Do you mind if I borrow your pen?
#166
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 17,415
Ooh, that gives me an evil idea! Next time my pen explodes in flight, instead of throwing it out I will put the cap back on and store it in my bag. When someone presumes to ask to borrow a pen, I'll give them the busted pen. Then, not only will they not be able to fill out their form, they'll have ink all over their fingers and possibly clothes, too!
I DO NOT WISH TO BE DISTURBED. ASK ME AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
#167
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, IHG, Enterprise, Avios, Nexus
Posts: 8,355
CAUTION: AMATEUR TRAVELER. MAY NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE AT ANY TIME.
#168
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 17,415
And I really wasn't addressing the one who asks to borrow a pen. I was addressing the guy who says he wants to essentially throw ink all over someone for having the temerity, the gall to address his highness.
#169
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Programs: No programs & No Points!!!
Posts: 14,222
Ooh, that gives me an evil idea! Next time my pen explodes in flight, instead of throwing it out I will put the cap back on and store it in my bag. When someone presumes to ask to borrow a pen, I'll give them the busted pen. Then, not only will they not be able to fill out their form, they'll have ink all over their fingers and possibly clothes, too!
#170
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,808
Hand them a pen, and then add: "Do you want me to fill it out for you too??"
#171
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: SJC/SFO
Programs: WN A+ CP, UA 1MM/*A Gold, Mar LT Tit, IHG Plat, HH Dia
Posts: 6,284
#172
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 1,684
Ding, ding, ding. You essentially are expecting to be able to tell him, "Give me your pen." People are free to answer you no. Given your reaction and that of your spouse, perhaps the guy learned to not like you over the course of the flight and didn't care to help you in any way.
#174
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 167
Fair is polite. Fair is accepting that each gentleman (and gentlewoman) owes a duty of assistance to every single person in the world if they ask for something so minor.
#175
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 167
Ding, ding, ding. You essentially are expecting to be able to tell him, "Give me your pen." People are free to answer you no. Given your reaction and that of your spouse, perhaps the guy learned to not like you over the course of the flight and didn't care to help you in any way.
#176
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,808
Besides, a true gentleman carries his own pen.
#177
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 80
I was once asked by a young lady if I could loan her a pen,
I offered her the choice of two, a ball point or a roller-ball and she responded by saying "you're well equipped"
I can think of all sorts of witty rejoinders now, but at the time my only response was a weak smile.
I offered her the choice of two, a ball point or a roller-ball and she responded by saying "you're well equipped"
I can think of all sorts of witty rejoinders now, but at the time my only response was a weak smile.
#178
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Southern California
Programs: AA EXPlat, 2.4MM; HHonors Diamond
Posts: 580
As a factual matter, and not subject to determination by you or anyone else, a request by a fellow traveler to borrow a pen for a few minutes, to fill out travel forms, is hardly more than "minor." You, sir, are not a gentleman in my view.
#179
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: ICN / 평택
Programs: AA, DL Gold, UA Gold, HHonors Gold
Posts: 8,714
Filling out immigration forms by hand is pretty old fashioned anyway. Some countries have done away with them as an archaic waste of time and paper. I mean, does anybody really read them, other than the immigration officer who may or may not give it a perfunctory glance while scanning your passport? Customs should be you either declare your stuff at the red channel or take your chances being spot checked going through the green lane or whatever the local equivalent is.
A better way to do it is to offer an online version, kind of like an ETA but without making visitors pay for filling out the form like an e-visa. Or hand out the cards at the check in desk or at the gate so people can fill them out before they board.
I will probably have a pen with me in the overhead bin, but it is a pain sometimes to get up and get it, fit out the form, then get back up and replace it in my bag. Even more so if I'm not in the aisle seat and I have to make someone stand up twice so I can get it.
A better way to do it is to offer an online version, kind of like an ETA but without making visitors pay for filling out the form like an e-visa. Or hand out the cards at the check in desk or at the gate so people can fill them out before they board.
I will probably have a pen with me in the overhead bin, but it is a pain sometimes to get up and get it, fit out the form, then get back up and replace it in my bag. Even more so if I'm not in the aisle seat and I have to make someone stand up twice so I can get it.
#180
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,808
I am such a gentleman that I travel with a Montblanc given to me by my great grandfather who died on the beaches at Normandy, and I shall not be hand it out to an amateur traveler, who is allegedly an adult and who lacks the foresight to have a writing implement on their person when traveling.
You may think a pen is a minor thing, but to many it is not.