AIR RAGE – The Solution for Victims Your Elevator Pitch
We witness endless videos regarding Air Rage. When I see these videos go viral I have to wonder if the hysterical person being escorted off the airplane was actually the perpetrator. I have to wonder because I recently was the victim of Air Rage perpetrated by angry stressed tired flight attendants on a red-eye from Los Angeles to Washington DC I, a woman of a certain age and with a medical condition requiring that I get up and walk every two hours, was lifted out of my pre-assigned bulkhead aisle seat and sent to a middle seat downstream in the plane. If I didn’t comply I was to be removed from the plane and sent to Airport Detention Center.
Background
United Airlines overbooked flight 411 (no surprise there) and gave duplicate seat assignments. The person with the duplicate had placed himself in the middle seat; I took my rightful aisle seat. As the story unfolded the man who had a boarding pass for the middle seat vociferously argued with the flight attendant that he wanted that middle bulkhead seat. The arrogant, aggressive passenger was in his early 30’s and could have moved to another middle seat on the plane. He resisted, so instead of this man being forced to sit in another middle seat, the flight attendants took aim at me who was simply sitting quietly waiting for takeoff. I was apparently the soft target, the easier of the two to manage. Those flight attendants wanted to shut the doors and get out of there. I pleaded that I needed the aisle seat, that I was given the aisle seat, so there should be no problem. Ah, but the soft target was me. The flight attendants encircled me and nose-to-nose with me barked, “Not your seat anymore, get up now and move” I knew I was minutes from being off loaded from the plane so I complied.
I was the easier target, a quiet older woman, traveling alone on the red-eye.
I remembered during those harrowing few seconds a story my friend told me when he was recently traveling coast-to-coast. My friend smokes and had boarded the plane having had his last cigarette for five hours. The passenger seated next to him complained to the flight attendant that my friend “reeked of smoke.” My friend was sent to the back of the plane and on the way he said “What a jerk”. At that point the flight attendant and her fellow attendants encircled my friend and tossed him off the plane whereupon he was consigned to TSA holding pen and was interrogated for nine hours. No foolin’
Be Ready
I’m begging you to have your Elevator Pitch ready. If you are in the rightful seat or if you sense that the passenger next to you or even near you is unhinged, or the plane has been overbooked to the extent there are duplicate boarding passes, be ready. I suggest you be the first person to complain; the squeaky wheel rule. If you take medications bring your bottles of pills onto the plane. If you have a medical condition that demands that you get up and walk every two hours (like I have) bring a note from your doctor. Above all else be ready. The bottom line is be kind yet assertive not hostile, prove your point and keep your rightful seat.
Formatting Your Elevator Pitch
An Elevator Pitch should be no more than 15 words, and succinctly explains why you are the target of the assault and not the perpetrator. Then you must demand some form of compensation, even an apology that is heartfelt would make one feel less violated.
Shame on you United Airlines, Shame on you.
#UnitedAirlines #AiRage #YSSG
#UnitedAirlinesucks #fly #Aircrew #travel #airlines #flightcrew
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Get more exciting communication tips in Loud and Clear by Karen Berg. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/wm2tod4