You usually hear about Southwest passengers faking an injury or disability to board the plane first and therefore get prime choice of seating, only to be “cured” when exiting the plane, unassisted. (and yes, I know there are lots of people who really do need that extra time to board and don’t need assistance to exit the plane. But there are also plenty of people who fake it.) Today I read about a guy who tried to play that game and lost pretty badly.
The Setup: A Passenger’s Attempt at Pre-Boarding
The story was shared on the r/United subreddit towards the end of last year. It was written by a Redditor named u/wrathofthefonz (I love that name!) and they explained the story of how a fellow pax’s boldfaced lie worked against him when he claimed he needed pre-boarding on their flight.
A Boldfaced Lie Catches Up With Him
According to u/wrathofthefonz, the event happened just before a United flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago.
“Guy demands preboarding for those who need special assistance. No wheelchair, but says he needs special assistance as he just had knee surgery,” the user wrote in the post about a week before Christmas.
The Gate Agent Calls Him Out
The gate attendant was fine with that. But before the dude goes down the jetway, she notices that he’s assigned to sit in an exit row.
Of course, if you have a disability, you can’t sit in an exit row of any flight. It’s against FAA rules. Here’s how the rule is posted on United’s website:
In keeping with FAA rules, to sit in an exit row you must:
- Be 15 years of age or older
- Be willing to help in an evacuation
- Be physically able to help in an emergency.
Of course, if someone just had knee surgery, they wouldn’t be physically able to help in the event of an emergency. At least not nearly as well as an able-bodied person could. So the gate attendant told him he couldn’t sit in the exit row.
Not surprisingly, that didn’t go over very well. Lo and behold, the guy suddenly changes his tune, says he’s fine and can sit in the exit row.
Because of course he did.
The Instant Karma Moment
End of the story? The guy’s wife still sat in her original seat in the exit row but dude got a middle seat in the back.
Justice on a silver platter, right there, y’all. Many Redditors felt the same way:
- Congrats to the gate agent on their win. — mullerja
- I’ve seen this happen too. A very tall elderly man (with wife) tried to preboard as handicapped but they were in the exit row. The GA told them that handicapped people could not sit in an exit row. They said “Oh, we’ll just board with our group”. Nope. No exit row for them. — Flat_Tumbleweed_2192
- He got what he deserved!!! It’s so good to see instant karma!– PlusSociety2806
- FA… FO.– superspeck
- I’m cabin crew, not at United. I once had a man sit in my exit row and he had his arm in a sling. I confronted him about it and told him that he’d need to sit in another seat because he isn’t “able bodied.” He wanted to argue with me about it saying that the sling wasn’t necessary and he removed it. The captain got involved and gave him two choices. Switch seats or get off the plane. He switched seats.– wanderlustingC
- Instant karma. 😘 — Mel_tothe_Mel
Oh! And typically, you never know if a story on Reddit is true or not, because Reddit allows you to be pretty anonymous. But then there was this reply, too:
- Wtf lol I was on this flight waiting in group 1 line when I saw this unfold small world– Oblongballs33
Feature Photo: PIT
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
