And then what? Call the police to have him dragged off?

Just the beat the heck out of him and send him back to economy. ;)

You damaged something! I’m a 1K!
 

Sitting in 20A on 777HD HNL-LAX redeye last night. Late boarding passenger was in 17C asks purser for help in finding space for his medium-sized rollaboard. Purser sees space in bin above 17D. FA scoots a soft-side bag over and lifts 17C’s bag into bin, although it has to lean somewhat onto soft side, then closes bin w/o having to force item into bin or apply extra effort to close bin. He then leaves. A half-minute later irate 17D gets up and asks 1C multiple times why he put his stuff in his bin. 17C says the FA did (multiple times). FA notices irate passenger who then says “I’m a 1K - why did you treat my bag like that? You probably damaged something!” (W/o looking in bag). GA come over and tells 1K 17D that she’s trying to close flight. He takes picture of her w/ his phone. She goes away and comes back a minute later and asks him multiple times to open bag and show her any damaged items for a report. He refuses.

Finally, they move his bag to another bin. GA tells him she’s filing a report indicating he claimed potential damage but refused to show any.

United employees were both very professional during and after incident.

Before de-planing, I wrote a summary of what I saw and gave it to the purser in case it became a “he said, she said” deal. He was extremely appreciative.

He's lucky he wasn't off-loaded for taking a photo of the employee (I assume w/o his permission). He lucked out on that.

That’s one option.

Sadly I have seen this scenario played out many times. In fact so many times that this is one reason I tend not bring carry on with me and check everything. People get reall ugly sometimes for even mildly encroaching on "their" overhead space. Weird what can I say.

Just made this post in another thread -- here's how I think we got here.... The Overhead Hunger Games Evolution

1k on 2143 ewr-sju 4/28 brings mutt w/o any papers. mutley leaves a steamer in aisle & 1k asks fa to clean it up. new kid too scared to say no…. carpet still stank on return from sju-ewr.

This charmer wouldn't happen to be a marginally famous baseball player, would he?

I don’t mind little doggies on board, but the rules of the road are “pooch poops you clean”. Aside from being a disgusting request of a stranger, the crew member is still required to serve food and beverages to the rest of the cabin and no amount of hand washing is enough to quell the ick factor there.

I’m surprised other customers didn’t speak up to stop the FA from cleaning it

The flip side of this is that the concern about damage to soft side items in overhead is often legit. Some pax will just jam their roller in on top of other bags with zero consideration for others' belongings. It's become a total no-win on both sides (which is exactly your point, I think).

Ummm, sorry, is it really possible to fully clean the floor? This is just disgusting. Real service animals don't behave this way. Pets don't belong on planes, certainly not outside of a carrier, and certainly not poorly trained pets. OK, another thread, I know, but to me ultimate DYKWIA behavior is to impose an animal on others in a small tin can, in close quarters -- especially one that isn't trained properly.

they dont want to pay the service charge so every muteroo is now an emotional support aminal…

ESA on UA? thought that was long gone
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...an-2020-a.html

It is long gone. Even with "service animals" you have to jump through quite a few hoops.

Not sure if this counts, but his attitude made it feel right to post here. Me in 21C. Him in 21D. A few times during the flights his phone has played a little music for a second at a time, not super loud, annoying but whatever. Midflight he starts playing music. I look at him and he says "are you looking at me? are you talking to me?".

Me: "Yeah, can you use a headset?"
"I don't have a headset, so no."

Me: "This is a shared space."
"I fly a lot, this is ok"

Me: "Well, it is a small shared space."
"This is my phone, I paid for it. I can use it how I want"

Me: Shake head, go back to laptop work.
"Don't tell me how to fly."

Sigh. I really wish FAs would consistently announce headset mandate. I notice further back multiple kids who have been quite lovely on the flight all have headsets on for their games. My wife's tactic when someone is being a real jerk is to play music that will annoy the offending party which usually works within seconds as they suddenly understand how one person's tastes could be really annoying to someone else.

I do notice that he has turned it down and after like 15 minutes has not put the extra device away (he has two phones), so maybe my interaction worked but he just wanted to save face. Let's see if it lasts for the final two hours.

Ask him to get a set of those free ones from the FA.

I usually have a set they'd hand out on flights in my bag, and I just give them away whenever appropriate.
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Good for you for confronting him. I would also notify the FA.

I actually thought about getting the FA, but I don't feel like escalating at 30k feet and he's quieted down -- if he had increased the volume or continued I would get up and find an FA. I thought about getting him a UA headset or handing him one (I keep wrapped, new spares in my bag just for this situation.... "oh no! You forgot your headset? No worries, I just happen to have a pair here that you can have"). My read of the situation is that getting the FA involved would lead to a situation and I'm not up for it today. His attitude is a tad belligerent..

Oooo! Bobby De Niro!!

If De Niro inexplicably likes to fly with his left shoe on and his right shoe off for half the flight and both shoes off for the other half....You are one odd dude, Mr Flies A Lot.

OK, now I am actually ticked off. I see fancy Bose-like headset in his bag. The twit just likes to mark his territory with annoying music it seems. I should have give him some Bollywood or opera.

I would n:mad:t have put up with music playing without headphones like that. I'd have tried another polite ask and then if that didn't work I'd suggest that I could push the FA call button, reach for it, and if necessary push it. 95% of the time I'd bet that by the time I reached for the call button the problem would have gone away. I do realize it's harder with the person in the adjacent seat because whatever happens you have to deal with them for the rest of the flight. But what's been described is simply unacceptable.

