lksf

My mom was travelling in PP and had a terrible experience with an intoxicated seatmate.
The FA took way too long to handle it, and as part of it offered HER to move to economy (rather than kicking him to the back).
I sent a very angered complaint to UA but their response was quite plain with a minimal flight credit voucher.

Is it worth fighting with them over it? Or just take the credit and leave it?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

No easy solution relative to a move - moving drunkard to possibly more packed coach section doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. More people might be affected. Seems like the solution suggested was the lesser of two less-than-ideal ones. Plus, attempting to move him might have set off something more violent - you just never know.

If it was more annoying than any illegal personal infringement on your mom, I’d just move on.

canadiancow

Yeah, I'm a little confused by what "intoxicated seatmeat" really means.

I suspect if the FA had to "handle it", then it was bad. But it's hard to tell if it was just "they knocked over their glass once" or "they threw up all over me".

lksf

Started just being extra loud, threw all his cups and bottles on the floor when it's "invading" her floor space as well (she was by the window, he was the isle), invading personal space, and knocked over his glasses, to her side, twice.

jpezaris

Bottles? He was served alcohol while visibly intoxicated?

scj

I agree with the other posters. Realistically there were no good options given the flight was in the air. No matter where the man was moved to he would just end up disrupting others (no one wins). Only vindication would be if the airline penalized him in some way (not sure if you would know about it though).

lincolnjkc

As someone who was assaulted/groped by a drunk passenger during boarding my sympathies and UA cleats could have handled the inflight portion better (in my case it was during boarding and the first FA was like 'oh, we'll just find someone to switch seats with you" and when I made it clear that wasn't a good option another FA grabbed the captain and had him booted -- obviously on the ground with the door open there's a lot more that can be done than at 30,000 feet.

And if so the crew violated 14 CFR 121.575, if they were visibly intoxicated before takeoff they legally could not have been permitted to board, and in any event the incident should have been reported to the FAA within 5 days (in my case I was specifically asked to complete an inflight incident report/witness statement)

A complaint to the FAA/DOT could be warranted if OP's mother were so inclined:

lksf

They stopped serving him only after she complained for the second time when his drink spilled on her pants and seat for the second time

enviroian

if he's a professional drunk he brought his own minnies and tried to conceal pouring them.

kabroui

If he was a professional drunk he wouldn't have acted like he did.... he sounds like an amateur drunk to me.....

AJNEDC

This is one aspect of flying I do not understand. Especially some trip reports where the creator of the report goes to great pains to indicate the number of glasses of champagne and wines they imbibe. I was viewing one yesterday where two glasses of champagne were consumed in the lounge and 8 glass of alcoholic beverages for a 7 hour flight on board. I don't understand why...

The treatment of this mother reminds me of the oft mentioned "blame the victim". Thread starter: I would report the incident to the FAA/DOT. She should not have had to put up with this.

moondog

Drinking $2000 worth of Salon is a logical extension of, "I got this ticket for 70k miles + $5.60, and see how much value I'm extracting."

I must admit that since I would (probably) never buy $1500/bottle wine, when it's offered for "free", I order a glass or two out of curiosity.

paul21

For better or worse it’s part of flying and being on vacation. The reality, however, is people can be terrible seatmates regardless of alcohol consumption. There’s no FAR against talking loudly or spilling drinks. When you remove the alcohol from this situation that’s all we are left with, no assault or unwanted touching just loud talking and spilling drinks.

Babies also do this often and they have been known to throw food and spill drinks and bottles.

Repooc17

Last time I encountered a drunk seatmate on UA, there was a happy ending

downinit

After a few drinks in the lounge, and a few more before/during dinner, I was definitely above the legal limit for the first half of my flight yesterday, but I certainly wasn't rude, surly, or slovenly. In fact, alcohol makes me a lot more mellow and friendly (or at least slightly less of a curmudgeon). Not all people are bad drunks, and many sober people are completely insufferable.