This isn’t a question I’d ever thought I’d have to ask, but an event that occurred on my recent flight made me question: how hard is it to stay in your own cabin?
Earlier this week I was flying United from EWR to SFO – the flight number was UA1978. We were seated in Polaris, which is United’s business class cabin. To be specific, my seat was 7A, and we were on the 787-10.
*I’ve taken some videos of the incident, but to respect the passengers’ privacy, I will not be sharing them here.
The Story
Partway through the flight, the man seated in 6D randomly stood up from his seat and left the cabin. Eventually, we figured out why, but I was confused at that point in time.
About 30 minutes later, he returned to the galley with a lady, which is when I realized he’d been visiting somebody in another cabin. He simply asked the FA “Can she join me at my seat? We’re flying together.” Strangely, the FA said yes without hesitation.
He proceeded to go to his seat, while the lady went to use the lavatory (in the Polaris cabin, no less). Then she strutted down the aisle and made herself comfortable standing next to his seat. Of course, she was completely blocking the entire aisle.
Anyways, they chatted for a while – he fed her some of his chicken, and then she was digging through his amenity kit. After approximately 20 minutes of that, they started eating chocolates. Finally, the man suggested that maybe she returned to the economy cabin. She freaked out and started crying, and then he stood up and hugged her.
The conversation went something like this:
“Honey, I really needed this upgrade.”
“I know but I love you.”
“I love you too.”
*tears*
Following that, they started kissing each other – which is fine and all, but they were making a HUGE scene out of it. To put it politely, it was extremely loud and exaggerated.
She then turned away as if she was leaving, but then he pulled her back and told her to stay longer. She started crying again, and then there was another kissing episode.
I thought she would leave after that, but nope. The scene repeated itself about 5 or 6 times. Around an hour after the incident started, she finally walked back to her cabin – but not without tears.
I assumed that would be the end of it, but I was wrong. When we were deplaning, she pushed her way into the galley between premium economy and business, and shouted “*insert name here*! *insert name here*! Do you need help? I’m coming!!”. The two of them got off the plane together, and then she started hugging him. Not to mention, everyone in economy was still seated while this happened.
More Details
However, that’s not all. There are a couple of things that make this story even weirder.
To begin with, the moment the man boarded, he unwrapped his blanket and made his bed, and then lay down. A FA had to explain to him that you needed to be seated upright for takeoff…
Additionally, when he was placing his meal order, he got into a long conversation with the same FA about how he doesn’t really feel like ravioli because it’s his companion’s favourite and they’ve been separated. But at the same time, he didn’t know if he wanted the Thai chicken, because he feels bad that she was in economy without a meal and he had been upgraded. He seemed really distressed, and I’m not sure why the two of them wouldn’t have just stayed together in economy. Then again, he did mention that he “really needed the upgrade”.
Final Thoughts
I’ve taken 10 flights since this summer, and have been lucky enough to avoid any unruly passenger incidents. Yet on my most recent trip, I encountered 3 very strange passengers on my flights – the other stories will be coming soon.
The whole situation was very weird, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I would’ve thought they were simply inexperienced flyers, but it doesn’t make sense that the man was upgraded if that were the case. Clearly something was going on, because it shouldn’t be that difficult to stay in your own cabin for a 5 hour flight. Is there an obvious detail I’m missing here?