So as you may have seen on me and Fatty’s Dayres, we had a very unpleasant encounter with an Australian man yesterday on our flight back from Sydney.
(yes we were in Sydney. For a week. With a baby and a toddler. This warrants a post of its own which will be coming up after this wtf.)
So it was the end of a very stressful and harrowing week for us. At the check-in counter we had already checked in three suitcases but we still had a crapload of stuff with us – I had Penny strapped to me in a baby sling and I was pushing her stroller filled with the world’s heaviest diaper bag, water and snacks for Fighter and miscellaneous items that fell out of our suitcase wtf. Oh and my backpack. Fatty had his backpack and was carrying Fighter. We were bogged down but we were at the finish line! All I wanted to do was climb onboard the plane and endure the last leg of our trip so we could go home and rest.
Stepped on board and located our seats. It turned out I was on an aisle seat and Fatty was in the seat across the aisle from me.
I drew a diagram for your reference.
Next to me by the window was a big Australian man, in his fifties. He was talking on the phone when he saw me and said to his phone,
Oh god there’s a bloody baby next to me.
Okaaayyyy.
Fine I totally understand. Nobody likes a crying baby on a plane and before having kids myself I was exactly the type of person whose head would whip around to locate the source and cock stare the poor kid and parents wtf. So I get it that nobody wants a baby around on a flight cos of the high risk of high blood pressure and insomnia wtf. In fact, I was considering buying candy to bribe my fellow passengers in case Penny or Fighter cried wtf.
Fatty and I settled into our seats and I noticed my neighbor going to talk to the flight attendants. He was gesturing and I got that he was complaining about having to sit next to a baby.
He came back looking kind of dejected though so I assumed the crew probably told him he had to wait to see if there were any available seats or something.
I certainly didn’t want to make the poor guy suffer unnecessarily. I noticed that there was nobody seated next to Fatty, so I said to him, “Excuse me, but don’t worry I’ll be moving to the other row to sit with my husband so you don’t need to bother about my baby.”
I don’t remember what he said exactly but something along the lines of how he has to transit from KL to London again and he’s damn tired and don’t want to put up with this yadda yadda. And then he said some other stuff in a grumbling tone which I kind of tuned out wtf.
I said, “Yes sure I understand.” But inside I was a bit miffed that I was doing him a favor and instead of saying thanks or sorry for the inconvenience, this man was just continuing to grumble about his misfortune of sitting next to me wtf.
Eh hello doing something nice for you leh need to keep harping on it??
Sadly for him, when I asked the crew if I could switch over and sit next to Fatty, they said cannot. Because each row only comes with three oxygen masks and there wouldn’t be enough for all for us. Which was why they seated us across the aisle from each other.
Too bad so sad for the baby hater.
I knew full well that Penny was going to cry at some point in the flight and started to feel quite uncomfortable sitting next to him. So I asked Fatty to switch seats with me, figuring we had better chances with Fighter.
But noooo. Baby Hater’s eardrums too precious or something cos he then called over the head attendant and started haranguing him.
I couldn’t hear properly cos I was across the aisle by then but I pieced it together after it all. According to Fatty who was sitting beside him, Baby Hater was complaining about how he’s some One World Emerald member or some nonsense like that, and was this how they treated special members? By seating them next to a baby?
At this point, I saw Fatty’s eyes roll until can only see the whites wtf.
The head crew asked if he would like to switch seats away from the babies and he said NO. HE PAID FOR THIS SEAT (1A) AND BY GEORGE HE WAS GOING TO SIT IN HIS SEAT.
WTF. As if we didn’t pay for ours?!
(Actually we didn’t la, my fare and the kids were redeemed from points hahahaha but he doesn’t know that wtf. And anyway you don’t pay for a particular seat what shit is this. You can request it but you don’t pay extra to sit in a particular place la please.)
Then Baby Hater gestured at Fatty and said, “WHY DON’T YOU ASK HIM TO MOVE INSTEAD.”
