Bargaining your way ‘up’

It strikes me that many people are very polite. Most people I meet are quick to cooperate, help out and be kind to each other.

This is no different on board. People are helpful, patient and understanding towards their fellow passengers, and to me and my colleagues. Only now and then does someone get impatient (which could be for a good reason) and only very rarely does someone become rude. Actually, I find that rather amazing: all these different people sitting in the space of a few square metres high in the sky, getting along so well.

But once in a while it occurs to me that the humble ones sometimes suffer at the expense of the bold ones. Take a flight that’s not completely full, for example. Quite a lot of people stay in their original seat even when they’re allowed to change seats after take-off. Only a few people notice and occupy the empty seats. Some of them even stretch out on three or four seats, not bothering about mothers with babies on their laps or others that might be more comfortable with a little more space.

Other passengers use bargaining techniques to get what they want. Like the lady who asked for a free upgrade on a flight to Bonaire. She maintained that she always got upgraded on her flights to the island; this would be the first time she wouldn’t sit upstairs! It would have been easy to call her bluff by explaining that flights to Bonaire have always been flown with an MD-11, an aircraft with only one deck, thus making it impossible for her to have sat ‘upstairs’. But of course I didn’t.

‘Always’ and ‘never’ often come up in discussions. “I am always allowed to take three (big!!) bags into the cabin”. “I have never been asked before to remove my luggage from in front of an emergency exit!” “You guys always let me smoke in the lavatory!”

In those cases I usually explain the rules and leave it at that, since I know everyone drives a hard bargain now and then. I’ve done it myself in markets for example: “I always get that product for less than half of that price!” While I’d never actually bought that particular item before…