The plane has finally left El Paso. It should be here in an hour. Then loading baggage/cleaning, and then an hour for us to get to California. I've only been waiting seven hours... Anyway. The bitchy lady and man have momentarily shut up.I would like to smack them anyway.

Oh, and thank you for the story. Several of us have tried to do similarly, and I know the guy appreciated it. It's an important reminder about compassion.

I'm glad it looks like this night might end, kristin.

It always amazes me when people can't figure out what a legitimate complaint is. There are a lot of good reasons to complain about airline service, gross overbookings, canceling of flights at the last minute, obvious scheduling errors that leave a flight crewless or planeless, security checks that treat people like cattle , missing things from luggage,etc.

Weather delays, mechanical delays - no fun. But you really don't want to be flying under those conditions.

And even if your complaint is real- does anyone really believe that screaming at the gate agent will help?

And for the hat trick, the flight attendant just came around to give us mints, and one of the ladies nearby said she wanted to play Airport Survivor and vote her off the plane. The flight attendant said it's the third time someone said that and that if she doesn't stop, se isn't letting her on her flight. Nice!

Push her out at high altitude.

That would delay my arrival. More. So no.

Tempting, though.

mechanical delays

If it wasn't for the teeny tiny problem of flying a plane without a crew I wish they would tell the complainers, "well yeah the fuel line is leaking but if you don't want to wait for us to fix it go right ahead and fly!"

Oh no, when they told her that the plane was delayed because of a hydraulic leak, she screamed, "So you're putting us on a defective plane?!"

"No," he said, "we're not. That's why it's delayed."

Somehow this logic didn't appease her.

That's because it wasn't insane troll logic.

Now she has marched herself over to the gate that we'll be boarding on. She has a small but extemely vocal and annoying fan club who have joined her. The flight is fifteen minutes away now.