Mr. Mutter

August 21, 2008

in Passenger Stories

Right before boarding a flight from SEA to PHX, my daughter handed me a sub sandwich and a bag of chips for the trip. Once on board and seated next to the window (I usually request an aisle seat, but the aircraft type had changed), I dug out my book and began to relax. A few minutes later another man stopped, looked at me, then at his ticket, and stated loudly that he ALWAYS got a window seat. I mentioned the change of aircraft type, which didn’t help the matter. When I didn’t budge, he sat down in the middle seat (the one he’d been assigned) and continued to grumble aloud. He then stopped the flight attendant who graciously apologized but gave him the same explanation as I did. She departed for the mandatory cabin check and he continued his muttering, cursing everything and everyone associated with the airline, the flight staff and the Pope, the Queen, and the President. After 20 minutes or so he drifted off to sleep, and I went back to my book.

About two hours into the flight I reached for the sub and the chips, and was quietly munching away when Mr. Mutter awoke, still damning the corporate airline world. He looked at me, looked at the pax across the aisle, and started his nonsense again. Leaning closer to me than I cared, I simply held up the sub and stated: “Looks like I got the last one,” and continued to finish the meal. He pushed the call button and accused the poor flight attendant of not making sure there was enough food to go around, and what was she going to do about it? The poor perplexed FA had no idea what he was talking about, but offered to bring him a bag of nuts. This brought on another muttering outburst that lasted until final approach in PHX. He jumped up and was out of the plane as soon as the doors were opened. I stopped to explain to the FA what it was all about which brought a smirk then a slight giggle to the crew.

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Anna Marie April 2, 2009 at 10:04 am

Yay for leaving the FA in a crappy position with a horrid man? That's not something to be proud of.

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Denim April 2, 2009 at 11:42 am

At least she explained it later.

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jag April 2, 2009 at 4:44 pm

the women sounds like a same-same horrid asso. ms. prissy had the FA's giggling after. what an irritating troll she is.

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Chris April 2, 2009 at 6:09 pm

LOL, man I laughed pretty hard on that one. I think that was a pretty good joke and glad the FA took it ok. HAHAHA!

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Abe April 3, 2009 at 9:19 am

Most of you need to lighten up.. This was VERY funny..

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Kay April 3, 2009 at 6:04 pm

I'm still trying to figure out what "the change of aircraft type" means

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Rob April 3, 2009 at 7:34 pm

"Looks like I got the last one", but here's some peanuts had me roaring!

I'm a huge fan of this sort of calmly delivered cruelty to irritating travel mates.

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bradfield April 4, 2009 at 7:03 am

Sounds like the fun-est flight EVER, why is it even on here

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Rob April 25, 2009 at 5:47 pm

bradfield, aren't we allowed to get one back for the good guys once in a while.

This story has helped me realize that being prepared to screw around with somebody's mind is a win. They go nuts (of course no pun intended) and you get a nice, hearty laugh.

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Kevin May 14, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Change of aircraft type is when the aircraft assigned to the flight was not available due to mechanical or other problem, they have to get another subtitute equipment, which is usually smaller than original equipment. It changes all the seating assignments and come down to first come/first serve/frequent flyer status to choose the seat.

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