to hear 'confessions of a DYKWIA' so we could get inside the minds of these troubled individuals and understand what happened to them that particular day to go on their rampage.
Nov 6, 2020, 9:19 am
#437
Join Date: Nov 2020
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 9
Okay, I’ll bite. First post after two years of lurking and benefitting tremendously from your collective knowledge!
To set the scene: this is a Sunday in mid March as the coronavirus begins to sweep across Europe and we all slowly realise that this might be something that actually affects us. How naive we were!
The European ski season had just been curtailed and we find ourselves at Zurich airport checking in for the BA flight to Heathrow amongst the many glum faces of winter sports enthusiasts making their way home after the Swiss authorities order all resorts to close. (Shoutout to canton Berne for holding out for one extra day!)
Waiting at the head of the priority queue, which is becoming increasingly long behind, a disturbance at the checkin counter is noticed. A pair of men with a distinct DYKWIA flair are involved in a less than cordial discussion with the checkin agent, who sits behind her newly installed screen.
They are debating the reality of how much their ski bag weighs, and offering up much protestation. It cannot possibly be the amount shown on the scales! Oh can’t you ignore it, you are being unreasonable!
There follows a listing of the various, ever more ridiculously named (painfully so when spoken aloud), oneworld statuses they and other members in their party hold alongside much gesticulation and grandiose pronouncements concerning the decline of BA directed towards the waiting queue who would really rather they just got on with it.
Fine then, I’ll pay the excess fee! Accompanied by a melodramatic throw of the arms towards the heavens. No dice. It seems that they had come up against a hard weight limit for checked bags to be accepted, not just gone over their allowance. They then decide to pause and reflect upon the situation, conferring amongst themselves whilst ignoring the staff plea to stand aside to let others check in, and in spite of the ever increasing chorus of tutting coming from the priority queue.
A decision is reached, prompting a sigh of relief from the queue. One of the children’s skis will be jettisoned! Hurrah! And now begins everyone’s favourite pastime of let’s stand and watch someone repack their baggage on the floor. But there is a twist. Pray tell, why is their ski equipment heavier on the inbound than the outbound. Perhaps it still has snow on it? Oh no, don’t be so foolish.
To put this in further context. Around this time the news was brimming with images of shops and their bare shelves. The major supermarket chains had also brought in restrictions on the amount of certain goods each household could purchase.
So down our man of many statuses knelt and slowly unzipped his ski bag. It’s long length extending the time to perform this action, thus providing ample suspense for the watching crowd. And lo! What a sight to behold, a veritable treasure chest of delights! Stuffed to the brim with the finest mega multipack toilet roll and bulk pastas that Switzerland has to offer...
He fished out a small pair of skis from beneath and off he flounced with a scowl on his face to find a bin in which to dispose of them (!?) whilst his companion, oblivious to the gawping from the queue, resealed his bounty and finally had it accepted for the flight.
I now regret not have taken a photo of the back of him kneeling over his bag full of toilet roll and skis trying to decide which one to sacrifice as some sort of metaphoric tableau, being in the ideal spot for it, but by this point I just wanted a drink...
To set the scene: this is a Sunday in mid March as the coronavirus begins to sweep across Europe and we all slowly realise that this might be something that actually affects us. How naive we were!
The European ski season had just been curtailed and we find ourselves at Zurich airport checking in for the BA flight to Heathrow amongst the many glum faces of winter sports enthusiasts making their way home after the Swiss authorities order all resorts to close. (Shoutout to canton Berne for holding out for one extra day!)
Waiting at the head of the priority queue, which is becoming increasingly long behind, a disturbance at the checkin counter is noticed. A pair of men with a distinct DYKWIA flair are involved in a less than cordial discussion with the checkin agent, who sits behind her newly installed screen.
They are debating the reality of how much their ski bag weighs, and offering up much protestation. It cannot possibly be the amount shown on the scales! Oh can’t you ignore it, you are being unreasonable!
There follows a listing of the various, ever more ridiculously named (painfully so when spoken aloud), oneworld statuses they and other members in their party hold alongside much gesticulation and grandiose pronouncements concerning the decline of BA directed towards the waiting queue who would really rather they just got on with it.
Fine then, I’ll pay the excess fee! Accompanied by a melodramatic throw of the arms towards the heavens. No dice. It seems that they had come up against a hard weight limit for checked bags to be accepted, not just gone over their allowance. They then decide to pause and reflect upon the situation, conferring amongst themselves whilst ignoring the staff plea to stand aside to let others check in, and in spite of the ever increasing chorus of tutting coming from the priority queue.