Head attendant told him that wasn’t possible (because the baby bassinets were in our row so no way we could move to the back).
And Baby Hater said, “Why not? I’ve been an Emerald member for ten years blah blah always sit on Cathay blah blah how can you allow me to sit next to a baby yadda yadda been an Emerald member for so long and never been treated like this. And what is he?” (gesturing rudely at Fatty again)
This is when Fatty kaboomed.
He retorted, “I am to MAS whatever you are to your One World. The fact is if you want to continue sitting here you’ll have to deal with it because both my kids are probably going to cry sometime in the flight.”
Baby Hater drew himself up and boomed, “Then maybe they belong in the back, in economy class, and you with them! My daughter is sitting in economy herself.”
Fatty lost his temper. “Well then it’s not my problem if you can’t afford to fly your daughter business class!”
Woah woah Baby Hater going to explode at this point. He hollered, “I COULD BUY UP THIS ENTIRE BUSINESS CLASS IF I WANTED TO. I JUST DON’T BELIEVE IN SPOILING CHILDREN. You’re one to talk – you didn’t even have to pay to bring your kids into business!”
Which is totally untrue and just goes to show how little he knows. Infant fare is 10% of the adults and they don’t even get their own seat. Noob.
Fatty obviously corrected him of his stupid notion but he ranted on and on. About how Fatty started it cos he wasn’t even talking to him, he was speaking to the attendant. Fatty was like are you kidding me? You kept pointing at me and trying to ask the crew to make ME move right in front of me, how is that not rude and involving me?
I also got angry and spoke up, “Yes and I was trying to help you out by requesting to change seats and you didn’t even have the courtesy to say thanks or be nice about it!”
I can’t remember what was said after that but he ranted on for a bit and demanded compensation from the crew which they respectfully denied. How? Already offer him alternative seats he still don’t want. What else can they do? The argument kind of petered out with the head attendant patting Fatty on the hand to calm him down hahahaha.
I was boiling at the arrogance and selfishness of this asshole. I was still thinking of things to say back to him when suddenly Fatty turned to him again and said, “Look. Let’s start over. I apologize for saying you couldn’t afford tickets – that was uncalled for. My issue is that I would like to move if I could but I can’t because the baby bassinets are here and I have to sit with my wife to help her with the baby. What is your issue?”
Baby Hater more or less calmed down and started speaking in a nicer tone.
But across the aisle I was fuming and indignant. I wanted to go over and make Penny gnaw on his head or something wtf. Later on, I asked Fatty WHY DID HE APOLOGIZE!?
Fatty said he felt that he was out of line making personal insults and implying he was poor wtf. Besides the flight was eight hours and Fighter was bound to make noise at some point, and he didn’t want to deal with more shit from Baby Hater.
From his end, Baby Hater explained he was trying to make a fuss to get compensation, hoping they would switch his seat and upgrade his daughter. And he was surprised why Fatty jumped in cos he didn’t think it concerned Fatty.
Ummm then it just means he’s too cheap to pay for a business class ticket for his daughter and wants to get a free upgrade by yelling and ruining people’s day???
And guess what? After Fatty apologized, Baby Hater never did. No apology for inconveniencing us, no sorry for being rude, and definitely no apology for the crew who got yelled at for nothing.
In fact he confided in Fatty that in his experience, making a big enough fuss would get you what you want on flights WTF.
-__________-
I feel sorry for whoever has to service him.
This was a picture I took later to show you guys our seat positions. I’m on the aisle, and the window seat next to Fatty is Baby Hater.
The happiest one of us hahaha in her bassinet.
Snapped this picture of Fighter drinking his milk and accidentally captured Baby Hater. Flight crews, be very afraid. Lol.
At one point Fatty asked if I thought he should move seats next to Passenger X so Baby Hater wouldn’t have more reason to hate babies. I told him, if Fighter is going to annoy someone, shouldn’t it be someone unpleasant rather than someone who didn’t do anything?” Hahaha.
