Best CF airplane stories

[BreadInCaptivity]

Inspired by another thread.

About 5 years ago we were flying back from the USA. We'd booked Premium Economy seats on Virgin. Configuration is 2-3-2.

Our two late teens were in front of us and we had the 2 seats directly behind. All settled in when a family of 4 embarked with 2 young children (around 5 and 7 at a guess).

They proceed to the 2 seats behind DH and I and start putting their bags down when the mother asked (politely to be fair) if we would mid swapping seats so they could sit together as a family.

Given our two were older (and once headphones were on were not going to be engaging with us) we decided to be nice and said ok.

Can you guess where this is going?

Asked where the other seats were, looking around the PE cabin a bit baffled as it appeared to be full....

Yep - they'd only booked 2 seats in PE and wanted us to take their 2 seats in economy 😂.

Clearly we said, no (with rather incredulous expressions on our face's) and sat back down. Parent then both start calling us selfish (oh the irony) and demanding we move. DH made the point that if sitting together was so important, then booking in the same cabin might be a good idea for the future, but as stands he was sure if they went down to economy the people in the seats next to those they'd booked would be very happy with a free upgrade 😀.

The response from the Father "I'm not giving up a better seat I've paid for"....to which DH deadpanned "I couldn't agree with you more"...at which point DH and I couldn't stop laughing enough to respond further.

Cabin crew eventually had to get involved as the parents had an argument over who was going to sit where. Mother won and spent the first 20 mins of the flight making loud passive aggressive comments to her child about "mean/selfish" people until crew got involved again and told her to pack it in or they'd be moved to economy if they didn't stop harassing us.

Thankfully the rest of the flight was uneventful but DH and I still chuckle about it now and again 😃.

Anyone got any others?

This happened to us on a flight back from St Lucia many years ago. We were in the queue to check in in St Lucia to come home and they announce that they had over booked the flight and asked for volunteers for a sum of money to stay behind. At the time my husband and I worked for a bank and really couldn’t care two hoots whether we were home on time or not so we volunteered, were paid for our troubles and also put up in a five star hotel for two extra nights and when we got home, we claimed compensation so all in all it was a great holiday! 🤣

@AmIEnough

Not sure if you saw my reply to that idea few posts on but the sales/revenue/advertising people, especially those involved with the legacy airlines, looked long and hard at this years ago and from a psychological POV it doesn’t tend to work.

If people are scanning or comparing websites, especially if they are in a hurry, they tend to gravitate towards the lower advertised headline prices, and then maybe, perhaps contemplate adding features that cost more..(seat choice, meals, checked bags), they don’t tend to look that hard at higher priced tickets, even if there’s then an option to then generate a discount.

@EatSleepFlyRepeat

Hi,

Your sorry about First doesn’t surprise me..

I’ve been sat adjacent to a CF who got hauled out of Business class and sent to their correct seat and I also heard of quite a few instances of people trying it on when I was involved with other flights as crew.

Quiet how the CFs think they are going to sit undetected in a Premium Cabin is beyond me…it was pretty much impossible in the days of paper passenger lists, these days with the real time info most crew have available on devices attempts at blagging and BSing about things like getting a very upgrade are doomed to fail.

This is all reminding me of the flight scene in Bridesmaids, “this is the nineties!!!!” 😆

RawBloomers couldn't agree more. As my nana used to say, that poster had a feather in Dublin and a duck by Drogheda 🙄

Britain?

I’ve just read this all in one go. I haven’t travelled much but it makes you wonder how some of these CF’s manage in everyday life

@AmIEnough Do you get compensation on top when you volunteer to switch to a later flight? I didn't know that. I thought that the payment you get at the point of departure for taking a later flight was the compensation.

@ConstructionTime this was many many years ago so probably not these days

@AmIEnough thank you; this has not happened to me yet; I was curious in case I would get into this kind of situation 🙂
So it might have changed because I have not read an example like yours recently. Either the situations were delays/cancellations, in which case passengers could request compensation, or the volunteering for later with payment, but not both combined.

I came back to mention the complaint a passenger had emailled head office. It hit the CEO’s desk before the able-bodied passengers disembarked the aircraft. According to this ”gentleman”, I was very rude when he asked me to get him a coffee whilst I was in the middle of performing CPR on another passenger in the aisle beside him. Instead of apologizing politely and stating that I’d come back shortly when he asked, I answered with a curt “I’m a little busy.” while performing chest compressions between breaths. With that terribly dismissive attitude, it was no wonder I was called in to head office and shown the email in person so they could see my face. (I was not in trouble, don’t worry.)

Good Lord! 😱

Not really CF

DH and I were in first class on our way to honeymoon (massive treat). And the woman next to us is just being an annoying drunk. But the sad part which really upset me was that she had her son with her. Really upsetting.

I helped the air crew basically care for this child for 5+ hours as the drunk passenger was not in the slightest bit attentive and was more interested in making up weird stories about her lifestyle. Really upset me. I felt terrible for that child.

