A few years ago in Albuquerque I was transferring from a Boeing 737 to a regional jet. A woman was blocking the aisle at the entrance to the plane, arguing with a flight attendant and insisting that her suitcase would fit in the overhead bin when it clearly would not. She did not want to check the suitcase because she did not have the protective cover for her leather bag, although the suitcase was already markedly scuffed from efforts to shove it in the bin.
She reluctantly stepped aside so that the other passengers could board but kept arguing about the bag. At my seat near the rear of the aircraft, the other flight attendant asked me what the holdup was, then walked forward. Upon her return, she was gleeful: "They're throwing her off the plane." I looked up to see a man approximately the size of a refrigerator with "POLICE" stenciled on his back firmly escorting the still-complaining passenger off the plane. We all applauded.
About ten years ago, when my son was around 10, we were flying from the US to Paris in coach in a 2-4-2 seat configuration. I sat with my son by the window, while my husband was across the aisle in the center seats. Seated next to him were two kids maybe 5-6 years old with a middle aged woman, whom we assumed was their mother. It turned out she was the nanny, and the mother was sitting up in First Class. One of the kids slept most of the flight with her legs stretched over my husband - he felt badly for the exhausted child, and he knew how hard it is to fly with a small child since ours had just grown beyond that stage. The mother came back to visit her children ONCE during the entire 11-hour flight, just before we were going to land. The nanny told the mother how nice my husband had been, and the mother just looked down at him, sniffed and said nothing, but told the nanny to make sure to bring up all their bags after we landed. Which the nanny did.
Our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was late, so rather than pull up to a jetway at the terminal, the pilot parked on the tarmac in the vicinity of several connecting flights. My Boeing 747 flight to Bangalore was already boarding via two stairways, one toward the front of the plane for first- and business-class passengers, and a second for economy. The man in front of me was turned away from the front stairway by an airline employee because he had an economy ticket and directed to the other stairway.
By the time I reached my seat in business class, the man who had been directed to the rear stairway had walked all the way through the economy section, installed his carryon in an overhead bin, and seated himself in business. He was soon discovered and asked to move but remained seated. It was only after a flight attendant threatened to have him removed from the plane that he reluctantly moved to his assigned seat.
After our son's wedding in Prague, our new daughter-in-law took a group of us who'd been guests to the railway station to make various reservations. I pointed out to her a man who kept trying to push in between us in the line. She spoke to him and then told us he was Russian. Then she went up to the ticketing agents and said something to him pointing out the miscreant. We later found out that the agent had said 'I'll give him a ticket to somewhere he doesn't want to go' (The Czechs don't much like the Russians!)
When our tour group was in Israel waiting in line 3 hours to get into The Church of the Nativity, there were a couple of people pushing the elderly in our group cutting in line when it was our turn to go in the cave. They didn't want to go to the back of the line.
An amendment to my last post. We had a lot of fun while I n Paris. Since our daughter was working during the day we would explore on our own. I found these cards on Amazon and it consisted of 10 walks if I remember correctly. Margot would tell us how to get there on the underground, we would walk all day, and she would meet us around 5 pm. The walks were designed to take 2 hours but since we were in no rush, we would spend all day browsing.
Our daughter used to live in Paris in the district just below Sacre Coure. We would walk up the stairs and be in Montmartre and stroll to Sacre Coure. The street artists are fun to watch in Montmartre.
So nice new theme music on the podcast, and glad you survived the heatwave. I cannot find your YouTube videos - a search results in a 2-year-old interview, and I can’t find a link here. Thank you and enjoy Paris! I love that city, though I remember traveling there during college when the Champs-Elysee still retained its glamour, and there were few tourists and certainly no Chipotle! ;) So I completely appreciate your advice to stay away from tourist areas whenever possible and search out something more real.
