Economy Class passenger refusing to move from UC!

We've got some friends over from Boston at the moment and they told us that on their way over (VS 12) a lady from Economy got up as the plane was turning onto the runway and moved to an empty Upper Class Suite in the last row. Apparently she refused to move for the duration of the flight, 6.5 hours! They said that all the crew members tried to get her to move but didn't succeed and she was 'dealt with' at Heathrow.

Has anyone else come across behaviour like this? I couldn't believe it when they told us...she may as well have walked into a shop and stolen 2500 worth of goods [V] What do you reckon would have been the likely outcome of her behaviour?

[preiffer]

I don't think she'll be flying with VS again.

The 'theft' issue is one thing, but it's absolutely ILLEGAL to ignore a member of crew's instructions.

Originally posted by Joffy
What do you reckon would have been the likely outcome of her behaviour?

I don't know: but it's a nice money-saving tip that's for sure.

I guess they could ban her.

I am sure she didn't get fed and watered to UC standard.

Takes all sorts to make up a world.

H

I was on the vs8 from LAX last week in uc when after take off the cabin crew started counting the passengers and a few moments later invited a couple to return to economy! They did as requested

the cheek of some people! I would never have the nerve to do that kind of thing. On a flight to the US on Delta (in Business), they announced to coach that it was against US law for anyone to enter the business cabin from coach, and that those doing so would be arrested immediately on arrival....never heard that one on a VS flight!!

Originally posted by preiffer
I don't think she'll be flying with VS again.

The 'theft' issue is one thing, but it's absolutely ILLEGAL to ignore a member of crew's instructions.

It's also a federal crime not to have your seat belt buckled at that point. She is lucky the plane even took off. I can't blame her for trying though. I wonder if she demanded food and alcohol too [:D]

I hope that was her outbound flight and she had to find alternative transport home.

Her food and drink should of been served to her correct seat she would not of gotten anything if it was my choice

Nothing surprises me anymore. I am a Director of a private medical clinic and we get patients who book appointments, receive quotes, get treated and then say they haven't any money! If she paid VS directly by credit card I wonder if they can take the difference?!

I can only hope that 'dealt with at Heathrow' means an arrest for failing to comply with a crew member instruction & a visit to Heathrow Police station.

Moving within the cabin you have paid to fly in after take-off to get more space is fine (I know people on here have said the crew announce this is OK if the flight is suitably empty). Moving into a cabin you have not paid to sit in - unless invited to by the crew - is all but theft.

James

Originally posted by Kraken
I can only hope that 'dealt with at Heathrow' means an arrest for failing to comply with a crew member instruction & a visit to Heathrow Police station.

Moving within the cabin you have paid to fly in after take-off to get more space is fine (I know people on here have said the crew announce this is OK if the flight is suitably empty). Moving into a cabin you have not paid to sit in - unless invited to by the crew - is all but theft.

James

That was my understanding, on my last flight, Y class was invited to move around the cabin to a better seat BUT only after the plane had taken off and the seat beat sign extinguished. Also the pax had to move back to their original places on landing (not sure how strictly enforced this guideline/instruction is).

To move from Y to J with the consent of CC, is nothing more than to stealing. However, I supposed she didn't try to pull an act, like the stories you hear on cabincrew.com.

[RichardMannion]

Reminds me of a conversation Sarah and I heard at MAN, whilst waiting for our luggage from the MCO flight about 2 years ago.

Muppet with Northern drawl: 'I don't understand why they don't let us sit in them business class seats, they were all empty'

Other Muppet: 'Yeah I know, wouldn't cost them anything'

Grr. Irony being that they had walked past the empty PE cabin on their way out, and not Upper.

[Darren Wheeler]

another case for introducing on-board cattle prods. [}:)]

Could there be an argument for the captain to turn the plane around if she was being unco-operative? I know it's a bit extreme.

Also, I would made sure that the PAX was named and shamed.

[mitchja]

There was a post on Flyer Talk about a BMI flight going back to the terminal the other week beacuse a pax stood up and used the washroom as the A/C was queued up waiting to rotate. The said pax was off loaded and arrested.

Edit - here it is

Regards

Originally posted by mitchja
There was a post on Flyer talk (I think) about a BMI flight going back to the terminal the other week beacuse a pax stood up as the A/C was taxiing to the runway when the seat belt sign was on. The said pax was off loaded.

Regards

I heard that somewhere as well, that's what made me think about the suggestion to turn the plane back and offload.

Originally posted by mitchja
There was a post on Flyer Talk about a BMI flight going back to the terminal the other week beacuse a pax stood up and used the washroom as the A/C was queued up waiting to rotate. The said pax was off loaded and arrested.

Edit - here it is

Flight was delayed 2 hrs! Long discussion of the issues on pprune

Quite shocked by this story. I guess she is now banned from VS and probably spent a lengthy period in the police station at LHR. Just out of interest was she interest?

Originally posted by baldbrit

It's also a federal crime not to have your seat belt buckled at that point. She is lucky the plane even took off.

To be very picky here- I believe that VS a/c are under UK law at all times. Hence if you are a doctor and treat a passenger onboard a plane and get sued for it you will be sued under the law of the country of the airiline and VS serving booze to under 21s despite it being against the law in the US. Of course it must be against CAA Regs/UK law to have your seat belt unbuckled at that point also.

