Original Home Alone - bartering to swap flights at Christmas

[Xtraincome]

Just watching Xmas movies with DDs.

Is it me or does anyone else feel that if Catherine O Haras character was desperate to get home to her kid in Chicago from Paris in 2021, that within minutes someone would have given up their flight for her?

She had to offer one elderly lady $500, shit loads of jewellery and a purse to get to a layover in Portland or Dallas?

I'd like to think that today, even if it was virtue signalling (although I think it wouldn't be necessarily), that someone would just be more forgiving without needing to be offered loads of material goods to help someone out?

I am aware that there would not be as much of a movie if she got back to Kevin in a timely manner.

I was standing nearby when British Airways offered a young couple in the check-in queue a night in a hotel plus (if I remember correctly) a refund of several hundred on their flight costs if they would change their flight to one day later. They were bumping them to make space for someone who had to change their flight date due to a partner dying. The person gaining from the arrangement wasn't a VIP, simply an economy return traveller who hadn't been able to depart on their original ticket date. I think it was quite impressive that BA did that for them.

(With hindsight, not sure why bumping two people.)

It's definitely a different experience to watch it as an adult

I can confirm 9yo me was very aggrieved for Kevin, and felt that he forgave them too easily for the injustice done to him

DH was on a flight once where they offered £500 (and hotel/food)to take the plane the next day. Unfortunately it had a meeting 23hrs after his plane was due to land but otherwise he was severely tempted.

When on honeymoon dh and I were offered a room upgrade and 3 nights extra stay, all inclusive if we could get the next flight rather than the one we were booked on as our flight had been overbooked. I was pregnant at the time and needed to be back for a scan so we couldn’t do it and none of the other people we met checking out were prepared to stay longer either.

David Cameron left his child at the pub!

I know someone who used to deliberately check in late as a student hoping to be bumped off the flight for a fee hundred quid.

I’ve never been asked to do this, or ever offered an upgrade.

@WillThisUsernameDo

When on honeymoon dh and I were offered a room upgrade and 3 nights extra stay, all inclusive if we could get the next flight rather than the one we were booked on as our flight had been overbooked. I was pregnant at the time and needed to be back for a scan so we couldn’t do it and none of the other people we met checking out were prepared to stay longer either.

Ooh think I would have taken them up on that!

@RabbitFooFoo

David Cameron left his child at the pub!

Oh well. The child would be better off being raised by the pub.

My husband was at New Orleans airport in 2019 waiting to catch a flight to atlanta then home on the day the 737 MAX fleets we're grounded, loads of flights cancelled, chaos. The airline offered him a $1000, a night in a hotel and next day flights for his ticket. He accepted.

I wouldn’t give up my flight

Not even for someone in genuine need? Cold.

I always found the leaving behind a kid bit totally realistic. Especially when you have multiple adults and vehicles (plus the head count with the neighbours kid being accidentally counted).

shit loads of jewellery

To be fair the woman already had earrings.
DANGLY ones!

@tallduckandhandsome

Not even for someone in genuine need? Cold.

How do you know they're in genuine? And why is their need to get home more important than yours?

I think you can tell when someone is in genuine need and also, in the example provided above, BA were asking for someone who’s partner had died.

@tallduckandhandsome

I think you can tell when someone is in genuine need and also, in the example provided above, BA were asking for someone who’s partner had died.

I don't think you can always tell - otherwise there wouldn't be so many successful scammers out there.

The thing is, someone else may be in need, but other people need to catch their flights for a variety of genuine reasons too - they may have to be back at work, have sick relatives to visit or whatever.

Airlines can ask, but nobody is obliged to say yes.

@mynameiscalypso

I find that it's best not to think too much about the logic of Hone Alone because none of it makes sense.

The phone lines are down, he's scared of his neighbour and he thinks the police will arrest him for stealing the toothbrush! What's not making sense there?!

@tallduckandhandsome

It's definitely a different experience to watch it as an adult

I can confirm 9yo me was very aggrieved for Kevin, and felt that he forgave them too easily for the injustice done to him

There's a theory that Kevin grew up to be Jigsaw from the Saw movies, if true then his ghastly family did scar him for life!

www.ranker.com/list/kevin-mccallister-is-jigsaw/mariel-loveland

Kevin being treated how he was has stayed with me too
His older brother?Buzz was horrible and the family fawning over his insincere apology

@AnotherOneWithNoGoodName
She was saying she needed to get to her granddaughter urgently. So quite similar in a lot of ways to HA.
I don't know what she'd told the people who had got taxis, but equally well they might have had a valid urgent reason why they couldn't give their space up. I presume she'd told more to the station staff.

And actually if someone came up to me and asked for my place on a flight because they'd left their small child behind I probably would suspect heartstring-pulling scam, as it does seem pretty implausible.

Can we stop misusing the phrase “virtue signalling” to mean anyone ever doing anything kind or thoughtful? It might be worth people liking up the origin of the phrase also.

@NumaNumaYay

shit loads of jewellery

To be fair the woman already had earrings.
DANGLY ones!

@FourTeaFallOut

They were all utter shits to Kevin. That's been the biggest shift for me, watching as an adult. Not just leaving him behind but carrying on like he is an utter arsehole and then it's him that redeemed at the end of the movie by becoming a more independent kid and everyone is then impressed that he coped? Like he had a lesson to learn?

I still watch it to drool over the house though.

This is exactly how I felt watching the movie as a parent. His family was borderline abusive to him. His brother deliberately ate all of the only food he would eat and teased him nastily about it. Kevin, a 10 year old already stressed about leaving home at Christmas and having to sleep with his cousin who wets the bed, shoved his bully and Buzz' fall made more of a mess than intended. Then his uncle shouts horrible, degrading things at him.

When the silence ensued, I was waiting for his mother or father to put the uncle in his place. Instead, his mother forces him into the attic despite him apologising and being obviously scared to sleep alone in the attic. It was awful, as a 12 year old when I first saw the movie I just accepted that Kevin was a bit of a brat. But as a parent I was horrified that his family were so awful to a child.

There's a theory that Kevin grew up to be Jigsaw from the Saw movies, if true then his ghastly family did scar him for life!

Omg - it all fits, like a jigsaw! Part of me thinks Kevin did go too far but then the Wet Bandits were needlessly cruel too, flooding the burgled houses was so unnecessary. Who knows what they would have done to Kevin.

Shiningpath

Not a chance. Everyone at the airport has somewhere to be.“

Yup. And I certainly wouldn’t give that somewhere up from someone who was daft enough to forget one of their children