Opera is not annoying. Huh? It’s the other music that’s the problem. ;)

At least he was across the aisle

I totally hear you, and have in the past been more forceful, but not today. I could list a bunch of reasons, but, just not today in this specific circumstance was it worth the trouble to me -- especially as he quieted down.

Admitting to making some big assumptions based on age and what he was listening to about what might annoy him. :-)

Lo and behold, as we enter the final 45 minutes of flight has has put on the headphones. Maybe he's been reading this FT thread on his other phone? Landing shortly, thanks for letting me vent from here in the tin can. (I gave my wife my upgraded seat in F and she's messaged me that the guy next to her was on the phone yelling at his employees and giving orders loudly on his cell and demanding mimosas from the FA when he boarded. Then he complained about not getting his selection and then the quantity of omelette (which my wife confirmed was very small, she thinks they cut it up). He invoked I fly every week so I know what the meal should be and I'm a MM. So we both got some oddness today and she def qualifies for DYKWIA.... Otherwise good flight and crew and pax)

Yep.

As soon as I heard "This is my phone, I paid for it. I can use it how I want" my index finger would shoot right up to that call button in 1.0 nanoseconds.

Tool.

We were pre-boarding with 1Ks recently at SFO. Two people run up as an elderly couple starts to scan their boarding passes and one asks loudly if Global Services has been called. GA says yes and the GS person says "I'm Global Services!" and cuts in the middle of the couple that's scanning their passes. So, one person has just scanned and their companion has just been cut off by this GS who now gestures for their companion (who, for their part, seemed a little embarrassed) to also cut in front.

The person who has already scanned their pass asks the GS if their companion can scan in since they're traveling together. GS huffs and says fine but doesn't move, so the person has to walk around them to go scan. Then the GS scans... error sound. Scans again, error. GA looks and tells them they're at the wrong gate and they go off running again.

Personally I don't care if a GS wants to cut the line, but cutting in the middle of a couple or a group traveling together seems a bit rude.

I am not GS but 1K but will note I find the manners of the GS pax far better than a number of the 1K pax on my flights. That GS flyer does sound quite obnoxious.

There's an anecdotal theory that if you look at the athletes on an Olympic (or other championship podium), Gold & Bronze both look very happy, but Silver always looks miserable... I will assume you can fill in the metaphor yourself... :)

Or sing a long to the music. It’s your voice. I would notify the FA too; it’s annoying behavior.

… or, you could tell the GS people about Chairman’s Circle: we could all look sad together.

As a GS for the last decade I can represent that ~75% of the time someone who isn't disabled or military boards before me (and the other GS pax waiting with me) and we generally take it in stride. I also don't board before disabled even if they're taking a long time to get to the podium (and so they've already called GS).

Meanwhile, as a newly minted CK on AA, I will tell you that ~50% of the time they find me at the gate and take me down the jet bridge 30 seconds before boarding even starts. Which avoids all of the etiquette and guilt associated with great privilege!

Last week was boarding a flight and my upgrade cleared at the gate. It was an EMB-175 and lightly loaded at that. I was in no hurry to board, just traveling with a backpack. I approached to board, returning the agent's good morning, and someone came hurrying up from behind and stepped inches in front of me just as I scanned my phone on the reader - which beeped because of the upgrade and the agent had to print a new boarding pass to scan. The beep was barely even done before this person put his phone on the scanner, got another beep, and kept going down the jetway. Whatever happened, it messed up what the agent needed to do and took an extra minute to resolve. The agent just shook her head. I boarded and found the man in my seat (a single A seat), so I said "Excuse me, that is my seat." He replied that oh, I figured everyone in First was on the plane already and wanted me to take his seat across the aisle. It was a 40 minute flight at 6am so I normally would have done such a swap if someone were polite about it or had a legit reason. I suggested maybe in his hurry to bumrush the gate he neglected to read his seat number. He mumbled something and got up, not even taking the seat he said was his correct one.

Had the pleasure of removing an obnoxious passenger and his family the other week on UA110. An angry moron with his family called the lead FA an "aisle donkey" and a few other nasty things when he was told he had to check one of his bags (Not sure how the GA allowed it on board, but that's a whole other story). He informed all of us that he would sue the airline and us personally for discrimination, because he was a Trump supporter, and we clearly hate America and didn't want him to fly. I wish I could make this stuff up because the reality is terrifying that people behave this way...

(I must admit, it was the first time I've ever heard a flight attendant being called an "aisle donkey" and we did have a good laugh over that one later on in the flight.)

Did he call you a “cockpit donkey” 757FO? :)

If he had, I may have fallen onto the floor laughing!!!

Just had a family deplaned [unboarded lol] for a very similar comment by a mom when told to put her things in bin up here in business since back bins were full. Then lots of husband and wife arguing loudly in Hindi (family had Indian Paasports in hand and one of my employees travelling with me is a native hinds speaker and translated-husband was not happy with wife) and then they took them off and loaded some standbys.

On 102 and it delayed us about 20 minutes.

Yelling is never a good plan regardless of who you are.

thank you for enforcing basic behavior, I wish more crew were willing -- polite paying pax appreciate not flying with morons who make the experience worse for all of us

It could have been worse - they could have demanded, or tried to physically force, someone else from their PP or F seat to accommodate her and her friends, it's not like that situation hasn't been reported here over the years.