A decision is reached, prompting a sigh of relief from the queue. One of the children’s skis will be jettisoned! Hurrah! And now begins everyone’s favourite pastime of let’s stand and watch someone repack their baggage on the floor. But there is a twist. Pray tell, why is their ski equipment heavier on the inbound than the outbound. Perhaps it still has snow on it? Oh no, don’t be so foolish.
To put this in further context. Around this time the news was brimming with images of shops and their bare shelves. The major supermarket chains had also brought in restrictions on the amount of certain goods each household could purchase.
So down our man of many statuses knelt and slowly unzipped his ski bag. It’s long length extending the time to perform this action, thus providing ample suspense for the watching crowd. And lo! What a sight to behold, a veritable treasure chest of delights! Stuffed to the brim with the finest mega multipack toilet roll and bulk pastas that Switzerland has to offer...
He fished out a small pair of skis from beneath and off he flounced with a scowl on his face to find a bin in which to dispose of them (!?) whilst his companion, oblivious to the gawping from the queue, resealed his bounty and finally had it accepted for the flight.
I now regret not have taken a photo of the back of him kneeling over his bag full of toilet roll and skis trying to decide which one to sacrifice as some sort of metaphoric tableau, being in the ideal spot for it, but by this point I just wanted a drink...
Nov 6, 2020, 9:37 am
#438
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: UK - Hampshire & London
Programs: Mucci de Guardian des Celliers des Grands Crus 1e Classé, plus BAEC.
Posts: 2,736
Less DYKWIA and more general rudeness and inconsideration, but in the absence of anything better I give you the following:
Bologna - LHR in early Oct this year. I'm one of the last to board and settle into 1D. A minute or 2 later a group of 3 Italians board and have 2D/2F and 1F. 1F is a late middle-aged reasonably well-dressed lady. No sooner is she sat down than both feet are planted on the bulkhead a foot or so above knee height. They stay there for the rest of the flight whenever she is seated. 1F's handbag is on the cabin floor, she appears to have difficulty with the repeated requests from Cabin Crew to put it in the overhead locker for take-off - the euro cent coin finally drops and she puts the bag in the overhead. This comedy routine was repeated, almost word for word, when we were getting ready for landing. She declined several offers of my assistance with her bag before take-off, I didn't bother to ask on landing.
As an outer layer, 1F was wearing a rather ridiculous cape / trench coat combo which took up a lot of volume. This remained on throughout the flight and slapped me in the face every time she left her seat and when stood in the aisle waiting for the Lavatory (which she was clearly not supposed to do, the PA announcements and verbal reminders from Cabin Crew must have passed her by).
I should probably mention that when she wasn't slapping me in the face with her cape or failing to understand the cabin crew, she was engrossed in a copy of The Daily Telegraph. I didn't get the impression it was preparation for a language class.
Bologna - LHR in early Oct this year. I'm one of the last to board and settle into 1D. A minute or 2 later a group of 3 Italians board and have 2D/2F and 1F. 1F is a late middle-aged reasonably well-dressed lady. No sooner is she sat down than both feet are planted on the bulkhead a foot or so above knee height. They stay there for the rest of the flight whenever she is seated. 1F's handbag is on the cabin floor, she appears to have difficulty with the repeated requests from Cabin Crew to put it in the overhead locker for take-off - the euro cent coin finally drops and she puts the bag in the overhead. This comedy routine was repeated, almost word for word, when we were getting ready for landing. She declined several offers of my assistance with her bag before take-off, I didn't bother to ask on landing.
As an outer layer, 1F was wearing a rather ridiculous cape / trench coat combo which took up a lot of volume. This remained on throughout the flight and slapped me in the face every time she left her seat and when stood in the aisle waiting for the Lavatory (which she was clearly not supposed to do, the PA announcements and verbal reminders from Cabin Crew must have passed her by).
I should probably mention that when she wasn't slapping me in the face with her cape or failing to understand the cabin crew, she was engrossed in a copy of The Daily Telegraph. I didn't get the impression it was preparation for a language class.
Last edited by krispy84; Nov 6, 2020 at 9:44 am
Nov 6, 2020, 9:54 am
#439
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Kent, UK
Programs: BA Gold; Virgin FF; United Airlines; American Airlines; and was frequent c/c churner - RIP!
