Redeye

Posted on July 18, 2016. Filed under: Uncategorized |

I’ve been an American Express card member for over 10 years…over that time I’ve accumulated quite a few rewards points…and this past weekend I decided to spend some for the first time that I can recall. Jetblue has this new Mint service which is their business class seat where you can lie down flat and fully recline. I “bought” two seats with my squirreled away rewards points for Liv and I to take the redeye home from SF last night. I figured we’d save on an extra night in a hotel and still get some sleep if we sprung for the seats that would let us lay down.

As the plane boarded, a guy in his fifties who was probably 6′ 5”, 250 pounds started to antagonize us as we sat in those fancy seats. He said we were too young to sit there, and that we were ugly people…and disgusting people for paying for these seats. I tried to explain that we used miles (not that it was any of his business), but he was visibly angry…and somewhat threatening.

I had the choice to stand up to him and start a fight on an airplane (which was the last thing I wanted to do), or to just quietly ignore him as he continued to be abusive toward us…and I chose the latter. At first i thought he’s probably just drunk, or crazy…but then I realized we were flyinh from SF…where young rich people are obviously taking their tole on the rest of the city and it’s culture, and maybe he really was just fed up with that dynamic.

This guy was upset. He is not alone these days. He was totally wrong…but i couldn’t help but wonder if he was also a little right.