deveras

First off, before I ask my two odd questions, was anybody else on the flight?

fly co to see the yanks

i wasn't.

deveras

I'll just give a brief to the most obnoxious aislemate I've ever encountered, and skip the inquiry into why there was a strange man escorted off the plane in Newark.

::Begin Rant::

So, seat 17D (and E) passenger, this is for you...17D was my seat, not yours, and I moved to the middle seat because there was a very tall gentleman in front of me that nicely asked me if he could recline after take off. I know I was lucky to get an entire three seats to myself, but it doesn't give you the authority to come after they shut the cabin door and sit down in the aisle, forcing me over to the window. It also wasn't your right to take the liberty of laying down in the spare middle seat and putting your bald head on my armrest. Even more, it was less your authority to shut the window and turn my light off when I went to the bathroom for five minutes. But, even if you hadn't done all of this, you still didn't need to use your phone to text message during takeoff and search for a signal during the descent. Also, it probably wasn't your right to ask the FA for two of the FC newspapers and 5 brownies (in lieu of a meal).

Just in general, I'm so happy to know that your $288 all-in RT ticket to Europe bought you the freedom to act like you owned the place.

::End Rant::

Xyzzy

Was this person escorted off the aircraft? You allude to that but say nothing more.

deveras

Since you squeezed it out of me...the oddest thing happened at the end of the flight. We touch down in Newark, and the flight attendant says the normal pleasantries. The fasten seatbelt light comes off, and about 2 minutes after, as everyone had retrieved their luggage, the flight attendant sternly says, "we need everybody to return to their seats immediately, there was an earlier incident on the plane and federal authorities will be coming on the plane to take off a passenger." After waiting a good ten minutes, the flight attendants walked down the aisle, hands folded, and grabbed an older, scruffy gentleman with a gigantic black cowboy hat and escorted him to about 8 men dressed in black waiting in the jetway. My curiosity is still piqued, if anyone has any explanations to offer. I wish, however, my aislemate featured in the rant, would have joined him.

craz

It wasnt Me, but heck it sure could have been.

If the OP had purchased all 3 seats and had BPs for all 3 then the OP would have been entitled to All 3. Barring that if Im in a bad seat (non-aisle) and I see an open aisle seat , you better believe that Im taking that seat. Now had the OP presented me with their BP showing me that in fact that seat is theirs then I probably would have asked OK, are you sitting in it if not I am. If they say yes, then I probably would have gone for the window seat assuming I had a middle seat.

Now if I returned to my non-aisle seat and saw that the OP wasnt actually sitting in that aisle seat then I would have moved back into it, even thou they had a BP for it since they obviously werent gonna be sitting in it and if I didnt care if the person in front was gonna recline its mine .

As for them having taken over the middle seat, nothing wrong with that, the OP should have simply beaten them to it. Or lifted the arm rest or something. Ive been there before and well all I will say it didnt take long for the other person to get up and leave cause they werent able to relax with me going an dcoming so often and unfortunately always bumping into them as I did so. thats only after they had taken over the other 3 seats (it was a 747 in the middle section), As much as I wanted all 4 for myself I was able to see it was gonna be a 2 & 2 deal but I wasnt gonna have the 3 & 1 deal especially when their BP wasnt even for the row. But I never thought or saw the whole row as belonging to me. It was my loss on the 4 since I usually would have spread my things out over the other seats, I didnt so I had to live with 2 & 2 , but no way a 3 & 1 deal with me with the 1 seat. Had the guy been decent I would have lived with the 2 & 2, once he basically told me where I can go, that was that I was getting rid of him, and I did. But that guy had a right to sit on the row.

CO 1E

The passenger's behavior clearly was inappropriate. But, when the guy switched to 17D after the door closed, why didn't you explain that it was your seat and that you would take it back rather than stay in the window seat? I once was seated in a B seat on a 764 for a TATL flight and by the time the door closed, no one had taken the A seat. Accordingly, I moved over to the A seat; however, someone approached and asked (rather gruffly) if they could take the B seat that I had just vacated. I explained that it was my assigned seat and that I would retake the B seat rather than sit at the window with someone next to me. That was enough to drive them away (they opted not to take the A seat).

Not to sound harsh, but it would appear that you have only yourself to blame. Also, I hope that when you returned to your seat from the restroom, you promptly turned your reading light on and opened the window shade. I also would have woken the passenger up to remove his head from the armrest, but YMMV.

fly co to see the yanks

bingo. you have to stand up for yourself.

bcre3306

I was on that flight. I was in 14A. I would of said something to the person just like I did to the two people behind me that were talking so loud. Also what was with the guy getting escorted off the plane by the police when we landed?

peteftlaud

I was also on that flight and I am bald, but it wasn't me I was in the back of the plane and had an aisle for myself & shared a middle seat with someone who had the window ,who slept most of the flight. ^

I was wondering what was going on up-front.

I think I would have told that guy to leave my f***ing area alone , if I wanted my light off I would have shut it off. Same for the window shade.

My friends in CGN think I'm crazy for visiting them 4 times in the last 2 months, esp in winter ,but told them I couldn't pass up a good cheap deal like this, and besides I need my Kolsch fix.

deveras

Maybe PeteFL can help out with deciphering the police escort since he was in the back of the plane? Any ideas/observations?

peteftlaud

deveras ,
No idea what was going on.This was my very first time in 30 years of off & on flying commercial jets, that I have ever seen any "arrested" ?, or "escorted"? off a flight.
We probably will never know, unless we can get the Co Insider to check it out for us.

Maybe it was the fashion police for the outfit he had on.

bcre3306

What you werent feeling the hat?? HAHA

iahphx

Glad I missed the festivities, but I agree with the posters who say you can't "abandon" an aisle seat and assume it will go unused. Especially on an 8 hour flight!

There is a "rule of reason" on such things, and possession is probably 9/10th of "the law." That said, unless the flight is completely empty, you don't have an "entitlement" to 3 seats even if nobody else is in your row when the door closes. You're going to have to be willing to give up the window or the aisle if asked. I personally would position myself in the aisle seat and hope nobody has the gumption to ask me to move so they can take the window.

FWIW, given the comfort stakes involved on this flight (and similar 3-3 transcons in coach), I review the seat map while doing OLCI and will change my seat to another aisle if I can find one free (in the front half of the coach cabin with a powerport) where there is only a single pax in the row booked by the window. I figure I'm unlikely to get a row to myself -- the two seats together will likely be assigned at the airport -- but a lone middle seat will likely stay free if the flight is not booked solid. The strategy has yet to fail me in the elite seats.

deveras

If it was the fashion police, he must have gotten a LOOOONNNGG sentence. And I want me one of those hats.