jrkmsp

I had to pop over to Chicago yesterday for a business trip. Flight down to Midway in the morning, two meetings and back from Midway at night. I'd booked the last flight of the day because I wasn't sure when my last meeting would wrap up and how bad traffic would be at 4 p.m. Fortunately, things wrapped in a timely way and traffic wasn't awful, so I made it before the second-to-last flight boarded. A great GA got me on the standby list for the full flight while I waited to see if he had any no-shows. Two late arriving F passengers who ran up at the last second meant that my F seat (upgraded at the PM window) would not turn into an F seat on the RJ. But two more no shows meant I got a seat in the back of the plane and an arrival at home that meant I'd get to tell my kids goodnight. No problem — MDW-MSP is like an hour in the air. How bad can it be? I was about to find out...

I was seated next to an individual who was a little rough around the edges, but fine. He didn't like to fly, didn't fly much and was already a day delayed, so he wanted to talk and talk. I engaged him for a bit, but eventually the conversation ended. I put my headphones in and listened to a podcast. Of course, the wifi was not working on this CR7 but, again, short flight. Whatever. My neighbor was evidently traveling with some dude behind him. Or maybe they met at the airport bar. I don't know. They'd been yelling back and forth to each other for a while but I didn't really care. Then he got up and started talking to my seat neighbor over me. Fine. That's why I have Bose noise canceling headphones. Then he looked at me and spoke again. Not hearing him, I slipped one ear out from my headphones and said "Sorry, what?" To which, this 65+-year-old gentleman put both hands around my neck and squeezed, while saying "I'm not talking to you." A second or so later he removed his hands.

Both men laughed at this "hilarious" situation. And the old guy kept saying "I'm not talking to you." I put my headphones back in and ignored them. I wasn't intimidated by the old man, but I was pissed. I debated my options 1) Tell an FA and cause a scene on the plane. 2) Tell an FA and ask for it to be dealt with on the ground. 3) Tell the gate agent upon landing. 4) Just go home and enjoy my family. I ultimately chose option four, but it might have turned out differently if the plane had had functioning WiFi and I could have told my wife I was running late.

Ultimately, I value being able to do a free same-day change, but giving up 1A for a seat at the back by a moron definitely backfired on me this time.

wrp96

He put his hands around your neck and you didn't call an FA?

jrkmsp

Yeah. It was brief and sudden and I was mostly in shock. By the time I'd processed, the situation was over. I wasn't injured in any way, and ultimately decided I'd rather get home.

hi55us

Wooow, that's assault. I honestly would have reported him. Once you make physical contact the situation is different.

DiverDave

I have to agree. Especially since you had no way at the time to know he wouldn't do something like that again......

Glad it didn't turn out worse.

jdrtravel

That sounds really uncomfortable and upsetting. I'm glad you're OK. I can understand not being sure what to do. If your ultimate goal is to get home as quickly as possible and without drama, there is a real risk in doing something that could escalate the situation, especially on such a short flight.

golfr

Man, this is really disheartening to hear. Yeah, you don't know who you're sitting next to until you do. I'm not sure if FC is any different, just a little more space between you and your neighbor. He'd have to reach a bit to put his hands on you like that. I agree that I'd have alerted FA, but that's just me. You did what you thought was best for you. Good on you.

MSPeconomist

jdrtravel

In think that in F you are more likely to be surrounded by frequent flyers who know how to handle themselves on an airplane. Of course there are problematic F pax as well.

jrkmsp

Yep, operated by SkyWest.

jrkmsp

Thanks for the kind words. I didn't come to my decision easily, but ultimately I just wanted to get out of there ASAP. Totally agree it was assault and the guy could have spent the night in the Hennepin County Jail at the very least. I'm not sure I did the best thing, but I got home to my family in time to put the kids to bed, and I'll never regret that.

sydneyracquelle

beachmouse

I had the meth head who kept driving his elbow into my rib cage and got cranky when I used my own elbow to block him from doing it again. And yeah, you do run the scenarios and sometimes it comes don to not making a fuss in the name of getting home that night. In my case, it was a December holiday flight, there literally was no place where I could be reseated (the elbowing started as people were still boarding), and it was 44 minutes wheels up to down, so I just put up with it.

The creepier part was that I was getting home after dark, I was flying alone, and the car was parked in a poorly lit overflow lot that's very isolated. And I'm female and had more than a little concern that he'd take issue with me protecting my space and follow me into that lot.

MSPeconomist

beachmouse