There are certain kinds of people who make for great neighbours on a long-haul flight. My personal favourites are those who have absolutely no interest in engaging with me, they really are keepers.

As much as we might not like sitting next to a man who weighs 175 kilograms, I’d like to think most of us would have the decency to suck it up. Not so for one passenger on United Airlines in the U.S., who was kicked off his flight to appease other flyers. Below from Huffington Post:

Things started to go wrong, 31-year-old bookstore manager [Errol Narvaez] said, when his seat was changed from one on the aisle to one in the middle of a row.

“I tried to get my original seat back, but they told me the flight was completely booked,” Narvaez told HuffPost.

Narvaez said he paid for the right to pre-board, went to his new seat assignment, sat down and waited for his fellow passengers.

“When the man who was supposed to be sitting next to me came up, I stood up so he could sit down,” Narvaez explained. “He said, ‘No, no. You sit there.’ Then he went to a flight attendant and whispered in her ear.”

The other passenger’s beef, as Narvaez recalled, was that he didn’t want to be uncomfortable for a five-hour flight.

The flight supervisor then asked Narvaez to leave the plane.

“She said the plane cannot accommodate me at this time and I needed to follow her,” he said. “As I was following her, the other stewardess pointed out two empty seats — both in the middle.”

But the other passenger declined to move from his original seat to one of those empty ones, so Narvaez was forced to continue what he called a “walk of shame” from Row 36 to the exit door.

Narvaez then had to sit on his backside for a full six hours until he could once again board, with the airline trying to charge him an extra $117 for changing his flight. They eventually changed their mind – then this gem:

The airline spokesman added that the situation was “unfortunate,” but insisted that United does “appreciate” Narvaez as a customer.

Nothing like a bit of airline fat-shaming with a side dose of condescension thrown in for good measure. You’d think that an airline operating out of America would have a decent policy in place for dealing with matters such as these, given the country’s propensity for a McDonald’s or three.

Hey Errol, apparently you better watch out for aliens too.

[source:huffingtonpost]

[imagesource:timeslive]