The lesson learned is this. Nobody wants to listen to a crying kid in a confined space. Heck, I hate it myself. But what to do, kids on flights are a necessary evil. Obviously I’ll do my best to make sure my kids are as undisruptive (is that a word?) as possible but we have every right to be on a plane, same like everyone else.
Also, making a fuss will get you nothing. Except a whole blog post dedicated to you. Hahahaha.
Comments (44)
i was waiting for this post after seeing it on tim’s dayre. what an effing idiot! summore he js a parent himslef, should be more understanding hello? totally agree w tim, better to annoy an asshole than someone nice!
Wow what in the freaking world? Talking badly about someone and their children right in front of their face but “it doesn’t even have anything to do with them”??? Kudos to Tim for the apology even though the guy didn’t deserve it.
This might not be his first time if he can think of doing such shit so fast and indignantly wtf. And i can’t fathom how he can just expect your husband to just sit and hear him spew all that shit. It’s natural human reaction to retaliate what! What a complete asshole. Sitting in the front row naturally means that there IS a risk that you’re be seated next to babies since that’s were the bassinets, don’t like than why on earth select seats that bears these risks? Why travel so much until can emerald get status but still no brain to understand this logic omg?
This is idiocracy to the next level. Only if the baby hater realized no matter how tired he was, you guys were even more tired. He had to bear with the babies’ crying and crankiness sound only but you guys had to deal with it, the baby, and also the guilts for disturbing other passangers. If anything, should he be even more considerate over the situation? How many times per day or per week does he had to deal with difficult atmosphere like that? The fact that we live in a society and to be able to stay sane as a human is to deal with things like this once in a while and be positive about it. If he wants trouble free world, go live aline in a cave lah. Bodoh.
Errr, no. Having kids is a personal choice and no human should be under obligation to be ‘more considerate’ of parents with children and think about their tiredness or guilt or whatever else. STILL, his rudeness was uncalled for. He was offered a reasonable solution to a problem, but instead he chose to throw a tantrum. Disgusting behaviour from an adult man.
Disgusted!!! If he is single or without kids I can understand why he reacted like way( but also rude)but he has a daughter!! Shouldn’t he be more understanding? Well , I guess he must be those who dun help look after his daughter when she was young and will scold the wife or helper if his daughter misbehave
Once, my seat was infront of a child age around 5. He was kicking my seats for 5 hours. I complained to the parents but they did nothing. 🙁 How am I supposed to tolerate this?
Soo… if we make a big fuss on a plane, we can get anything huh? *EVIL GRIN*
And he had the audacity to say that he ‘didn’t believe in spoiling children’.. smfh
Audrey, u can pay extra for a particular seat. MAS has this option now hence, all this attitude from this people.
Actually some Aussie r rude. I was raise in Australia and they kinda don’t like asian
Good! U did not censor his picture. Let him get famous. Such a loser…and coming from a person who had a kid. Sheeeeesh.
Typical aussie
What a bloody rude person and they say asians are more kiasu. The fact is he’s trying to stir shit out of nothing so he can profit from it. Cannot stand this type of ppl. Everywhere he goes, he must win and take something away even if it has to be from kids #grrr
Wow…who is the BABY now? Nothing has happened yet and he kicked up a fuss, refused to be reasoned with. Your babies are more well-mannered than this rude self-absorbed Australian Baby!!
I feel so sad and angry for what has happened to all of you. I also met some nasty Australians like him too who keep mentioning they are the one world members and making ridiculous requests! Hope next time you will get to sit next to friendly Australians if you fly over to Australia again. =)
MAS is part of one world… just saying.
so cheapskate!!! spoil people day with hope to get free upgraded for his daughter. I thought he said he can buy entire flight!!! hahahaha…bloody arrogant! http://www.princesscindyrina.com
The nerve of him!! Was he proud of the fact, that him making a cheapskate fuss gets him his way and extras on flights? First time coming across such a cheapskate angmoh. At this moment i can’t think of another reason for actually telling someone else about it and probably feeling ‘clever’ about it wtf. And lol arguing and kicking a fuss without proper knowledge, ouch! This is rather impolite, but a pair of ear plugs does wonders sir, just saying :p . Wouldn’t want to be his daughter either! “don’t believe in spoiling his kids” wtf. Look who’s behaving like a spoilt baby. Double standard cheapskate!
