jaybag

FN, if I was traveling with a woman (mom, sister, girlfriend, wife, mistress, concubine, etc.) and only one of our tickets got upgraded, I can't think of a single scenario where I'd relegate my companion to the back of the plane. Even if she was really cool and insisted I take the seat in the pointy end of the plane, I wouldn't do it - if nothing else, I'd feel too guilty (and it looks really bad too!)

jaybag

Thanks BB - but I admit if I was a little more awake and not focused solely on getting my bag and going home, I might've said more than I did. Which, as pointed out by FlightNurse, was exactly what the guy wanted anyway - to get a reaction from me. He was, as the British say, "all talk and no trousers". I mean, if you really want to throw down with some guy, do you make your threats as you're walking away from him???

built

You, sir, are a good person. I truly admire and respect your kindness and your restraint.

I cannot say that I would have been as even-tempered.

Even though I do not know you, it upsets me that you even had to deal with these deadbeats.

God bless you.

Flyingfox

Bad advice.

The best thing to do in these situations is to ignore the person completely.

I would go so far as to put on earphones, etc.

If you react, you are giving the go ahead to a poorly mannered person who is looking for a fight. Do you really want to waste time with a loser like this?
You can either ignore them for a few minutes or have it escalate into an ugly situation that might end up involving the police for several hours.

PTravel

Well-handled, jaybag!

The only thing I might have done differently was, when the Jeff Foxworthy-wannabe threatened me, I would have said, "Oh, okay, hold on a sec while I dial 911 . . ." and I would have pulled out my phone and done so. I have little patience with Neanderthal mentalities and much prefer to leave their handling and domestication to the experts.

Flyingfox

Now this is the funniest thing I have heard in quite a while!

jaybag

Me too! Yes PTravel I'd have called 911 or gotten airport security involved if he'd made those threats while walking towards me. But since he was making them as he was walking away wheeling his family's bags, I didn't give those threats a whole lot of credence. Let's just say I felt perfectly safe starting my own car that night

My friend Stu read my story. He's the kind of guy who's a very straight shooter and looks at things from all angles. He has four kids of his own and talked about how traveling with them is a nightmare (like Eightblack's epic story on that other thread). He didn't excuse DB's behavior (particularly at baggage claim) but said he can relate to the frustration of trying to get his family six seats together, and he said "probably the moment you even hesitated for a second about changing seats was enough to make them go ballistic." Again, not excusing it, but explaining it from the POV of someone who's been there.

cmn.jcs

+1 ^

Quite the example you set.

PTravel

Hmmmm. I'd recommend reading some of (many, many) threads about entitlement-demanding parents and seat-swapping. Short version: As we used to say in aerospace, "The lacking of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

jaybag

Couldn't agree more. Going back to the DB's, good questions are: why on earth would you request an upgrade in a situation like that? Did they really think all four of them were going to get upgraded in a 16-seat first class cabin on a Friday night? Couldn't you somehow say "we need all four or none at all"? I can only imagine what would've happened if only one cleared: it would've been dad alone in FC with his hysterical sobbing wife taking care of the two hysterical sobbing kids in Coach!

Far Siren

I'm envious of your calm demeanour throughout all this. I would have involved the LAPD as soon as I heard the first slur...

BadgerBoi

aaah, my favourite threads! Give me a good bunch of posts about entitlement, family separation or seat poaching and I'm happy for hours!

PTravel

They are fun!

bulkhead

I agree that you handled this as a true gent.

It's a shame I wasn't on your flight and overheard this. It's possible I would have walked past and accidentally tripped and spilt my drink on one or other of the DBs. I *may* have done this on other similar occasions already.

Bulkhead.

BadgerBoi

Twelve years ago I was flying with my mother and we were separated on the flight - same row but across the aisle and with another passenger in between us.

Now, this was three days after my father's funeral so you can imagine that we weren't feeling our happiest and we were appreciating each others' company. But it didn't occur to either of us to try to rearrange people just so we could sit next to each other for the ninety minute flight. It would have been changing an aisle seat for an aisle seat...

We are both, to this day, alive and well so it's pretty clear that the experience didn't do either of us irreparable damage.