Tweet
Self-Important DYKWIA Pax
This is a rant, not about an airline but about an inevitable few who forget their manners and civility in the heat of the stresses of travel.
My first encounter this week: at BCN, in the Business Class line for AF, while the checkin agents were sorting out the passengers ahead of me (I was next in line), the two passengers behind me started whingeing:
"They're still talking. Can you believe it?"
"It's just two bags. It's been 25 minutes." (Wrong, it was barely over 5 minutes. I was timing it, as I was rushing to my flight thanks to the typically unhelpful IB staff
.)
"Should I say something to them? We're in business class." (Um, who else would be in this line?
)
"Yes, why don't you find out?"
"I'm going to say something", and the woman steps ahead of me to attempt to stand next to the two pax at the counter.
I turned to her and said, "Don't be obnoxious."
"I wasn't talking to you."
"You didn't need to be. You're about to be obnoxious, and you shouldn't do it."
"(to her husband) He called me obnoxious, can you believe that? (back to me) I wasn't talking to you."
"I don't care. You're going to take up the agent's time, so wait until it's your turn."
[stunned silence]
My second encounter: a much-delayed BA flight CDG-LHR, after the pilot went out-of-hours due to the storm-induced delays at CDG. One passenger is declaiming how this was "utterly unacceptable" (TBH, BA handled this one badly: no information to the passengers whatsoever, until the final announcement that we were to be ticketed to the next flight because of the hours restrictions on the flight crew). When he got to the topic of the pilot manufacturing the issue, I told him, "There are reasons for the legal restrictions. You don't want a fatigued pilot flying an aircraft."
At which point he launched into how he had operated as a surgeon when he was "out of hours" and how this couldn't be worse than that. Good Lord. I just told him, "You're wrong, and you don't even realize it."
"Well, I give so much business to BA, and this is how they treat me."
"(after a glance at his luggage tag) You're Silver?"
"YES I AM!"
"Stand in line, you're behind other people who give more business to the airline and who aren't being as difficult as you."
[pause, before he storms to a counter that opened up]
A fellow pax and I had a chuckle about this episode. Thank goodness for G&Ts on board.
Meanwhile, I will now always try to take Eurostar on Friday evening travels from Paris.
[I was scheduled to get into LHR at 19.35, I got there at midnight. Sigh: the travails of a road warrior.]
End of rant.
My first encounter this week: at BCN, in the Business Class line for AF, while the checkin agents were sorting out the passengers ahead of me (I was next in line), the two passengers behind me started whingeing:
"They're still talking. Can you believe it?"
"It's just two bags. It's been 25 minutes." (Wrong, it was barely over 5 minutes. I was timing it, as I was rushing to my flight thanks to the typically unhelpful IB staff
.)"Should I say something to them? We're in business class." (Um, who else would be in this line?
)"Yes, why don't you find out?"
"I'm going to say something", and the woman steps ahead of me to attempt to stand next to the two pax at the counter.
I turned to her and said, "Don't be obnoxious."
"I wasn't talking to you."
"You didn't need to be. You're about to be obnoxious, and you shouldn't do it."
"(to her husband) He called me obnoxious, can you believe that? (back to me) I wasn't talking to you."
"I don't care. You're going to take up the agent's time, so wait until it's your turn."
[stunned silence]
My second encounter: a much-delayed BA flight CDG-LHR, after the pilot went out-of-hours due to the storm-induced delays at CDG. One passenger is declaiming how this was "utterly unacceptable" (TBH, BA handled this one badly: no information to the passengers whatsoever, until the final announcement that we were to be ticketed to the next flight because of the hours restrictions on the flight crew). When he got to the topic of the pilot manufacturing the issue, I told him, "There are reasons for the legal restrictions. You don't want a fatigued pilot flying an aircraft."
At which point he launched into how he had operated as a surgeon when he was "out of hours" and how this couldn't be worse than that.
Good Lord. I just told him, "You're wrong, and you don't even realize it." "Well, I give so much business to BA, and this is how they treat me."
"(after a glance at his luggage tag) You're Silver?"
"YES I AM!"
"Stand in line, you're behind other people who give more business to the airline and who aren't being as difficult as you."
[pause, before he storms to a counter that opened up]
A fellow pax and I had a chuckle about this episode. Thank goodness for G&Ts on board.
Meanwhile, I will now always try to take Eurostar on Friday evening travels from Paris.
[I was scheduled to get into LHR at 19.35, I got there at midnight. Sigh: the travails of a road warrior.]
End of rant.
Comment