I witnessed quite possibly the worst temper tantrum I've seen by an adult on a flight last week from CLE to PHX. There were a more-than-usual amount of handicapped passengers, and one gentlemen in particular was bumped from his seat. He was then assigned an aisle exit seat, but that wasn't good enough. Now I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I've always known that if I choose a seat in the row directly behind FC, I am at risk of being bumped for a passenger who genuinely needs the seat.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing/seeing from this man. He first argued with the gate agent, calling a lot of attention to the fact that he felt very "wronged". I missed a good bit of what he said, but I did hear one of the gate agents say, "Sir, the passenger's legs are PARALYZED." The man continued to hem & haw with a bright red face, and the shenanigans continued on the plane .

He demanded to speak with a flight attendant, who again explained that anyone can be bumped from a seat meant to be reserved for handicapped passengers. What happened next was quite possibly the most irritating thing I have ever witnessed--not the heavy sighs, or the eyes rolling, but the fact that the 250+ lb. man bounced back & forth in his seat, making as much noise for the rest of the passengers around him as humanly possible! I had my Ipod turned all the way up and I could still hear the chair squeaking for some relief.

I just needed to vent, that is all. I'd love to hear some other adult temper tantrum stories that may beat that one!

My favorite temper tantrum was on a EWR-HKG flight last year. At the gate, a customer was extremely upset that his BF upgrade didnt' clear. He yelled and screamed, waving his Gold OnePass card around, saying "$@#$ do you know how important I am to CO? do you know how much money I spend with you? you better $#$$@# upgrade me now!"

Fortunately for the rest of us flying, and unfortunately for him, he never got his upgrade. And the Port Authority police quietly removed him from the gate area.

I think the funniest part was that he thought his Gold OnePass card meant something huge

Did he think he would get automatic upgrade with his gold status? Otherwise, if he was trying to get upgraded with miles, he would have known 3 days prior.

This proves the point that I was trying to make in another thread, that the most stressful part of flying is not the security screening, it's when you don't get the seat you feel entitled to.

So was it worse than Michael Richard's tantrum?

Haha, I don't know that I'd go quite that far, but as far as I could tell, the dude was 100% sober and STILL acting like a child. The most embarrassing part for him was that we were already an hour delayed and he held up the plane for an additional 10 minutes with his tirade. That, or the fact that he was loud enough for the handicapped passengers to hear...

The best part was that the only thing that ended up shutting him up was when he demanded that the flight attendants call Continental to ASSURE that he wasn't bumped from his next flight's seat (as if they have the capacity to do that from the cabin!).

The most bizarre temper tantrum I have ever seen occurred on a UA flight (so that may disqualify me from the competition) but I'll go ahead and post it anyway.

This happened quite a few years ago, probably in '95 or '96, when I was not yet a truly frequent flyer. Before take off, I noticed that the woman in the seat ahead me kept getting up to argue about something with the FAs. (At that point I wasn't paying much attention to the particulars.) Of course, the FAs insisted she be seated for take off, but the woman started haranguing them again as soon as she could. She was so distraught, I started taking interest and trying to listen (eavesdrop ) and I learned she was upset about something that had happened with the plane lav.

Finally, the woman demanded that she be allowed to call UA. One of the FAs helped her dial from the seatback phone (remember those? ). At that point I could hear everything the woman she said because she shouted into the phone for at least 10 - 15 minutes.

Apparently, she was furious that she had not been allowed to pre-board the plane, well before departure time, to use the plane restroom. She felt she had been wronged by the GAs and FAs who failed to understand that she had carryon baggage with her and that the plane lav was much closer than the airport restroom. This woman was virtually frothing at the mouth, screaming at the agent on the phone because she had been forced to carry her hand luggage all the way from the gate to the airport restroom. She insisted that that this had been an absolutely unacceptable inconvenience for her and that she had never been so mistreated in her life. She then proceeded to rant that in addition to disregarding her needs, the GAs, FAs, the pilots, and almost everyone associated with UA had been rude, uncooperative, unprofessional, thoughtless, etc. She used more adjectives than I can remember. It was absolutely the most unbelieveable meltdown I have ever witnessed, before or since.

Upon exiting the aircraft, I handed a business card to the FAs and told them that if they suffered any repurcussions from the woman's complaints to call me as a witness on their behalf. I don't know how they managed to be even remotely civil to that woman, let alone professional and courteous, but they did, so I was quite happy to offer to back them up, if needed. Unsurprisingly, no one from UA ever called me. I am sure that woman's antics spoke quite clearly for her and that everyone involved is still laughing about what an utter imbecile she was.

Isn't the aisle exit row seat a better seat than a bulkhead? You get more a lot more legroom, and the seat width isn't reduced by the tray tables being in the armrests. This guy was being very unreasonable.

These are passengers CO CAN Afford to do without!..they create situations that neither thier own passengers or thier employees shuld put up with..They should be shown the door and blacklisted..if you cant act right I dont want you sitting with me on CO flight..i maybe even the one calling the ploice if i witness this type of abuse against other passengers and crew.

WOW, what a trainwreck, OklAAhoma! I do believe that story beats mine ^

Not necessarily. On the 737-300 and -700, the exit row aisle seat has the same miserly seat pitch as the rest of the cabin except for the bulkhead row and the exit row window seats. And if we're talking about the first exit row aisle seating on those aircraft, not only do you get lousy pitch, but your seat doesn't recline either.

The worst ones I've seen on US airlines have been on AA flights and CO ones.

Makes me wonder... what if the two characters you and I witnessed are married? Imagine what their children might be like.

This really has nothing to do with Continental Airlines or OnePass. Please continue to follow the thread over in TravelBuzz!

Xyzzy
CO forum moderator

Gee, if we can all be this luck that this would be the worst treatment we'd ever receive in our lives.

In today's "No Tolerance" atmosphere it's amazing this man wasn't removed from the plane for the disturbance. Which airline was it?