Mr. Gold Chains

September 13, 2009

in Passenger Stories

On my way home from visiting my sister, I was assigned to the dreaded middle seat on a full flight. In the window seat was a man who looked like he was transported from the lizard lounge a la 1970s–open shirt, gold chains, middle-aged. An older woman was already sitting in the aisle seat, so I said, “Excuse me, I’m in the middle seat.” Mr. Gold Chains looked me up and down and said with a creepy smirk, “Well, hello Middle Seat!”

As I sat down, I prayed that the guy wouldn’t talk to me the entire flight. I got my wish. However, as soon the plane started to taxi, he took out a pile of hard-core porn magazines, which he proceeded to thumb through, at an angle where he seemed to be showing them to me. I tried hard to read the paperback book I had bought back at the terminal, but he went through each magazine page by page in a slow manner the ENTIRE flight, chuckling and making comments about the pictorials. The elderly woman in the aisle seat was asleep and therefore oblivious. The flight attendant probably noticed and therefore avoided our row like the plague because she didn’t ask us what we wanted to drink during the beverage service until Mr. Gold Chains buzzed her for attention. He ordered a shot of liquor, of course, and used one of his open magazines as a coaster.

The flight was four hours but seemed to be much, much longer. It was the worst experience ever. As if that wasn’t enough, when we were standing to get off the plane, Mr. Gold Chains decided it was okay to lean over me in a manner that was way too close for comfort. I still feel completely grossed out and violated just remembering it all.

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

saw September 14, 2009 at 2:29 am

Wait… so lemme get this straight… nobody smelled bad, was overweight and intruding into your seat, talking too much, kicking your seat, oozing on you… or anything like that…

You're complaining about a guy reading porn and a sleeping old lady.

Sorry – but if that was your "worst experience ever", than either you're lucky as hell, or you're going to experience things MUCH MUCH worse in your future…

Reply

Jeanie September 14, 2009 at 7:19 am

Disgusting, yes… but not a flight from hell.

Reply

hell hath no fury September 14, 2009 at 7:59 am

so this is the author speaking. first off, the guy was intruding on my seat. his arm and thigh were touching me the entire time. i am five feet tall and 120 pounds. the guy was probably about 6'3" and 220 pounds. so you tell me whether or not the guy was intruding on my space. not only that, i think it's ridiculous that someone would read hard-core porn next to a twenty-year old college student. obviously, this guy was a perv. when i say hard-core, i mean stuff that ISN'T Playboy. and he didn't smell bad per se–he only had a gallon of cologne on. so smelling and touching was included. frankly, i consider it to be a form of sexual harassment. this is bullshit, and i don't think young women like myself should have tolerate crap like this

Reply

Sharon September 14, 2009 at 9:40 am

author…you are correct when you said you should not have had to endure this. That man was a pig and was in fact sexually harrassing you. The first two commentators are idiots.

Reply

saw September 14, 2009 at 1:06 pm

Well Sharon… the first two commentators are not idiots, but were not provided the entire story 🙂

First – nothing in the original post pointed to either age or gender of the writer – and that makes a difference. The "gentleman's" size scent were also not mentioned.

It does change things somewhat… and I'd agree with Sharon that it could be considered sexually harassing.

I'd recommend to our author here, that with the next story – give us all the gory details !

Reply

Waxjob September 14, 2009 at 2:27 pm

Well at least the lounge lizard didn't whip it out and go to town on the flight. That would have been the true nightmare.

Reply

saw September 16, 2009 at 3:26 am

Wax…

um… yeah… illegal too probably…

Reply

Daphne3620 September 18, 2009 at 6:43 pm

@Hell Hath No Fury .. no .. you were TOTALLY violated and it was a flight from hell. That was disgusting .. being basically forced to view pornographic materials not of your chosing and then having him basically rub his body against yours .. screw these twits who say it wasn't.

As someone who commuted from Chicago to Minneapolis about every other weekend from the age 18 til 24 and had to deal with skeazy business guys on the Friday night flight home and the Monday morning flight back, I completely understand what you went through .. albeit with a lack of porn. These guys think they have free reign to hit on you because you are captive.

I finally got to the point that I made up a new identity and filled in faux facts about my life as I went along. I also gave them a phony phone numbers [one with a 612 area code .. one with 312, depending on the destination] when they invariably asked for mine. My general thought on that was .. bleep you dude! Like I am not aware enough to know you are married and just want a little somehtin' somethin' from some naive young woman. Guess again stud! I always wanted to be a fly on the wall when they called the number and found out there was no Joy/Amber/Chrissy/Trisha/Danielle there. Too bad .. so sad, ya big creep!

Reply

saw September 19, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Daph… Next time, find a number that leads to some kind of sexaholics anonymous line 🙂 At least then, the call might do them some good.

Reply

Dee October 27, 2009 at 5:42 am

He looked at adult magazines? I don't seem to understand your problem.

Reply

Mack October 27, 2009 at 8:59 am

"It was the worst experience ever."

What a charmed life you live.

Reply

Sarita October 30, 2009 at 10:07 pm

It is a sad, sad commentary on our culture that some of you are treating her like a spoiled whiner instead of acknowledging the fact that she was sexually harassed. The problem began the moment the guy laid eyes on her, when he checked her out and acted all happy to see her. Plus, you CANNOT convince me the thigh-touching wasn't on purpose; we're programmed to notice when that happens accidentally. Furthermore, the porn was probably a twisted way of trying to test the waters to see if she was a good candidate for a fling. This guy was clearly a scumbag. Those of you criticizing the poster are perpetuating the message that sexual harassment isn't a real problem and women need to accept it.

Reply

Brad October 31, 2009 at 3:48 am

You should have informed the FA and if he/she did nothing, then write a firm but polite letter to the airline. And a phone call. What you experienced was nothing less than sexual harrasment. The FA had the power to make the slime put the magazines away.

FAs are there to ensure your safety. Remember that.

Reply

Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *




Previous post:

Next post: