Safety is a top priority with airplane travel. If there is a problem with the plane, you definitely don’t want to be on it!

In today’s story, passengers are forced to change planes due a problem with the plane, and the flight attendants are great about arranging different flights for all of the passengers.

The problem is that one particular passenger is rude to the flight attendant, but she puts him in his place!

Find out what she does…

He gets exactly what he asked for

This happened when I (F, 20 at the time) was a junior in college.

Here’s some context. I had taken a long weekend trip to Florida with a friend of mine to visit her brother and go to the Universal Studios Fright Night Halloween event (which was awesome, by the way).

We had an amazing trip, and we were on the plane about to head home.

This was only my second ever time with air travel. We didn’t have much when I was growing up, so vacations were not a regular thing, and the ones we took were low key.

Something was wrong with the plane.

So, there I was, just excited to be flying in my coach seat, waiting to take off.

And we kept waiting.

It became clear that there was a problem with the plane when the flight attendants started calling various passengers to exit to be placed on different flights so they’d make their necessary connections.

Eventually, after around 40 minutes, it was just my friend and I plus around 6 other people.

Another couple was REALLY upset.

And then it was our turn to leave the plane.

We were sort of near the end of the group tromping back out into the waiting area.

One couple, probably in their mid-fifties, had stormed up ahead of us; and by the time my friend and I emerged from the gate entrance, the rude husband was already berating the pair of attendants, who, to their credit, remained poised and calm.

They tried to reassure him, but he was talking over them. “This is unacceptable. You better get me the same seats we had on that flight.” (He had the first row in coach, the one with no seats in front of it and therefore with extra leg room.)

The flight attendants reassured everyone that they made arrangements for different flights.

By then, the rest of us had gathered around, and the attendants began addressing the whole group, offering reassurances, filling us in that there was a critical problem with the plane (which made me very glad for the change, despite the inconvenience).

The rude husband was going off through all of this, and when the attendants left to make arrangements for us all, he and his wife sat there and he continued his commentary to his poor wife “… unacceptable … how dare they … better have same seats …” and so on.

Shortly, the attendants returned, and the man practically rushed them. “I demand you make this right.”

The attendant smiled and said. “You guys are all set. Sir,” and she smiled at him specifically. “I’m very happy to tell you that we have a flight leaving shortly, and we were able to give you and your wife the exact same seats as you had booked on the previous flight.”

Rude husband: “I should hope so. That’s the least you can do.” And he huffily returns to his seat.

Oooo, the flight attendant had a big surprise!

Meanwhile, the rest of us are just waiting.

The attendant then turns to us, and she says, “And I’m happy to let everyone else know that you’ll all be flying first class with us today.”

Rude husband was furious and immediately jumped up to demand why they weren’t flying first class while the rest of us just sat there in a state of stunned glee.

The attendant just informed the man that she’d given him his request, and didn’t stick around for more abuse.

First Class was a wonderful experience.

The wait wasn’t long, and soon my friend and I were boarded into the unicorn, fabled place that is First Class.

As a poor, air travel newbie, it was like some fantasy land: huge seats, real hot wash cloths, and though we were underage and couldn’t partake of The Free Cocktail, we did get to choose from a basked of “Distinctive Pepperidge Farm” cookies.

And the food!

We got a whole meal, which was truly delicious, with real crystal salt and pepper shakers at each place setting and actual metal cutlery.

The rude man was still complaining.

Meanwhile, rude husband is irate.

My friend and I were in the last row of first class, which only had around 8 seats, and we could hear him heaping abuse on the coach attendants, going off on how those “kids don’t deserve” first class and how they “should have gotten them, they’re older, they should be respected, not some kids.”

Someone else who was in first, not from our original plane, caught on and was quite tickled with the man’s ire.

The flight attendant put the rude man in his place!

Then, the best part of all happened: the flight attendant in our section overheard rude husband’s tirade, with language specifically directed at my friend and me, “who do those kids think they are?!” as unworthy of the honor he should have been granted.

The attendant shook his head and addressed me and my friend: “I’m sorry about that. Let me take care of this for you.”

And he closed the curtain to the coach cabin.

Rude husband realized what was happening, which makes it even getter.

I got one last look at his red, irate face before he was gone forever.

It was glorious!

What a great story! It definitely shows that it’s better not to complain. I love the flight attendant’s malicious compliance!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader loved this story.

This is a good point!

Being rude is not the way to get what you want.

Here’s the perspective of the son of an airline employee…

This airline travel veteran shares words of wisdom.

Being polite is always a good idea.

Sometimes it literally pays to be nice.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.