I read an interesting (and entertaining) article by Matthew over at Live and Let’s Fly regarding a very vocal Trump supporter flying on his United Airlines flight from Washington DC to Los Angeles the other day.
While not physically abusive in any way, Maria started off her flight by chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” down the entire aisle as she made her way to her seat. Once there, she began to interact with her seat mates in a way I can only describe as “badgering”, ignoring the requests to “Please leave me alone”. The very descriptive dialogue between the two in Matthew’s posts is quite entertaining.
I think we’ve all been there with a seat mate that won’t stop talking, but a long one-sided conversation about one of the typically “taboo” subjects (politics / religion / etc) would make it doubly uncomfortable!
Eventually the flight attendants and captain got involved, but she ended up staying on the flight. While I wasn’t there as any sort of personal witness, generally I think that (some) flight attendants use their powers to remove passengers a little too much. I’d tend to agree with Matthew’s conclusion that “choosing to deem her just a little nutty rather than a safety threat was the right call”
The best part about it is that after the flight, Matthew was able to take a 17 minute interview with her, including her rendition of a “Trump dance”
What do you think? Did United make the right call in letting her fly? What’s your worst experience been with a seat mate that just won’t stop talking to you?
If you’re going to leave a comment on this post, please keep it civil – while I normally allow just about anything in the comments, I will be moderating these comments a bit more than normal
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No, she should not have been kicked off of the flight. I think UA handled it well. Some people are just crazies and you have to deal with them.
I had a similar experience during college on a flight between MCO – LAS. Seriously, it is the worst thing to be sat next to someone like that. However, they eventually get the idea and shut up.
UA should’ve put her on the never-fly list again.
United has kicked off non-white Muslims, minding their own business, from flights but a white Trump supporter, badgering other passengers, gets to stay?
She’s one of the saner Trump supporters, for sure!
Yes, she should have been kicked off of the flight. And I would say the same if she was a Clinton supporter. If people cannot behave in a normative civilised way in a confined space, remove them from the space.