ani90

Apologies for revisting this issue but I had a strange experience on a 764 today from Europe to EWR so thought I should bring this up again.

I was sitting in 17A and on boarding the overhead bin over 16A was 'full' with roll-ons and bags, so I thought that was a good place to stuff my coat above the bags there so as not to occupy space in the other emptier overhead bins (as I was amongst the first on). Anyway as the plane kept filling up a pax comes up to take his seat on 16B and then opens up the overhead bin and proceeds to remove the items there that do not belong to the pax in 16A - in all he removed a bag (belonging to a pax in 17B) and also three coats including mine. Note that the coats were not occupying useful space but were placed above the bags. He literally throws all these on the floor claiming that the overhead bin says 16 A and B so belongs to 16 A and B. The lady who had the bag he removed was so alarmed as were all other pax as we had never seen this behaviour before. As he took my coat and flung it down the contents of the pockets including my home keys, pen, money and blackberry were on the floor. He now proceeded to put his bag and his coat in the overhead. Attempts by surrounding pax to reason with him were met with hostility. Well clearly this man was not someone that could be reasoned with so together with pax around we made spaces in other overhead bins (which were full now) moving stuff around again and managed to relocate all the displaced items. Of course as this is happening the boarding is at stand-still and the pax waiting to board were themselves helping to find space for the baggage he removed.

When we finished boarding the lady whose bag he threw out complained to the GA who did nothing (she spoke to him and said well she cant do anything about it and then left the plane). Anyway after that I called an FA and complained and said I wanted him taken off the plane because his actions were forceful and he had removed other peoples luggage without their permission. She too dismissed it and said they can't do much and asked us to fill a complaint. I said well I am not filling one that she needs to get the security on board because he is a disruptive pax, that we found his actions threatening and needs to be thrown out. Of course now he sees I am serious he sits there like a meek lamb and not the bully that was rude, arrogant and inconsiderate of all but himself. She said if she reports it did I know what it implied - I said yes, I was ready to be taken of the plane (and miss my flight) with him to make a statement to the authorities. Then she claimed he was sorry and apologetic, well I said he had not apologized to us. So she made him stand and he addressed all of us in the front of the cabin, accepting his behaviour was wrong and apologizing. So we left it at that and the plane took off.

I found this behaviour very shocking. Clearly he was a seasoned flyer and would not have tried it in his home country (he is American) as the TSA would have carted him out immediately; presumably he feels he can do what he likes in Europe. Should we tolerate such behaviour? What would others do if someone proceeds to off-load your items from an overhead bin unto the floor and places his own in its place? Is it right that CO preferrred to ignore the action and rathered brush it under the carpet?

raybolt

Unfortunately, I see this fairly often (domestic travel). I still can't imagine taking someones stuff out of the bin, but people seem to do it regularly.

dan

kingalien

I'm more shocked that the FAs did not do anything as the person was removing the bags.

Recently the last person arriving was in 2A on a 738. All bins full and FA tells him to go to the back. He proceeds to go to row 5 and pushes all the belongings as far as possible to squeeze in his bag. Name calling starts to ensue and the FA jumps in and tells him to stop rearranging the bin or he will be removed from the plane. The vocal passenger continues with the name calling and the FA confronts this guy and says one more word and he'll be removed as well. Everyone shuts up, the arriving passenger still got his bag into the bin (with some help by the FA) and it was the end of that.

delpreston

I saw where an irrate passenger removed a bag that was placed horizontally by an Elite that boarded first, and he complained that it was oversized and taking up too much space in the overhead to the FA. She agreed, and asked who it belonged to, pax fessed up and she checked it, irrate guy got his space in the overhead.

stratofortress

Good for you for calling the guy on his outrageous actions. This sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable, and IMHO, the guy should have been plucked from the plane and given 24 hours to think about his actions.

J.Edward

^

Good form ani90.

From NYC

What I still don’t get is why none of the FA’s came over, or why you and none of the other passengers rang for an FA while he was doing all this and holding up the boarding process.

Having written the above, however, you all still did the right thing in complaining about these actions.

ani90

As you know during boarding the aisles are clogged with pax and the FAs are at the doors, galleys or back of cabin so they would have no idea what is happening in the mid cabins between the ends of cabins where they are standing. It was not possible to get FAs involved till the aisle was cleared - trying to do so would have meant pushing through the boarding pax which would greatly delay boarding.

Kibison

They should never have let him get away with it.

An Italian guy tried this on AF flight once. He took the stuff out of the bin and put it in the aisle. The FA made him put everything back as it was.

One of the few priviledges Elites have left is early boarding for bin hoarding.

Markie

I had a similar thing a few years back on UA out of DC. Sitting in Business on the UA 767 it's 2-2-2 with only very small bins above the centre 2. I got on early and this very chav couple - mother and daughter came along to sit in the window 2 next to me. I was in the centre.

They pushed my bag along to over the second row. At this point I did not say anything - playing nice you know.

Anyway, we had a mechanical and this time I beat them on again and put it in the same place. They came on and tried to move it, at which point I told them that it was shared overhead space. They grumbled but did not move the bags this time.

vincom

On a red eye ex SEA one time, they deplaned a woman who tried moving stuff from the over head (and dumping it on the floor) to place her stuff there... Some people just are... I don't know the word...

-Vincent

imalawyer

Had a similar situation several weeks ago. Woman came on at the very end of boarding with a HUGE carry-on with wheels, stuffed to near bursting. She was seated in coach, but was told when she boarded that she would have to gate check b/c bins were full. At that point she became incredibly irate, verbally abusive, and to the point of hysterics. Both my neighbor and I in FC offered to gate check our carry-on just to shut her up. But to the FAs' credit, they told her to gate check or get off.

otralot

I have to add that I believe the airlines are partially responsible for this. They have failed to adeqyautely enforce carry on rules*. And although you will hear the announcements about carry ons, when was the last time you saw it really enforced.

Pax have come to see carry on ( and this means almost anything) as inluded with their ticket. The fact is if everyone stuck with both the number and size requirements that even on full flights probably everything would fit.

*Let me add that they also cause this because baggage delivery time after flights is horrendous at many airports and shoe horning people into less and less space is a disincentive to putting things under the seat in front of you. How many people want to have the entire place where they puit their feet filled with stuff for a transcon.

vincom

Until Northwest changes that school of thought

-Vincent

Orion

This kind of stuff happens all too often. I boarded a Delta flight in Atl for Dca in first class. I stowed my small book bag in the bin above my seat. Late in the boarding process I did hear the usual moans and groans about a shortage of bag space and some coach pax brought and stowed their roller boards in the first class bins. Out of sight. Out of mine. Upon arrival at the gate in Dca my bag was gone. I enlisted the help of the FA's to search for it. Once all of the pax had deplaned I found my bag in a bin at the rear of coach. If I ran the world that would be good for about forty lashes.