Travel plan idea blog

Wow, I am a white male and I was treated worse than most of the people in that article on a recent trip to and yes from Italy. Victims mentality has run amok. I guess I am lucky though cause when I am treated rudly I can't say "It's cause I'm white or male" I say that there are some rude incompetant people working for the airlines which have no in flight supervision whatsoever. So keep looking for the "MAN" to be putting you down and live what must be a truly miserable life you professional victims you.

Having dealt with people in public education for a very long time, I have noticed that some folks are predisposed to being "insulted". No matter how you address them or try to placate them, they're bound and determined to be annoyed and find a way to glory in the enormous "chip" they wear with pride on their shoulders. It doesn't surprise me that some of them carry that "baggage" with them onto an airplane.

I am a larger person, so on a recent flight, I purchased two seats with Delta Airlines. My husband was traveling with me, so we had three seats purchased.

We had preassigned seats and had checked in online, so I thought there would be no problem. Stupid me. We arrived and even though we were well ahead of check-in time, they had changed our seating, and my second seat was three rows back.

I nicely pointed out that I had purchased the extra seat because of my size, and that I wanted the seat that was on my printed assignment, and together. She was nasty. I nicely said, now why should you, first of all, change those seats around, and secondly, I don't think it is being rude to ask to have the two seats which I paid for together, since I bought them so I would be more comfortable and so would those around me.

Instead of giving us the seats we had on our assignment, she switched and switched and put me on the side with two seats, and my husband on the two-seat side in the row in front of me. We got into the plane, and the arm in the row in which she had placed me DIDN'T GO UP IN THE MIDDLE. There was one row where it didn't do it, the flight attendant admitted it was like that on every flight on that type plane, and the cranky old witch had INTENTIONALLY done that.

Then, the gentleman boarded who had the seat next to my husband and he outweighed me by at least 100 pounds. He was perspiring profusely and smelled awful, when I had showered, had on fresh clothing and smelled nice. The guy put up the arm between their seats, and my husband, who is 6' and 170 was pushed up against the window, as the guy took half his seat.

We let boarding commence, but then I called the flight attendant back and nicely told her that we wanted to disembark if the situation was not corrected. The seal thing between the seats was different, didn't rise, and actually made the seats SMALLER than the rest of the seats, and my husband was visibly pushed up against the window, with this man perspiring on him.

She was kind, and took us to First Class, which just meant that we got our Cokes in a glass instead of plastic.

This same flight attendant notified us, after we had pulled back, that our flight was going to be late, as we had already ascertained, and they had booked us on the next flight at our connection, because we would not make our connection. I looked at her and asked her to please see that my seats were together and she laughed.

When we arrived at the connection, we barely made it for the next flight, and there was no one at the gate to make us a boarding ticket, but the flight attendants from the other flight had switched to this one, so the attendant stayed with us to get things switched around. When they appeared the two gate agents were not interested in assisting us, until she intervened. Then, once again, they tried to give me, with two tickets, the same row and seats, where the arm didn't come up, so she just told us to come on board and she put us in First Class again.

Tell me that that wasn't an intentional, nasty thing which their gate agents did ON PURPOSE TO FAT PEOPLE. We paid for two seats, but they would act like asses and do this out of spite.

Well BJ, in my opinion you should to do 2 things.

First inform Delta that ground staff is putting them at risk for a law suit. I'm no lawyer, and doubt that a lawsuit would be worth the trouble here, but I have threatened legal action in an effort to get things done before.

Second, inform them that their flight attendant (give the name in case they care to reward the person) might have saved them the trouble and bad publicity the lawsuit would have caused.

Just out of curiosity, did you report this to the government? I just ask because that was a major theme in the article, how reporting these cases of discrimination is rare.

While I can not say that the airlines have ever really been rude to me, there has been a few times that I have had to ask the individual to re-ajust their attitude before things changed dramticly and they would realign their way of talking to me.

I'm a retired Gysgt in the United States Marines Corps and in over twenty years of service I did a lot of traveling by air and with all different airlines. Being 6' tall and weighing in at 245 lbs I have noticed that over the past ten years the seats got a lot smaller and closer together. It seems that in order to compete for cheaper flights everything has been cut back.

There practically is no more meals on flights inside the US anymore. And heaven help you if you try to bring your own food and drink on board with you so that you will have something to eat and not have to pay $3.00 for a half can size soda.

But with all of that said, if you notice the more that our society goes towards a service related industries the more the people that deal with the public are getting ruder and more mightier than thou attituteds. You do not have to take their crap. Stand up for your rights as a paying customer and demand respect and if you get no satisfaction keep going until you talk to the HMFIC (the boss or owner). That is why I gave over twenty years of my life to this country and the defence of it so that all Americans can be treated with respect and have the rights granted to us by God and under the Constitution of the United States.

i was mistreated by a flight attendant once when I wanted to get up to use the restroom and she would not allow me to get up. Yet I saw her allow a man to get up and go to the restroom. She was very very nasty to me and rude. I was young and I did not report it but I agree that the best thing to do is get their name and report them to their supervisor and write a complaint. No one should be treated with disrespect as a paying customer on an airline. My bladder almost burst from waiting to be allowed to use the restroom and then they would have had a lawsuit on their hands for sure.

First I must applaud the writer who notes that many people in the service industry do not belong there. I whole heartedly agree. Next, applause for the lady who thought of her own comfort and those around her on airline seating and add my voice to "shame on them" to Delta (a carrier I will not fly, BTW)

That being said, I find it amusing in my travels (I travel about 75% of the time for work)that people do not understand you often "get" what you "give". While this does not apply to any of the posters, it applies to 90% of the the people who I see having "hissy fits" in airports and hotels.

In my humble opinion many people are screaming and feeling "violated" because they're not being treated like the princes and princesses they feel they are. If you want to be treated like a first class passenger, buy a first class ticket. If you want to be upgraded, consistently choose that airline or hotel chain and forfeit saving the $15 on a cheaper deal.

What bothers me most is that the people who truly are discriminated against have their real experince invalidated or dismissed by the noice generated by those who have a "chip" as noted before or feel "entitled" to champagne service on a two buck chuck ticket.

As someone who attempted to "teach" customer service for 9 years I can tell you it is nearly futile. Either you are a people person and a problem solver or you are not. We can improve skills, we cannot instil passion for service.

The only tip I have for fellow passengers on the road is when a situation presents itself -- calmly, quietly and sincerely lower your voice and ask for exactly what you need. Then shut up. The same goes when you observe less than stellar service and especially blatent discrimination. Remember: no one likes to "lose face" -- if you find a way to tactfully give someone an opprotunity to "recover" the situation they will usually take it.

my daughter and I were treated really bad by delta several years ago. we have not gone on there flights since, we fly southwest, delta treated us like we were a piece of trash rude, nasty young helpers that have no respect for no one and have no idea they are doing anything wrong because no one cares. I think they think they are all madonnas..anyway they lost all my respect.... and I love southwest!!!!!

Thank you for all the comments. I am glad I posted this one because the discussion taught me something. I can't say exactly what but I do feel wiser now.