“I’m sorry your Silver Elite status on Northwest Airlines didn’t qualify you for a first-class upgrade on your recent flight from New York to Minneapolis,” Kevin Winge quips. “All of us, your fellow passengers, shared in the incredulity you expressed so vocally to the gate agent when informed that you would be flying coach.”
Winge is the executive director of Open Arms of Minnesota, a nonprofit organization that provides nutritious meals to people living with diseases, so he knows a thing or two about entitlement. And I think he’s succeeded in writing an open letter that could apply to every annoying airline passenger we’ve ever shared a plane with.
Your expletive-laden denouncement of the airlines, while unsettling to many of those standing near to you, was an opinion that you obviously deemed necessary to share with all within earshot. It is shocking that the airlines would let a little thing like a mechanical problem with the plane interfere with your very important schedule. Trust me, we all heard you when you said how (expletive omitted) upset you were.
Winge picks apart the “entitlement” culture of elite travelers with relish.
While being a requirement for all of us, your fellow passengers, I understand that the size of carry-on luggage is only a suggestion for you. No, I can’t believe the “gall” of the flight attendant who told you that your suitcase would need to be tagged and put in the cargo hold because it was too large to fit in the overhead compartment or underneath the seat in front of you.
Here’s the full story, which was first published in yesterday’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
I’ve been thinking about elites and their curious ways since watching this short student film about frequent fliers who make mileage runs.
If you don’t have half an hour or so to watch this, I’ll hit the highlights: This is a short documentary that centers around the people who make trips for no other reason than to rack up more award miles and earn elite status. Some members of this all-male club are well-behaved on their flights, to be sure. But some demand to be treated as … well, elites. My colleague Janice Hough might call them members of the entitlement class.
I wonder if passengers like the one Winge was writing about know they’re being difficult? I wonder if they’re aware that they’re making air travel so unbearable for everyone else?
(Thanks to reader Harriet Phillips for tipping me off to this story.)
(Photo: Brewbooks/Flickr Creative Commons)
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
You are right that most people who go on mileage runs and the like are well behaved. And while as a woman I would love to say that the only jerks amongst them are men, unfortunately that’s not the case. There are some women as well as men who are convinced that elite status confers a God given right for an upgrade, or at least an exit row seat. Anytime.
This doesn’t have anything to do with ‘Elite’ status flyers, per se; the lack of availability of an upgrade was simply the trigger for this particular passenger’s egotistical, loud, rude and inappropriate behaviour. There were doubtless many other passengers with ‘elite’ status on the same flight from whom not a word was heard.
Please, we all run into people like this daily – or at least I do….. the only people I see eating and drinking on the Metro (which is illegal and punishable by a hefty fine) are white, upper-middle class people who think rules do not apply to them. (And for the record, I am white and upper-middle class – it seems to me that the only people arrested for this behavior are African American teenagers.) These people are everywhere, not just flying with high status. Narcissism, anyone?
WOW… As the spouse of a 30+ year Flight Attendant, I might suggest this gentleman organize a Flight Attendant based fund-raiser for his, obviously well intended and well directed, non-profit organization. I’m sure it will do quite well. Bravo !!
To the folks who witnessed Mr Wonderful’s outburst: Please, not everyone who travels with elite status behyaves in that manner, nor takes advantage of the system. I am a small business owner, escorting small group tours in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales (I live in the USA but work in Europe about five months of the year) and have, finally, after many, many years of trips in coach, managed to scrape together a few extra bucks to purchase a Continental President’s Club membership. I’ve worked very hard to get my business to this stage and count the few perks I get (early boarding but no special seating) as a real privilege I treat airline personnel as I’d like to be treated and it is quite gratifying to see that same treatment returned in the vast majority of cases. Signed: Quiet and just happy to be on the plane
With several airlines offering “elite twice as fast” promotions, there will be more fliers than ever before feeling entitled to those few seats up front. I must admit I am doing my own first ever mileage run next month in order to reach platinum and stay ahead of the potentially large nouveau gold pack. I do promise to behave. I will still take my place behind those that fly for their living and the million milers.
Basic rule of travel, actually for everyday life, the age old proverb “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is not ‘rocket science’ folks. One gets a lot more from people, fellow travelers, airline personnel, friends, family co-workers, and indeed employees if we are nice to one another. Stop the violence. Verbal attacks are viloence. If I had been the gate agent I would given very serious consideration to denying boarding to this rude person. I have Elite status on serveral airlines and appreciate anything and everything that comes from that status. Nothing in this life entitles one to different treatment “just because”.
Elite status is a very, very minor sort of celebrity that a certain percentage of the population will react poorly too — just as they do in Hollywood. In fact, taking that very example, I have to wonder if it wouldn’t be a majority percentage!
Having said that, precious few people really know what it’s like to truly travel for a living. They get some sales account that takes them on the road once every month or so and suddenly they think themselves battle-hardened road warriors. For those of us who are on several flights (or at least several flight segments) per week spanning a career of multiple decades, the idea of not having some of the elite perks is a seriously unpleasant one. In fact, I can say with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t be willing to fly with any consistency sans priority boarding, priority seating, upgrade opportunities, etc. And airlines are of course wise to this, so the elite status paradox isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The quiet, polite, professional, respectful elites have to put up with these buffoons just as the rest of the flying public does…
Janice; women are just as nasty and rude as men.So what