Had something similar the other week. Was flying Canada to UA hub non-rev, meaning I boarded last. I snagged the last free Y seat on the plane (privileges does not include F travel, 3 empty seats) and it was this cramped seat near the rear lavs. "No worries," I tell myself, "at least I have my window seat to look over the Central US for the first time in my life".

Got to my window seat to find some guy had taken it, and I was bit peeved, but ultimately I didn't really care because I didn't want to make a stink as nonrev, plus we were so delayed I didn't want to engage the crew anymore than they were. Turns out the guy didn't even speak English when drink service came around because he took a good 30 seconds to convey his request for "water"

Service director came by mid-flight (or whatever UA calls them...pursers maybe?) and asked the gentleman if he was flying "pass travel". He had no idea what that meant, of course. It's my first nonrev so I, too, also don't know what "pass travel" means. I asked the crew member if he meant me since I was doing nonrev (because I look more "Nakomoto"-like on his manifest), and he said yes, we engaged in a bit of chatter, and he upgraded me to F with full meal service an hour after everybody else had eaten. Was really thankful to have the YDKWIA go my way and not have the other guy upgraded instead heheh

This is several months ago now so my memory is a bit hazy, but as far as I can recall that’s what it was. Maybe they put some on our flight since we were delayed by an hour leaving MKE. That part I remember clearly—my 1h40m layover in ORD became 0h40m and involved the long walk from F to C.

Oh yeah :td:!

Someone should tell Mom he won’t POSSIBLY be assigned to the F-18 pipeline until well after Academy graduation. And being such a Momma’s boy he doesn’t fit the typical fighter pilot profile. Had he been the one doing the confronting, (perhaps unfortunately) he’d probably be more likely to end up flying F-18s.

Reminds me of the Mom who demanded I call a plastic surgeon to the ER to remove a splinter from her 12 year old’s finger because he's “a piano player who's going to Julliard” (where admissions start at age 17-18).

Reminds me of cruise ship pax who, while in the middle of the ocean, ask us (crew) “where do you live (during the cruise)”? Some of them actually think the crew commutes to and from the ship every day.

(writing as ER doc, Navy Flight Surgeon, part-time cruise ship doc, 1800 hr private pilot Foreflight user)

My uncle was in the Air Force, my grandfather was Army -- and I will never forget the first time I sat in the front seat of an f-14 at Miramar -- so being a naval aviator it was for me (yes I'm old)..... But then my eyes went south -- so off to business school for me... I still to this day envy all AF / Naval aviators -- it was my life goal, but things worked out ok for me -- but I still dream about it weekly....

Part time cruise ship doc? Where do you live when you’re not a doctor? 😂

Nah. Had you sat in a F-4 Phantom or F-8 Crusader you’d be old. F-9 Cougar you’d be really old. Prop fighter you’d be …

Yeah, although I missed the days of working vacation cruise ship docs changing every week (in exchange for a free family cruise), I was still able to work just a week or 2 or 3 each year filling in for a 6-9 month contracted doc when one of them was on vacation or at a conference.

Hmmm, so many snarky, sarcastic, humorous, witty replies :D (all of which are beyond me :eek:), so little time :D.

To answer, IAW with FT forum rules, I’ll go with “here at FT” :tu:.

It was the early 1990's -- the funny thing is that I can still remember the feeling in the front seat -- and also being amazed at how "flimsy" the outer skin of an F-14 is -- way thinner and more pliable than I had imagined...

Still far from “old”, early 90’s children are still "babies" (in the age context, not any derogatory context) to some of us :).

Sorry if I’m writing the obvious. Skin didn’t have to be “thick”, it was designed to be mainly a missile fighter, not a gun fighter. Missile hit would bring it down regardless of skin thickness, gun hit was considered less likely (than prior fighters and a missile hit), skin thick enough to protect against either, especially with advancements in fighter gun projectiles, would have been prohibitively heavy, too heavy to fly. (I absolutely defer to those more knowledgeable than I.)

Yes -- the strength of these planes come from the frame, not the skin -- but It was just something I was not expecting at all for a supersonic modern aircraft -- when I would push on the panel it would literally "give" some -- was very surprising but learned a lot that day! I was able to try out multiple planes and each pilot thought that the model they flew was clearly the best lol -- especially the F14 pilots versus the F18...

There was a joke in another thread about the big guy upstairs pretending to be a pilot -- that's doubly true for fighter pilots!

OK - back to more DYKWIA!

Let's remember the thread topic -- DYKWIA stories (Traveling on United Airlines) -- recent posts have drifted away from thread topic

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Although it's not our airline I may have just come across the top Arline DYKWIA of 2023.


Note: If you have two police officers sitting on you while they're trying to hog tie you after you've been denied boarding by the captain and (allegedly) assaulted 3 gate agents yelling that you're an "American Executive Platinum Person" isn't going to help ...

what a tool. That looks like C29 DFW to me. I thought all the crazy stuff happens at MIA. Perhaps rack-o was on her way there.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b811084021.jpg


Rules are for the little people.

Obviously he can't see the sign - so I would have picked it up, waved it around a couple times, then placed it back on the table facing the miscreant for easier viewing.

This is why I need to waste Lysol wipes cleaning off tables and seats before I sit down in the lounge - and this isn't limited to United, it's everywhere except lounges in Asia where I've never seen anyone dare do something like this, nor do they need signs telling them not to.

I vote for more Lounge Dragons to be out and about in the lounge waking people up who are sleeping across multiple seats, scolding people with feet on furniture, confiscating outside food, tying up children who are running around screaming, waving "be quiet!" signs at people yelling into their phones, and slapping people who stick their hands in the food trays. Only then can peace and civility return to what should be a more refined experience.

ORD Polaris for the late LHR flight this week and had to listen to two blowhards get drunk in the tables across from the bar. Going on-and-on about how the premium spirits aren't as good as they were when Polaris opened. Talking about great lounges in the Mideast that are soooooo much better than the O'Hare Polaris. Throwing around Global Services a ton in travel stories. Eventually start yelling about Rolexes, blah, blah, blah. These guys are two lmid-to-ate 40s tools, work in some aspect of the private side of aerospace/defense. Eventually we go to board and it turns out not only are they both 1Ks but one of them couldn't even support an UG (C went out with 5 empty seats)! I'm in the galley waiting for the lav after take off and the one in business comes up and I engage him. He's telling me what a long travel day they've had and I ask where he started and he says "LAX" to which I just say with as much genuine curiosity as possible "Oh, they had direct LAX > LHR flights when I lived out there?". He tells me the only way to get in C as a Global Services was this routing. The purser overhead all of this and made the point of saying a very loud "thank you for being 1K" to him as he delivered his choice of meal.

I just don't understand how people make their way through the world like this.

I would note that he tipped the Polairs bar tended a grand total of $5 for his 6+ drinks in the 90 minutes before we boarded. Just strong showing all around.