What a scene this woman made!

[ducklite]

I was in the Orlando airport Friday, waiting in line to board a Southwest flight to Philly, and this family was in the pre-board line. The woman starts pitching a fit that they began preboarding wheelchair customers ahead of her family. Um, hello, don't you think they'd rather wait in line and walk on?

Anyhow, she was just carrying on and on, and the gate agent finally has enough and sends her to the back of the line (they had "C" passes). The woman starts bawling her eyes out. Meanwhile her husband had wandered off someplace (I think he was mortified by the scene this woman was making).

So she's not paying any attention to these two kids who are young enough that they are eligible for pre-board (that's another topic altogether). The daughter who was about three is using the metal divider rails like a jungle gym, and you guessed it, falls of and cracks her head open.

The woman is now hysterical, and all because she was rude and beligerent. They start general boarding, I who had been sitting there on the floor eating my pizza watching this entire scenario unfold (and had been in my spot longer than this woman and her family ahd been in the preboard line--I had seen them eating in the food court when I got my slice) got on the plane, and snagged the first aisle seat on the plane. in the bulkhead no less.

They were about the last people onboard, this woman was still sobbing--twenty minutes later. Get over it lady! Geesh! I'm not sure what happened, they went to the very back of the plane, but when they asked for help at the front in getting seats together the flight attendents told them to ask around, there wasn't anything they could do. I'm sure they ahd heard about the scene this lady had made, and how rude she was to teh gate agent, and wanted nothing to do with her.

I swear, it's too bad "Airline" or whatever that show was hadn't been there taping!

Anne

 

[Tigger_Magic]

What a lovely example she set for her children. The entitlement mentality some people have never ceases to amaze.

 

[CarolA]

And now she will write a letter and DEMAND compensation....

Airtravel brings out the worst in some people (Maybe next time the Gate Agent could volunteer to break her legs so she could board first!)

 

[Tigger22]

I swear, it's too bad "Airline" or whatever that show was hadn't been there taping!

Anne

DH & I occasionally watch Airline, and can't believe the fits people throw! Yelling at the Airlines because they were late and missed their flight.

The real question is : Do people watch themselves on Airline and actually feel proud of their actions in the airport???!!! Or are they oblivious, and don't really know that the rest of us are at them?!

 

[NotUrsula]

Five'll get you 10 she is now telling everyone she knows about how SWA employees "humilated her in public." I'm always amazed that when people like this look back on these scenes, they always manage to reverse the order of events so that it is someone else doing the humiliating. Sorry, but when you make a fool of yourself, you have no one but yourself to blame.

The bright side, of course, is that she has now probably sworn to never again fly SWA.

 

[seashoreCM]

Now what if some bystander who witnessed all this wrote an "anticomplaint" letter to the airline so the airline folks would have the real story on hand if/when the aggrieved passenger wrote for compensation?

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[keishashadow]

FYI, when flying AirTran if you are in a transport WC (i.e. you can walk from the airplane door to your plane seat) you will not be pre-boarded. Really no need to since the seats are pre-assigned. Not sure if this is the method of operation on other airlines.

Amazing story though...

 

[ncbyrne]

Sounds to me like there was something else going on in this woman's life at the moment to make her act out, and "lose it" that way....especially since she was still crying 20 minutes later.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Sounds like it would have made an interesting episode, Anne.
Unbelievable how people act!!!

 

[ducklite]

Sounds to me like there was something else going on in this woman's life at the moment to make her act out, and "lose it" that way....especially since she was still crying 20 minutes later.

Quite possibly. She seemed really whacked out. Her husband seemed to want to crawl into the woodwork. But before they started to board, she seemed "normal".

I think she got her panties in a wad because she felt "slighted" because as she put it "we were waiting here first in line before all these pther people." They weren't boarding wheelshair pax with 15 members of their extended family. Of the three I saw be preboarded, two were eldery with two other adults with them, and one was a woman who looked to be a para, her DH and one child. Did this nutjob really think they would have to sit in the back of the plane because nine people got on ahead of them?

Personally, the whole idea of preboarding anyone with kids not in a car seat is ridiculous to me. Anyone with an A pass should have no trouble finding seats together, and if you're too lazy to check in the day before and get that A pass, then too bad, fly a legacy carrier with assigned seats. But that's another thread. (Disabled individuals on crutches or using a wheelchair are another story entirely, and IMHO they should always be preboarded, but should also always expect to be last off.)

