Sometimes air travel is boring. We get on planes, we go places, we come back. And boring is good!
But sometimes it gets really interesting. This was not in a bad way at all, because when flights aren't boring that can be scary.
I was on a flight last week, going from Washington to Raleigh. The business man in front of me, in first class, had already received his drink and was relaxing during boarding. The gate agent walked up and asked if anyone had talked to him about his seat. He said "No", and the gate agent told him he had been downgraded. The whole cabin went silent, as we all exchanged glances. Apparently the flight was oversold and even though he was 1K on United, and had his seat assigned 4 days ago, they downgraded him to make room for someone who paid full fare. And then they put him in row 28. He was not happy. We were all stunned and asked the flight attendant to take him a drink. I think she did.
Then an older man sitting across from me summoned the gate agent, in a very demanding tone, stating that he flies a million miles a year on United and he needed attention. I was hiding my smiles since he and his companion sat in the wrong seats when they came onboard. He berated the gate agent and the flight attendant about how terrible the airline is and he was delayed waiting for repairs all day. Then he got on his phone and called United to complain and told them the whole story again. I think if you fly a million miles, you could probably try more than one airline. And that is a LOT of miles!
Finally we take off. Someone starts ringing the call button 5 seconds into takeoff. I never knew what that was about exactly but heard that someone didn't like their seat.
The man sitting next to me turned to me and said, "this is the most interesting flight I have been on in years!" I had to agree.