This isn’t really a flight from hell per se, but led to an amusing incident.
It stated when my wife and I recently returned from a trip to Europe on a US Airways flight from Rome – Charlotte, NC. It was a crowded flight, with few or no free seats. We get there, find a younger lady in my wife’s window seat. I like the aisle for easy restroom access, my wife likes the window seat for comfort and viewing. So we’re pretty good flying companions.
Anyway, this woman is tall, but not super tall. Maybe 6 feet. She was slightly irritated with having to move, my wife could tell. Me: clueless. But I did catch the next part. She says to my wife: “Hon, I’m REALLY tall so could you let me know if you’re gonna put your seat back?” Sez me little wifey: “Sure, no problem!” So after half an hour or so after we get settled, my wife turns around and says “I’m going to go ahead and put my seat back just to let you know.” The woman says “WHATEVER!…grumble grumble” all pissed-off like.
So my wife just decides right there that it’s ON, and she’s gonna spend the maximum time with her seat back as far as it will go. Not only that, she’s not going to tell this woman shit, just does it – forcefully – whenever she feels like it. The tall woman and her seat partner, an older woman, give us the fish-eye the whole time, make rude comments, “accidentally” bump our seats etc. They had the FA ask me to raise my seat back during meal times. OK no problem… but why is it only a problem with MY seat back and everybody else on the plane puts their chairs where they want? Even when we steal a kiss, those biznatches found it necessary to comment. But mostly I am clueless; my wife picks up on all this hostility.
Finally we land, and this woman is still going on and on about how the seats go back too far, and how can people be allowed to put them back so far, etc. etc. Wrong thing to say… finally my wife has had enough. She says “You know, if you’re not comfortable you can go first class. For 10 hours I’ve heard you complain and I’ve heard enough from you.” The tall one weakly replies something about people being inconsiderate. My wifey then says “Oh yeah, you’re real considerate bumping our seats and talking behind us like you did. I paid for my seat just like you! Don’t complain to me, complain to the airline!” Me and the rest of the folks are being entertained by the scene; I say nothing except to point out that I’m over 6 feet tall and I don’t expect special treatment from those in front of me. So it continued to escalate with my wife doing most of the talking and not-quite-yelling until the woman starts laughing nervously and my wife calling her a crazy bitch as we started to exit the aircraft.
Part of this might have been racial hostility or stereotyping; my wifey is Chinese and mostly pretty quiet, in public anyway! Maybe the woman thought she could punk her and my wife wouldn’t defend herself. How wrong she was! It was interesting that none of the FAs arrived on the scene to try to defuse the situation. Maybe they were just busy, or maybe like the rest of the passengers they were enjoying the cat fight! Just one more reason I love my little wifey! She’s a tough little bitch!
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