On the other side of swapping seats...

Boyfriend (now husband) and I were coming back from Paris, we'd had a massive row and falling out in the airport and we were really relieved that our seats were a few rows apart because we really didn't want to sit by each other. I had the online boarding passes so we boarded together, some nice kind people noticed we were sat apart and did this 3 way swap to get us sat next to each other. We were fuming 🤣🤣

Love that. The irony. 😂

As an airline employee I have loads but here's two.

I was working the gate and a passenger in business class asked if I could upgrade his girlfriend in economy as she was a nervous flyer and was terrified to fly alone. I said that wasn't possible. As boarding was happening, I went onto the aircraft to ask the cabin purser to sign off the duty free (it's a bonded cart and they have to sign to say the seal number is correct and complete) and as I walked past he stopped me and asked again. He kept saying there is no way his girlfriend could fly without him sitting closer. He was getting loud and really quite aggressive. I told him I'd see what I could do and walked to the back galley to sort out the duty free. I walked back to him and told him the passenger next to his girlfriend would happily swap with him and so he was welcome to go back to economy to sit with her. His face was a picture. Strangely, he declined.

The 2nd one was me travelling as a passenger. I was on duty travel so entitled to the highest class available at the time of boarding. I was in premium economy as the flight was completely full and as I went to board, the gate agent stopped me. She said they had a possible gate no-show in business class and if I wanted to wait a few mins incase he was just running late, I might get that seat. Everyone had boarded except one man who seemed to be hanging around. The agent told him to board if he was travelling. I got a business class boarding pass and when I boarded this man was in my seat. He insisted it was his seat so I called the crew who asked for his boarding pass. He said the gate agent had said there was an empty seat in business class and to sit there. The crew member checked her ipad, could see I was in business (plus I had the boarding pass) and he was in economy. She told him to get back to his assigned seat. As he gathered all his belongings together he said to me "thanks for stealing my seat" 😂. (He wouldn't have got away with it even if there had been empty seats as the crew check and know exactly who should be in the premium cabins.

@Mickeymouseisinnocent

The crew member checked her ipad,….

It’s weird some of the traveling public still think the sort of stunt you describe would have much if any chance of working in this day and age….

Yes, the crew do know exactly who should be sitting where, their info is usually kept up to date, pretty much live, so will reflect whether somebody has for example been upgraded at the gate…or not…

Apparently it's some TikTok influencer has posted videos showing how easy it is to self upgrade 🙄 and it's becoming more common than ever.

Oh dear...that’s going to end in tears

A while back now I saw somebody trying it on by dumping themselves in the last row of business class seats on BA short haul…given the cabin size it wasn’t the smartest trick and once doors closed it took about ten seconds, if that, for the SCCM to clock that the numbers were wrong, look at their iPad and then, err, invite the passenger to get up and carry on heading down the back.

As a frequent disabled flier, I will answer this one. While some airlines will happily accommodate disabled passengers wherever, most have preferred seats. I have reserved seats and been moved elsewhere many times, often other passengers have been moved by staff to accommodate me. When I have travelled with a companion, they are usually moved with me. It's just not worth prebooking seats.

30 years ago when they allowed smoking on flights. DH, 1 year old, 4 year old and myself were allocated the back four seats in the upstairs business class, last seats avaiable (company paying). These seats were the business class smoking seats. As we settled in they asked if baby could sit on our lap as a smoker wanted a seat, NO WAY. He got bumped to first class but still non smoking so I suppose he was happy, only a 4 hour fight.

what the fuck.

I've just remembered a recent one from DH. He went out for drinks with a mate of his who'd just come back from holiday.

Mate says "yeah, the flights were a bit of a nightmare. Because the DC are all ASD we obviously all have to sit together, but no-one would swap seats with us. I ended up having a row with the flight attendants and the flight ended up being late, all because they wouldn't sit us together".

DH said "oh no, had they rearranged your pre-booked seats then?"

Mate: "No, I didn't pre-book any seats - they charge extra for that and I'm not paying it."

DH: "Well, that's on you mate. If you want to all sit together you should just pay for it. I wouldn't have swapped either, especially if I'd paid for mine."

Mate: silence...

I've never been so proud of my DH! 😂

It would all be solved if Ticket structuring was reversed.

Headline ticket price £300
£50 off if you don't have hold luggage
£50 off if you don't book your seat

So if you travel minimally and don't care where you sit you can get it down to £200 as opposed to the standard price.

Been down this road before..

All the market research etc by the airlines over several decades now shows that if you advertise £300 as your banner, headline price on your website, with options to reduce by deleting some options you’ll almost certainly lose out very badly to the competing airline who offers £200 as their banner headline price and then offers the same options as an add on.

These days, especially with people tending to book in a bit of a hurry, not wanting to do too much research,and/ or using small screens it’s the very first amount they see as the obvious headline price that either breaks or makes the deal.