France Confidential: Navigating Paris during the crazy summer of '22
A few years ago in Albuquerque I was transferring from a Boeing 737 to a regional jet. A woman was blocking the aisle at the entrance to the plane, arguing with a flight attendant and insisting that her suitcase would fit in the overhead bin when it clearly would not. She did not want to check the suitcase because she did not have the protective cover for her leather bag, although the suitcase was already markedly scuffed from efforts to shove it in the bin.
She reluctantly stepped aside so that the other passengers could board but kept arguing about the bag. At my seat near the rear of the aircraft, the other flight attendant asked me what the holdup was, then walked forward. Upon her return, she was gleeful: "They're throwing her off the plane." I looked up to see a man approximately the size of a refrigerator with "POLICE" stenciled on his back firmly escorting the still-complaining passenger off the plane. We all applauded.
As a former flight attendant, I'm not sure I could pick the most entitled behavior I've ever seen...
Maybe the couple who mocked the parents of an autistic girl for being such bad parents?
About ten years ago, when my son was around 10, we were flying from the US to Paris in coach in a 2-4-2 seat configuration. I sat with my son by the window, while my husband was across the aisle in the center seats. Seated next to him were two kids maybe 5-6 years old with a middle aged woman, whom we assumed was their mother. It turned out she was the nanny, and the mother was sitting up in First Class. One of the kids slept most of the flight with her legs stretched over my husband - he felt badly for the exhausted child, and he knew how hard it is to fly with a small child since ours had just grown beyond that stage. The mother came back to visit her children ONCE during the entire 11-hour flight, just before we were going to land. The nanny told the mother how nice my husband had been, and the mother just looked down at him, sniffed and said nothing, but told the nanny to make sure to bring up all their bags after we landed. Which the nanny did.
Our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was late, so rather than pull up to a jetway at the terminal, the pilot parked on the tarmac in the vicinity of several connecting flights. My Boeing 747 flight to Bangalore was already boarding via two stairways, one toward the front of the plane for first- and business-class passengers, and a second for economy. The man in front of me was turned away from the front stairway by an airline employee because he had an economy ticket and directed to the other stairway.
By the time I reached my seat in business class, the man who had been directed to the rear stairway had walked all the way through the economy section, installed his carryon in an overhead bin, and seated himself in business. He was soon discovered and asked to move but remained seated. It was only after a flight attendant threatened to have him removed from the plane that he reluctantly moved to his assigned seat.
After our son's wedding in Prague, our new daughter-in-law took a group of us who'd been guests to the railway station to make various reservations. I pointed out to her a man who kept trying to push in between us in the line. She spoke to him and then told us he was Russian. Then she went up to the ticketing agents and said something to him pointing out the miscreant. We later found out that the agent had said 'I'll give him a ticket to somewhere he doesn't want to go' (The Czechs don't much like the Russians!)
When our tour group was in Israel waiting in line 3 hours to get into The Church of the Nativity, there were a couple of people pushing the elderly in our group cutting in line when it was our turn to go in the cave. They didn't want to go to the back of the line.
An amendment to my last post. We had a lot of fun while I n Paris. Since our daughter was working during the day we would explore on our own. I found these cards on Amazon and it consisted of 10 walks if I remember correctly. Margot would tell us how to get there on the underground, we would walk all day, and she would meet us around 5 pm. The walks were designed to take 2 hours but since we were in no rush, we would spend all day browsing.
Our daughter used to live in Paris in the district just below Sacre Coure. We would walk up the stairs and be in Montmartre and stroll to Sacre Coure. The street artists are fun to watch in Montmartre.
So nice new theme music on the podcast, and glad you survived the heatwave. I cannot find your YouTube videos - a search results in a 2-year-old interview, and I can’t find a link here. Thank you and enjoy Paris! I love that city, though I remember traveling there during college when the Champs-Elysee still retained its glamour, and there were few tourists and certainly no Chipotle! ;) So I completely appreciate your advice to stay away from tourist areas whenever possible and search out something more real.