Ah, the interlopers...

Was on a BA CE flight a few years ago and I was in 1A with 1C empty. There was a BA Premier in 1D and a couple of passengers sat in 1E and 1F. I thought it was odd they'd put the Premier next to people when 1C was empty. Alas when the crew did a headcount they found a discrepancy and those in CE were asked to show boarding cards. The two in 1E and 1F picked up their stuff and moved back to somewhere in Euro Traveller.

Was also on a United flight in the front row of Business Class with only a small bulkhead separating J & F. A woman took her seat in F and began reading the paper. A rather embarassed deadhead crew member had to show her that her seat was actually the other side of the bulkhead and she moved.

Was on a United overnight flight IAD-LAX a few months ago that was by all accounts very empty in Economy and Economy Plus. An announcement was made that passengers were free to move to other seats but only in their respective cabin and that 'Anything ahead of row 17 (IIRC) was reserved for Economy Plus'. They had to make the announcement a couple of times so I guess some passengers rushed the (sort of) forward cabin.

Am very surprised in the current environment that someone would want to disobey cabin crew instructions (or lighted placards [;)]) and refuse to move.

Just out of interest was she interest?

Sorry not sure what's meant here [:#]

I asked why there was no action from the Captain but they couldn't give me an answer, they said it only became a problem once the aircraft was airborne. It may have been after the aircraft was turning onto the runway...however I can assure you the rest of it is accurate and these friends aren't the type to twist/exaggerate things!

an empty seat is an unsold seat . its that simple !

Originally posted by DarkAuror
Could there be an argument for the captain to turn the plane around if she was being unco-operative? I know it's a bit extreme.

Also, I would made sure that the PAX was named and shamed.

Once in the air, there really isn't a need to land unless there is a commotion that may escalate. Sitting calmly in your seat and refusing to move wouldn't be worth the hassle. More concerning is the PAX walking around the aircraft while taxiing. An un-secured PAX will seriously injure themselves or other PAX if the place breaks suddenly. If the lady sat down quickly in her new (stolen) seat, it was a good decision by the crew member not to handle the situation just prior to take-off.

With any luck, she was taken straight to the Tower of London on arrival!

Originally posted by GVIRG
an empty seat is an unsold seat . its that simple !

True, but at the same time, if someone has payed £250 for a seat they shouldn't assume that they can sit anywhere especially a seat that costs upwards of £1500.

They trying to get a service that the cost and type of ticket they had didn't entitle them to.

Originally posted by baldbrit

Originally posted by DarkAuror
Could there be an argument for the captain to turn the plane around if she was being unco-operative? I know it's a bit extreme.

Also, I would made sure that the PAX was named and shamed.

Once in the air, there really isn't a need to land unless there is a commotion that may escalate. Sitting calmly in your seat and refusing to move wouldn't be worth the hassle. More concerning is the PAX walking around the aircraft while taxiing. An un-secured PAX will seriously injure themselves or other PAX if the place breaks suddenly. If the lady sat down quickly in her new (stolen) seat, it was a good decision by the crew member not to handle the situation just prior to take-off.

With any luck, she was taken straight to the Tower of London on arrival!

If it was her outward flight, I would hope that she spent a couple of hours in one of those lovely Met Police cells at LHR that have been shown on 'Airport'. Then be told that she was on the next flight back to the US with another carrier.

If it was her inward flight then I would hope that she spent a couple of hours in one of those lovely Met Police cells at LHR that have been shown on 'Airport'. Then be told that she was banned from flying VS and her details circulated around to other carriers as a difficult PAX.

Oh and be sent to the Tower of London![;)][;)]

It's important to note that a long haul plane can't just decide to land shortly after take-off without dumping fuel to get down to landing weight. I'd imagine it would take several hours, if not three quarters of the flight to burn off sufficient fuel.

The exercise of dumping fuel is only likely to take place where there is a serious technical fault with the aircraft or lives are in danger. Fuel isn't exactly cheap. Neither is it environmentally friendly. So major reasons needed to dump fuel. Crazed, thieving weirdo isn't a strong enough reason.

I do hope she was arrested. Very foolish. Reminds me of those pax that [clearly] deliberately enter Upper or Business Class to use the WCs or stand around on their 'walk'... or sit on Premium or Business seats whilst tying shoe laces or sort out their kids. Like showing the curtain means nothing to them. They miss the point that it's not about class division, it's about what you've paid for. They're not entitled to such things and are thieves by just taking.

Back in the mid nineties on my first ever VS flight I was returning back from JFK with my then girlfriend. We were flying economy and while checking in I asked if there was any chance of a free upgrade. To our surprise we were granted an upgrade to premium economy![:D]

A couple of hours later we were called to board. Upon entering the aircraft we were directed to our seats a few rows up. Not being totally familiar with the VS product back then I remember sitting down and commenting on how lucky we were to have such nice seats for the night flight home. Anyway after a few minutes and by now a very full aircraft a gentleman approached and informed me I was actually in his seat. I then checked our seat numbers against the boarding passes and was told that we were sitting in upper class, how embarrassed was I. We collected our belongings and shuffled further back to find our nice but not so great seats.

Didn't I feel a plonker, especially in front of my girlfriend![:I]

Marc...