MBS MillionMiler

And it's stories like this why I board with my headphones on, and don't take them out until landing. (Sometimes I just have them in my ear, with no sound/music coming in).

WineCountryUA

Got a bit off topic for a while, have clean out those OT items. Let's return to our regularly scheduled DYKWIA encounters during our UA travels

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

porciuscato

Hmm. Was he GS? A couple of years ago, while travelling in Greece, I encountered a prominent minister who was GS. Interesting to contemplate that you could get GS status while travelling around on tax-deductible donations. To be fair, this guy was personable and gracious -- not DYKWIA.

Artpen100

COSPILOT

Not sure if this is best thread for this, but here goes...

Sitting in 1F yesterday LAS-DEN, flight is delayed due to late inbound. No big deal as a few flights LAS-DEN had the same issue yesterday. Passenger in 2E waits until we are within minutes of taking off to alert the FA that while he travels often, he has severe anxiety issues (including claustrophobia) and asked for cooler temps and better communication from the pilot. She makes an effort from what I can see, but within a minute he rings her again and says he needs the air much cooler asap and better communication. It's Vegas in summer, kind of a given the airplane will be hot until airborne. End result is that we return to the gate, passenger is very cordial for his cause of our now second delay, is allowed off the airplane, and we finally leave again.

Given what I listened to, he sells IFE to the airlines, travels a lot, but has severe anxiety due to a few issues. None of those bother me as my MIL has the same, but I would suggest that he thinks about a different career that doesn't include flying. It didn't sound like this was the first time he has had the airplane return to the gate to help deal with his issues. He was very cordial, apologetic, didn't sound drunk, actually seemed like a very nice guy. Nevertheless, he needs to find a career that doesn't impact the entire airplane on the few occasions this happens to him.

lincolnjkc

This is a tough call, because I can really sympathize with the pax -- I truly love flying (and in fact the amount of travel I'm allowed to do for work is a significant factor in my employment satisfaction) -- but have an above average level of generalized anxiety and if you put me in an aisle seat/somewhere where I cant easily see out of the aircraft my onboard-anxiety level goes way up -- I use "slightly claustrophobic" as shorthand. I have a number of coping mechanisms when I can't get a window for whatever reason (my most successful is asking the window pax "Would you prefer the aisle?" and 80% of the time the answer is "absolutely"), and I can make it through a mid-con in the aisle if I have to. [But according to Flight Memory I've had 752 windows against 17 aisles since 2004 so...]

But: When I'm in a aisle and have things like rolling delays, can't see out, my anxiety level skyrockets -- I've always told myself its my problem so "deal with it" and internalize it without inconveniencing the pax around me, but I can totally get someone with more severe symptoms where you feel like the walls are closing in on you, sweating, poor air circulation, etc., just needs to get out to avoid freaking out. Now, of course, it would have been great had this happened earlier in the delay.

COSPILOT

Your thoughts sound like my MIL. She has no desire to impact others, although she only travels 1 or 2 times per year.

Again, I'm not upset with the passenger in question, I just wonder why someone would pick a career that puts them in a position of experiencing such conditions. My MIL will not step foot on an elevator, as such it would be foolish for her to sell and/or service them. Just sayin.

wxguy

Flew BKK-HKG on HX, the dreaded 0415 departure to connect to UA at HKG. We had a nice A330 with just two of us in J, the other pax being Mr. DYK. Arriving at HKG I queued up at the W1 transfer desk in the Premier Access lane to get my BP for F on the 3-class 772 to ORD, and Mr. DYK was behind me. I could hear him complain to the contract security agent asking the questions to get the passport sticker-of-the-day. "Do you know I'm United's number one customer? Why should I have to stand in this line?" Oy, I know Tom Stucker ua1flyer and Mr. DYK certainly wasn't our friend Tom!

Later we cleared security, took the train to the main terminal, and headed up to the lounges. I turned right in to the FCL, he went into the UC. Now IKWY Aren't!

Aussienarelle

When I read stories like these I so want to ask Mr DYKWIA if they remember "slumming" it in Y before they had status. Each of us is just trying to make it through each day and hopefully spread some joy in the process. The joy in this tale is presumably each person who had to deal with this person was glad to see the back of them. Mr DYW not wxguy.

lincolnjkc

^

I think too to a large extent the status is inversely proportional to the perceived status/privileges.

I remember when I was a (sCO) Silver traveling on Y/B (or whatever the predecessor to B was) fares and thinking I was hot stuff. Now that I have a few years in as a 1K (still on full fares...now spending more on airfare than my wife earns annually, but still not enough to earn GS) I realize that I am at best a small cog in a very large machine. This isn't just an airline thing -- I've seen people at Hilton whining "I'm a silver [bow down before me]" at the front desk (a few of whom a grumpy me has interrupted with "that's nice. I'm a diamond. Can I just check in please?"

Kacee

^
I came through HKG on Monday, and the lady checking BPs at security was just so genuinely pleasant and nice. And since HKIA doesn't have any kind of fast track security, it had nothing to do with anything that was printed on my BP. She was just doing her part to spread some joy, one passenger at a time.

Coskigirl

This is interesting. You're probably right in general but I find myself saying "I'm only a Gold" to most people around me. It's more often flight attendants that I'm friendly to who seem to be more respectful than I expect or family that is amazed by the few perks we get as Gold. I figure the flight attendants are that way because I stop and treat them like humans and with respect for their time/schedule/space. Especially on the LHR-DEN daytime route when I come back to the galley asking for a drink or snack or whatever.

mr8

We've all been there! I remember unexpectedly qualifying for silver the first time and having no idea what it meant or what the different tiers meant. I would guess 99% of the Silver DYKWIA are due to a lack of awareness and how things work or what perks they get.
Gold requires a bit more effort, and is where I think you become more self aware of the whole system and can more fully appreciate all the perks that come from frequent flyer programs. Probably the least number of DYKWIA in this group.

Once you get to Platinum and 1k, I think you start seeing more entitled DYKWIA people again because of the extra miles that they're flying, but at the same time they haven't yet realized there are also many other people that fly a lot more. e.g. the people that cut to the front of group 1. Yes, there are many people in group 1, and they're not just standing around the sign that says group 1 - they're actually lining up to board with group 1.

EWRMAN

This person may have only discovered their anxiety later in life when a career change was too hard?

caliform

This is such a fantastic thing to do — it makes your day better, it lightens up their day, and in doing so they'll likely spread that to others in small interactions. It's kind of a force multiplier of your own good intentions. I try to be police and nice with people in every service; from the hotel or car rental desk to flight attendants, they're all often treated like total garbage and a nice, human interaction is always well-received.