Yea he said he didn’t want to spoil his kid yet pulled all this nonsense to get her upgraded -_-
Yea lo talking rubbish la hahahaha
I know that… what’s your point? If anything, seeing that it was an MAS flight we were on, an Enrich member should still rank higher than One World.
Really ah? Is it really that common? D:
Hahahaha yea!! at that point, neither Fighter or Penny had even uttered a peep. Maybe he was trying to make sure they don’t ever. :X
Ya he’s a real winner wtf
Is that really typical? Now your statement sounds a bit racist :X
We actually met the daughter after that and she seemed very sensible and nice. She even told us her dad is a difficult person :X
Yea… he probably didn’t expect us to get involved or answer back
oooh I didn’t know that! But then he should know that a seat in the front row means sitting next to families with babies what :X
Hahaha what’s smfh?
Haha i heard that airline staff are actually not authorized to simply upgrade people. Cos like that everyone would be resorting to making fusses haha
Erm don’t mean to be rude but could you explain how your story is relevant to mine? I guess you could speak to the flight crew for a seat change or something. but in our case, Fighter and Penny hadn’t even made a sound when he started making the fuss.
the daughter was like 20 so I guess he forgot what it’s like to have young children wtf
Hmm don’t think that’s necessarily true though. Having kids IS a personal choice, but if your parents didn’t make that personal choice, you wouldn’t even be here today. I don’t think anyone should be obligated to be ‘more considerate’ but it doesn’t hurt to have a little compassion for struggling parents.
Yea lo exactly! He claimed he flies biz class all the time so he should be aware that choosing to sit in the front row means he’ll be sitting next to babies!
Yea how else does he expect us to react!?
Hahahaha actually I said that 😀
Some of the most rude bastards I’ve met throughout my life happened to be parents with children. For example a neighbour once shouted at me for climbing the stairs too loudly (you can’t make it up), because she thought the noise would wake up her newborn baby. I know babies are hard work, but her being tired and all was not an excuse to assult an innocent person, she could have asked nicely. Another time I accidentaly stepped on child’s foot on a very crowded train (and promtly apologised), her mother decided that I deserved a few kicks in a stomach and a verbal tirade for that. Compassion is what makes us human, but it must work both ways. I am not a child-hater (I love kids), but it is my firm belief that parents cannot expect to be always treated differently because of their children, nothing good ever comes out fro entitlement.
oh yes , compared to malaysia, i’ve encountered so many idiots in australia, it’s like usually i didnt do anything but they act like i insulted their whole family just because of my presence, I really don’t like the people here to be honest.
Shaking my freaking head hahaha *kaypoh*
his behaviour is sooo uncouth and uncalled for! Lots of idiots elsewhere, but to parents with babies and young children. So egocentric! Great that you and your husband actually stood up to him! I saw your family on the same flight btw and i must say I was star struck heh. Glad your ordeal was over.
I flew from melb to sg and a pair of aussie couple were sat infront of us as well as another passenger (window aisle of the plane) and the other passenger sat at the wrong seat and the aussie couple were really sarcastic about it. I mean there’s no need for that, all there was to do was to switch seats but nope.
Like u said he is a baby hater. So he is just being ignorant. I’ve seen a couple who didn’t allow a flight attendant to fix the bassinet for the mother sitting next to them. Some people can be so selfish and mean. Just plain mean. People like that should just charter their own plane and save everyone from their nuisance!
Yeah actually we are not obligated to anything. We can just do our shit without care about others. You know, just like animal and such. But to make you human, to carry ourselves in a society, we should always be considerate, especially to people with difficulties. Be considerate, just like how you want and had people be considerate on you.