Posts: 945
Nov 6, 2020, 10:37 am
#440
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,211
Sometimes in normal day to day life here I have been known to say ''I'm British'' when service hasn't been to my liking......jokingly of course and always with a cheeky grin.
It works but not with the missus.
It works but not with the missus.
Nov 6, 2020, 10:22 pm
#441
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: LDN / NY
Programs: BA GGL, Marriott Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 538
Less DYKWIA and more general rudeness and inconsideration, but in the absence of anything better I give you the following:
Bologna - LHR in early Oct this year. I'm one of the last to board and settle into 1D. A minute or 2 later a group of 3 Italians board and have 2D/2F and 1F. 1F is a late middle-aged reasonably well-dressed lady. No sooner is she sat down than both feet are planted on the bulkhead a foot or so above knee height. They stay there for the rest of the flight whenever she is seated. 1F's handbag is on the cabin floor, she appears to have difficulty with the repeated requests from Cabin Crew to put it in the overhead locker for take-off - the euro cent coin finally drops and she puts the bag in the overhead. This comedy routine was repeated, almost word for word, when we were getting ready for landing. She declined several offers of my assistance with her bag before take-off, I didn't bother to ask on landing.
As an outer layer, 1F was wearing a rather ridiculous cape / trench coat combo which took up a lot of volume. This remained on throughout the flight and slapped me in the face every time she left her seat and when stood in the aisle waiting for the Lavatory (which she was clearly not supposed to do, the PA announcements and verbal reminders from Cabin Crew must have passed her by).
I should probably mention that when she wasn't slapping me in the face with her cape or failing to understand the cabin crew, she was engrossed in a copy of The Daily Telegraph. I didn't get the impression it was preparation for a language class.
Bologna - LHR in early Oct this year. I'm one of the last to board and settle into 1D. A minute or 2 later a group of 3 Italians board and have 2D/2F and 1F. 1F is a late middle-aged reasonably well-dressed lady. No sooner is she sat down than both feet are planted on the bulkhead a foot or so above knee height. They stay there for the rest of the flight whenever she is seated. 1F's handbag is on the cabin floor, she appears to have difficulty with the repeated requests from Cabin Crew to put it in the overhead locker for take-off - the euro cent coin finally drops and she puts the bag in the overhead. This comedy routine was repeated, almost word for word, when we were getting ready for landing. She declined several offers of my assistance with her bag before take-off, I didn't bother to ask on landing.
As an outer layer, 1F was wearing a rather ridiculous cape / trench coat combo which took up a lot of volume. This remained on throughout the flight and slapped me in the face every time she left her seat and when stood in the aisle waiting for the Lavatory (which she was clearly not supposed to do, the PA announcements and verbal reminders from Cabin Crew must have passed her by).
I should probably mention that when she wasn't slapping me in the face with her cape or failing to understand the cabin crew, she was engrossed in a copy of The Daily Telegraph. I didn't get the impression it was preparation for a language class.
Also I must say I was expecting more to the story as you mentioned '3 Italians' and yet you didn't mention the 2 behind nor the relevance of their ethnicity in the story?!
Nov 7, 2020, 3:17 am
#442
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: UK - Hampshire & London
Programs: Mucci de Guardian des Celliers des Grands Crus 1e Classé, plus BAEC.
Posts: 2,736
1Fs companions weren’t relevant to the story that’s true, included purely as part of the scene. I think her nationality was relevant though, given the supposed difficultly she had understanding the cabin crew verses her perusing of an english language paper. The other aspect, which I confess is striding into stereotype territory, but with a grain of truth none-the-less, is the haughtiness and arrogance demonstrated by Italian women of a certain age and class.
Nov 7, 2020, 8:13 am
#443
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: LDN / NY
Programs: BA GGL, Marriott Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 538
Any true DYKWIA post here isn’t complete without a ‘by the way’ reference to being in row 1, the First Wing, CCR etc 😁.
1Fs companions weren’t relevant to the story that’s true, included purely as part of the scene. I think her nationality was relevant though, given the supposed difficultly she had understanding the cabin crew verses her perusing of an english language paper. The other aspect, which I confess is striding into stereotype territory, but with a grain of truth none-the-less, is the haughtiness and arrogance demonstrated by Italian women of a certain age and class.
