OK, sounds bad. Unless something happened that filing a police report would be a consideration, I’d move on. Your mom’s next step is file a complaint against UA w/ FAA. Your mom would have to do that, not you. Is it worth that? Your decision. Do you just want more money from UA or have the situation addressed by the regulatory agency?

There’s compensation for non-working entertainment system. Non-working entertainment system is not against FAA rules. Serving a drunk passenger is. If you’re not willing to file a complaint against FAA, it just seems you’re choosing to walk away - if you can extort more money from UA. If you (and your mom) are really upset by the situation, file a complaint against UA w/ the FAA. If you don’t think that’s worthwhile, how do you expect others to think how serious the situation was? If it was not serious enough to bother filing, it is not serious enough to just move on.

😱

I am drinking the whole bottle, but my personality does not make me a belligerent drunk like the person in the original post. I would just be using the restroom every 5 minutes instead while watching my movie.

Quite à propos to liken the boorish lout to a baby. The FA should have adopted the parent role therefore and handled the "baby".
Given the effects of alcohol on the body at altitude, I am askance that some people think that it's just a part of flying and being on vacation experience.

If you want to have your mind blown try to find the FT story about the guy who had 8 bottles (might be more) of champagne on a TPAC flight.

Assuming the drunk guy paid for his seat and didn't explicitly violate any rules, what grounds would there be for moving him to a different seat?

And, if he had been violent, I'm pretty sure protocol would still entail keeping him in the same seat, possibly with restraints.

I disagree that there was no other option. Either the purser or the Captain should have pulled the individual aside and informed him quietly but firmly that unless he stopped annoying other passengers, he would be escorted off the plane upon arrival and referred for possible legal action. Why should a passenger who is behaving appropriately be asked to move? All that does is encourage other inconsiderate idiots to behave in the same manner.

If bad behavior in the air continues to be ignored, all we're doing is laying the groundwork for more of it.

Sure, they could have and maybe should have taken such action, but moving him to a different seat isn't in that playbook.

But when I tell the FA that the loud person who spilled a drink also sexually assaulted me, the FA and anyone within earshot is going to believe me. That doesn't work for revenge against a baby.

As you note, the CFR uses the term "Appears to be intoxicated" but doesn't define that or give any guidance on how that standard should be applied.

That puts the G/As and F/As in a tough position. Some people are very obviously intoxicated, and make the decision easy, but many are not. There is no easy way to tell, just by behavior, how intoxicated a person is. How do you get the many tens-of-thousands of G/As and F/As, in the US airline industry, to consistently and accurately apply an undefined standard that essentially becomes a judgement call? I don't think you can.

I also don't have any suggestions on how to improve the regulation.

While we sit around typing about this incident, we imagine what we would have done to handle the situation and we imagine that our solution will work. Very frequently, it doesn't. The offender does not respond how we imagine they will.

Because it’s the path of least resistance. I had a somewhat similar situation earlier this year out of SEA going north on AS. In my situation, I quietly reported a clearly impaired man sitting in the middle seat next to me (from who knows what) prior to takeoff. The kerfuffle that ensued between the GA, FAs, and pilot deciding what to do ended with me being seen as the “problem” for holding up the plane. He was moved into another seat and that was that. Moving on.


The real issue began mid-flight. He was traveling on work orders with his crew, but I didn’t realize that one of his friends was sitting in the window seat in my row. That guy began to harass and threaten me for reporting his friend, even taking off his shoe and using that to intimidate me. My mistake was in reporting the issues to the FA. She looked at the guy’s shoe on the middle seat and decided to move me. No warning to the pax, no nothing except telling me she had drinks to serve. She could move me out of premium and into the tight seats. I moved to keep the peace. He sauntered off the plane without any repercussions.

I am not sure you are allowed to spill your drinks over on other passengers. Once can be a tolerable accident, second time definitely calls for action

I really disagree with this framing, which reads like it's blaming the victim. "Choosing to walk away" implies some dereliction of duty. It's not the passenger's duty to enforce compliance with federal regulation. And "extort"? Come on. Money (or comparable things of value) is usually how arm's-length parties compensate each other for harm in the Western world. It sounds (no, I wasn't there) like the flight attendant might have fallen short of FAA rules, to this passenger's modest harm. It's not "extortion" to request compensation here.

you could be elected

We didn't say whether we think it's worthwhile or not. We will definitely consider filing with the FAA.

​​Expecting a considerable compensation is not about extorting UA, but more like not being too hard on them if they show they take responsibility of the mattet
So far they have Have not