Wife and I were returning to CA from Paris. I’d been working nearly a year over there installing Fire Effects at EuroDisney. Window seat for wifey, all stuff stored away overhead, shoes kicked off, chilling before takeoff..
French couple with 3 kids had seats scattered all over the plane. She asked steward if passengers could do some seat swapping so they all could be contigous. Many complied, though grudgingly, but it was obvious that we were the last to be asked in this checkers game.
I told steward “No. We are all settled away and it is not my problem if she’s too cheap to get contigous seating.” French woman was incredulous someone would refuse. Steward came back again - same question. I told him “Frankly, I don’t give a damn about her, or her kids. We are staying put.” Now tell her that exactly.
International relations frosted over for some time after that, I think. Frankly, I enjoyed being the “Ugly American” that day.
Some Gaul.
A family gets on board, party of eight. Mom, Dad, Gramdma, three teenagers, and two 7-10 year olds. They are split up in twos. They decide to sit, Grandma and Mom, Dad and a teen, two teens together, and the two small kids end up next to me.
These two kids end up being very high maintenance. I have to help them stow their gear, tell them to turn off their game boys, order them drinks, help them operate the seat back entertainment, etc. Part way through the flight I go to the bathroom and run into grandma who apologizes profusely for the behavior of the one kid because he is ADHD.
........then the weather turned bad in Atlanta, we diverted to Hunstville and sat on the ground for five hours. When the captain unleashed the service carts and made the movies free I got both the kids a couple cokes a piece, a bunch of cookies and let them watch whatever they wanted. They got off that plane bouncing off the bulkheads, and they still had to connect to Orlando.