Annoying Upgrade
 

So last week on my commute home from ATL. I was sitting in F waiting for boarding to complete. The window seat next to me was empty. As we were getting ready to finish up a man had received the upgrade to occupy that seat. You could hear him coming up from Y, cheering and dancing down the aisle while saying yea i got an upgrade. He makes me get up so he could sit in the window. Before he sits, he needs to use the rest room, so I sit back down. He goes and I get up again and then he finally sits down. As we taxi out, he gets a beer for his PDB. Unfortunately there was some ground traffic so we had to wait 15 mins in an active taxiway. He then again asks to go to the bathroom. I get up and so on. When he gets back he continues to talk to himself, singing, humming, dancing in his chair. You could tell he was intoxicated and everyone in F kept looking back to see what the hell was going on. The flight attendant kept serving him.

After the third beer, I got up and asked the flight attendant to stop serving him indicating he was intoxicated and disturbing myself and other passengers. The flight attendant replied "as long as he's not disturbing the flight theres nothing I can do".

Now I find this to be alarming. The guy is clearly intoxicated, loudly cheering whenever he got his beer. Singing. Talking to himself. Went to the bathroom at least 8 times during a 1.5 hr flight. Should the attendant maybe have a word with him? Or at the very least stop serving him?

If you require a guarantee that you won't come across annoying people in your travels, take a private plane.

I guess I shouldn't post on a public forum either cause I'm guaranteed to get at least one smug response

Heh, I kid because I care.

I mean, what did you want? The FA said she could/would only do something if he interfered with the flight. I get it's annoying to have someone make you get up a few times in short order, but if you don't like that then you should sit in the window seat.

Annoying Upgrade
 

It's annoying, I agree. Chalk it up as a memory and move on. Oh, and yeah-get the window seat or bulkhead if you don't want to get up.

These posts sum up my thoughts, too. Yup, it sounds like it was annoying. Sounds like you wanted the FA to intervene and she disagreed with you. If FAs had to intervene every time a passenger was annoying another passenger, well, they'd be busy. Maybe he had a weak bladder. Maybe he was a nervous flyer. Maybe he was intoxicated. Doesn't sound like he really did anything wrong. Annoying? Maybe. Wrong? I don't think so.

I'm with the OP. I don't think the standard for serving obviously-hammered pax is "we keep feeding them beers until they affect the flight."

There are alcoholics with over-active bladders who also pay for full F so the UG issue is not relevant.

That being said, the FA was wrong. The DOT rule is that she may not serve an individual who "appears to be intoxicated." 14 CFR 121.575(a)(1). Doesn't mean that the passenger must be drunk, intoxicated, only that they "appear" objectively to be intoxicated. If the FA didn't think that the guy was intoxicated and you did, that's just a disagreement. But, the FA had the standard wrong.

Send in a report to DOT using the webform providing the date, carrier, flight number, and a description of the FA. Nobody gets terminated here, but it's worth carriers doing refreshers for crew.

Maybe to clarify. Getting up and down I can deal with. (hey I've been that guy on a flight where I've had the runs and its not pleasant). That behavior was just added evidence that the guy had too much to drink. It was more of the dancing, loud singing (which i could hear through my headphones), humming, and talking to one's self that annoyed me and made me feel uncomfortable. To me he was clearly disturbing other passengers as they kept turning around and making eye contact with me and rolling their eyes.

I just think its absurd the FA would'nt slow the guy down or stop serving him. If someone starts whooping and dancing when you served that person a beer, wouldn't that be a tell tale sign?

Well, I've probably whooped and danced when served a beer on certain carriers in F before, as the sighting of an FA is such a rare occurrence that the receipt of the glorious nectar (e.g., cup of warm Bud Lite) is worthy of cheer.

But yeah, you guy sounds like he was pretty 'faced.

Was he sane? I'm not a mental health professional but some of the behavior sounds more deranged than drunk. Cutting him off might have made the situation worse.

Annoying Upgrade
 

Sounds like he was annoying, but that's about it. He wasn't being belligerent or interfering with flight crew, and who knows if he might have become MORE difficult if the FA had stopped serving on such a short flight.

I've seen completely sober people who sing and talk to themselves, and who are overjoyed to be sitting in FC. I'm also someone who has to pee a lot, and it's just as annoying for me when I get UG'd to a window seat, and have to disclose my small bladder to my seat mate (who 95% of the time is just fine with getting up multiple times during a short flight, or offers to switch seats with me).

The FA was wrong and not following federal regs and probably the airlines own rules.

14 CFR 121.575 - Alcoholic beverages.

§ 121.575 Alcoholic beverages.
(a) No person may drink any alcoholic beverage aboard an aircraft unless the certificate holder operating the aircraft has served that beverage to him.
(b) No certificate holder may serve any alcoholic beverage to any person aboard any of its aircraft who—
(1) Appears to be intoxicated;
(2) Is escorting a person or being escorted in accordance with49 CFR 1544.221; or
(3) Has a deadly or dangerous weapon accessible to him while aboard the aircraft in accordance with49 CFR 1544.219, 1544.221, or 1544.223.
(c) No certificate holder may allow any person to board any of its aircraft if that person appears to be intoxicated.

IMHO, I would be filing a complaint with the airline and the FAA.

I had much worse on an overnight in Business when the person next to me (paid becuase he told me) kept talking to me even when I made it clear I wanted to sleep. He regaled me with takes of his time in prison (only 2 stretches and only 2 years each), his brother who was doing life (but in UK so probably only 20 years) for murder, his very offensive views on how the female flight attendant fancied him (but not expressed like that), his views on oriental women (his much younger second wife is Thai) compared to British women. Flight attendant kept bringing him drink when he had clearly had too much but I think there would have been more of a kick off if she hadn't.

It was a waste of my hard earned miles to upgrade in the hope of a sleep but he was flying home for 24 hours for his mum's funeral so I just chalked it down to experience even though as a 40 something professional woman I found his views very offensive.

The OP lost me when they said that the first offence was ordering a beer as a pre-flight drink. The OP seems to have an image that beer drinkers are all lower class citizens than those who prefer Vodka Tonics or Wine.

I think I've become accustomed to weirdos who sing, whistle, and talk to themselves, as I do live in Japan so that also would not alarm me.

I happen to pee more than many people regardless of what I'm drinking (coffee, cola, beer, vodka, etc.)

I fly paid international business and domestic first quite often and I almost always order beer.

In the end, if I had some elitist prick like this OP next to me on a flight and I caught wind then I'd be awfully tempted to call them out even at the risk of grounding the flight.