1Fs companions weren’t relevant to the story that’s true, included purely as part of the scene. I think her nationality was relevant though, given the supposed difficultly she had understanding the cabin crew verses her perusing of an english language paper. The other aspect, which I confess is striding into stereotype territory, but with a grain of truth none-the-less, is the haughtiness and arrogance demonstrated by Italian women of a certain age and class.
To your point, perhaps. I would be lying if I didn't think 'this is going to be good' upon reading the intro. High expectations on the next post!
Nov 7, 2020, 8:46 am
#444
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: UK - Hampshire & London
Programs: Mucci de Guardian des Celliers des Grands Crus 1e Classé, plus BAEC.
Posts: 2,736
Only bones left in the cupboard atm. Will do better next time! 😁
Nov 7, 2020, 11:31 am
#445
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: In the sticks
Programs: VS FC Gold, BA EC Gold, Amex Centurion, EK Gold, ex-G-ATVK driver
Posts: 1,832
On the above.
Have any DYKWIA sightings actually ever come forward in here after being spotted? I would love to hear 'confessions of a DYKWIA' so we could get inside the minds of these troubled individuals and understand what happened to them that particular day to go on their rampage.
Have any DYKWIA sightings actually ever come forward in here after being spotted? I would love to hear 'confessions of a DYKWIA' so we could get inside the minds of these troubled individuals and understand what happened to them that particular day to go on their rampage.
Nov 7, 2020, 12:25 pm
#446
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: GLA
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 2,963
There was on a BA BKK-LHR flight some years ago when the route had F and was served by 744. I was in 1A. Due to a technical fault the air conditioning wasn't working on the ground, so as you can imagine it did get pretty hot in BKK. Not much you can do really, the Captain came around to apologise. Someone who shall remain nameless was in 2K had what I considered an embarrassing DYKWIA rant moment, as if a magic air conditioning fairy was going to be made available. Subsequently, that person came on here to complain. I bit my tongue and maintained my diplomatic side, until now. ;-)
(I wanted to discover who the culprit was but couldn’t find that post!!!)https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22899991-post171.html
Nov 8, 2020, 5:54 am
#447
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: In the sticks
Programs: VS FC Gold, BA EC Gold, Amex Centurion, EK Gold, ex-G-ATVK driver
Posts: 1,832
Well, not that diplomatic... (I wanted to discover who the culprit was but couldn’t find that post!!!)
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22899991-post171.html
(I wanted to discover who the culprit was but couldn’t find that post!!!)https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22899991-post171.html
Edit: Pretty sure I commented on it at the time of the incident in a rather more diplomatic tone m’lud!
Last edited by Howard Long; Nov 8, 2020 at 5:59 am
Mar 14, 2021, 11:41 am
#448
Join Date: May 2017
Programs: BA Exec Club, Accor Diamond, other airline programmes very basic
Posts: 194
Having suffered withdrawals from my sometimes 6 flights a week pre Covid and having last flown GLA-LHR over a month ago now, I'm looking forward to the same flight next week. Getting flying again I am reminded when once returning from GIB to LHR in CE and while waiting in the CE check in queue, ableit casually dressed with shorts and summer shirt, the chap standing behind my friend and I tapped said friend on the shoulder and said "I think you may be in the wrong queue, economy is over there." Turning round we both noticed this rather dapper chap in a pale linen suit also sporting a fedora. My friend replied "No, I don't think so" and we continued our conversation. On boarding the aeroplane man in fedora now sat down in row 6 looked bemusedly at us as we took our own seats in row 1.........
Mar 14, 2021, 12:34 pm
#449
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Canada / AZ
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 27
It seems that Turkey is the destination of choice for all sorts of surgeries. For those who want their teeth done, but can't afford to do it in Budapest. I've heard of gastric bands and cosmetic surgeries being done over there. I expect that's what was the case for the IST flight, and I don't expect the "good painkillers" will make it past security...
Last edited by AKGAZ; Mar 14, 2021 at 1:45 pm
Mar 14, 2021, 12:56 pm
#450
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: Mucci, BAEC GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, Stena Gold
Posts: 1,094
Landed IST-LHR in Jan 2020 and on a shuttle bus to my LHR hotel. On the phone to my partner in the US telling him about the latest Turkish hairstyles about ten young guys in my flight had got - geometric shaped henna tattoos. The only other bus passenger educated me that they had all had hair transplants and it was iodine! We all laughed and laughed!
Either it is a daily occurrence, or we were on the same flight! (BA675 on 19th)
Although I did know they had had hair transplants