Recently, a former regional airline employee shared a story from his job on the Malicious Compliance subreddit.
In a post that amassed 16.3k upvotes, the Redditor recounted an incident with a regular traveler he refers to as a “slimy businessman.”
“We would roll our eyes when we saw him coming to the check-in counter because he would always name drop and ask for special treatment,” the author explained and added that “He would always ask for free upgrades, extra baggage, not charging a change fee, last-minute discounts, etc.”
So one day the “SB” checks in for his flight, “name drops and asks for a free upgrade.” This is where it gets interesting.
A former airline employee recounted an incident with an entitled flyer who demanded a free business class upgrade
Image credits: bluejeanimages (not the actual photo)
Image credits: bluejeanimages (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Northwest_Passage_
2021 was the worst on record for unruly airplane passenger behavior in the US according to Federal Aviation Administration data
It’s no secret that flying is not as glamorous as it used to be. The flights are usually packed to the brim, leaving you with as little “me” space as possible, with cramped seats, overpriced baggage fees and loud passengers.
So no wonder that incidents with cranky and rude passengers happen all the time. In fact, in 2019 alone, the Federal Aviation Administration investigated 146 cases of bad behavior.
And 2021 was the worst on record for unruly airplane passenger behavior in the United States with a whopping 5,981 reports of unruly passengers logged by the FAA as of December 31, while investigations into 1,081 of these incidents were initiated.
"When people get to the airport these days, they’ve forgotten everything their mother taught them"
According to Lydia Ramsey, an etiquette expert based in Savannah, Georgia, “when people get to the airport these days, they’ve forgotten everything their mother taught them.” She recounted an incident when boarding a flight when “a woman came charging up and literally pushed me out of the way so that she could get on. I don’t understand it. It just makes it difficult for everybody else.”
Meanwhile, this survey showed that being rude to the flight attendant is the number one biggest breach of airplane etiquette, according to 72% of travelers. Other top offenses included kicking the seat in front of you (69%), getting on the plane while sick (67%) and getting drunk (65%).
Moreover, more than half (54%) of Americans believe that the pandemic caused flyers’ airplane etiquette to get worse.
And this is what people commented about the incident
Others shared stories about being upgraded to business class