She seemed to be getting herself more and more worked up, and then just toally lose control. Oh--and I think she had high BP--like through the roof. She was overweight and her face ws very red like people with high BP often have. She's not going to live to see those kids out of elementary school if she doesn't get control of herselfe physically and mentally. I feel bad for her kids.

Anne

 

[keishashadow]

I was with you until you made the fat crack...what does that have to do with being out of control in an airport?

BTW, skinny people can have high BP too.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Anna,
I was in 100% agreement with your first post but you then blew it with the second.

 

[ducklite]

I was with you until you made the fat crack...what does that have to do with being out of control in an airport?

BTW, skinny people can have high BP too.

I was not being disparaging at all. I mentioned her weight only in relevance to what looked like a person with very high BP. If I was going to make "fat cracks", I would have said something about it in my first post.

Sorry if I hit a sore spot, it was not my intention.

Anne

 

[keishashadow]

No particular sore spot w/me...don't want to beat a dead horse but, HBP is a "silent killer"...you can be underweight & practice a healthy lifestyle and still have "it". Heredity, including race, is a big factor. BTW, lots of "big" people never develop that particular ailment.

Stepping down off soap box now...no flaming intended...a magical day to all!

 

[LibertyLover]

After watching "Airline" a few times, DH and I have made a solemn vow to never, ever fly Southwest. It would be relatively easy as the airport we use is Baltimore Washington and that is one of their hubs. In fact they just built a new terminal for Southwest at BWI. But watching the people on Airline, both the customers and the employees, has convinced us to stay away, preferably far away.

 

[Tigger_Magic]

I have the same vow, LibertyLover, but only because of SWA's no seat assignment and the examples of people that fly them. The show, Airline, seemed to show only the best SW employees who managed to maintain their cool in some really bad circumstances. I really admire many of them. If they offered assigned seating, I'd probably consider flying SW.

 

[nliedel]

Sounds to me like there was something else going on in this woman's life at the moment to make her act out, and "lose it" that way....especially since she was still crying 20 minutes later.

You know that's the first thing I thought too. Whenever I have acted in a stupid manner there has been something else driving it. Is that an excuse? No but it is a reason. If I was hysterical in public I 100% know my husband would be right there comforting me. Not leaving me with the kids. Of course I *try* never to be upset in front of the kids.

 

[grimley1968]

After watching "Airline" a few times, DH and I have made a solemn vow to never, ever fly Southwest. It would be relatively easy as the airport we use is Baltimore Washington and that is one of their hubs. In fact they just built a new terminal for Southwest at BWI. But watching the people on Airline, both the customers and the employees, has convinced us to stay away, preferably far away.

Having flown most of the major airlines, I find SWA to be a far friendlier airline than the others, and more usually on time for the flights I make.

I wouldn't base my decision of which airline to fly on a tv show. Keep in mind, that show has to pick the most outrageous incidents of whatever days they're filming to air. Showing thousands of other people flying SWA every day without incident would be kind of boring. On any given day, I'm willing to bet the other airlines have at least as many or more upset travelers as SWA. At least SWA is upfront about it.

 

[NotUrsula]

Her weight might have been relevant to the situation in another sense, if she was large enough to be worried about triggering the COS policy. If so, that might conceivably have been the reason that she was getting so ridiculously bent out of shape.

Think about how many posts turn up on this board of people who have managed to darn near make themselves sick worrying about whether or not SWA is going to require them to purchase an extra seat. If she hadn't purchased one, and was counting on avoiding the need by sitting next to her small child, she might have been thinking that boarding anywhere but at the very head of the line might have jeopardized her chances of success. (We know that sitting with a child really won't make a difference, but people who don't know SWA well often think that it does.)

Being in a panic doesn't excuse being an insensitive clod, of course, but if that was the situation, fear might have contributed to her reaction, especially if they really didn't have the money for an add'l seat.

 

[ducklite]

NotUrsula,

That's possible, although I don't think she would have had a problem fitting into one seat. Like I said, I felt really bad for her kids.

I also felt bad for the elderly woman in a wheelchair who had been brought up right next to her (at first this woman refused to get out of the way!) while the lunatic was carrying on about how disabled shouldn't get to board first. The poor older woman must have felt terrible, I know my mom would have felt very guilty and been mortified.

Anne