After spending 2 nights in San Francisco, it was now time to head back home to
Orange County. From Chinatown, I took an Uber to SFO. After the uncomfortable ride into the city on BART, there was no way I was going to take BART back to the airport no matter how much cheaper it is. The driver dropped me off at Terminal 3 and I headed inside and walked right up to the Premier Checkin desk where a friendly agent checked my info before tagging my bag.
The agent directed me to security and proceeded to the TSAPre line which while a little long moved very quickly. The private security agents seemed to move things along quickly and with a smile vs the nasty attitude of TSA. I immediately headed over to the United Club located at Concourse E, where I ordered a glass of white wine. I wasn't hungry at this point so other than browsing the buffet, I didn't eat anything there. It was getting close to boarding time, so I headed over to my gate since the United App asked if I would be willing to voluntarily bump and I replied yes. I walked up to the agent and informed him that I volunteered via my United App to bump and he told me that they were currently offering $400.00 voucher and guaranteed seat on the next flight. He asked if I would be willing to accept the offer. I said I wanted first class on the next flight and after typing away on his computer, he agreed.
I was told that they can only process bumps after everyone had boarded, so I sat down and waited until final boarding was called. Myself and two others that voluntarily bumped were called up to the podium and after signing a document saying that we voluntarily bumped, the agents began processing our voucher and boarding passes for the next flight. The supervisor came over and also instructed the agents to give the three of us $20.00 in food vouchers for the voluntary bump. Once I had my $400.00 voucher, $20.00 food voucher and my boarding pass, I decided to go for a walk and take this 4+ hour wait to snap pictures of the aircrafts at SFO. I literally walked to the end of every United Airlines concourse including the international part.
By the end of my stay at SFO, I had visited the three domestic United Clubs multiple times, and walked every inch of terminal 3 and the international concourse accessible from terminal 3. With all the walking done, I was starting to feel hungry so I used my $20.00 voucher to get myself some terrible Japanese bento, which after picking at it a bit, I threw away. Had I paid for the bento with my money, I would have felt totally ripped off.
After taking pictures from concourse E, I headed over to where my flight would be leaving from. When the gate agent arrived, he was taking volunteers for UA 5986 so I volunteered again for $350.00 voucher, $20.00 in food voucher and first class on the last flight to
SNA. In the end, two people cancelled and my seat was not needed so I boarded the E175 aircraft and took my seat at 2A. As soon as the final passengers boarded, the doors were closed, the safety demo completed and were were off to Orange County. The two others that were bumped with me, a husband and wife, were at seats 1C and 4D.
Inflight service aboard todays flight consisted of beverage and snack basket. After all the drinks had been served in first class, the flight attendant came by with the snack basket. When I asked the flight attendant if I could take a picture of it, she gave me a ... look before letting me snap the pictures. Once everyone had been served, the flight attendant came over and asked me why I was taking all the pictures and then asked me to see them. I showed her the pictures since I had nothing to hide but I could see this turning confrontational for some others. I explained to her that I'm taking the pictures for my blog and trip reports and she seemed to be satisfied with the answer and went off with her business.
The first class flight attendant went around the cabin asking passengers how they were doing. The woman in 1D obviously said something because I could tell the flight attendant was annoyed after talking to 1D. Our short flight to SNA flew by quickly and after the cabin was prepared for landing, the flight attendants took their seats. 1C decided to start a conversation with the flight attendant which continued to landing. Once we pulled up to the gate, passenger 1D decided she was going voice her displeasure of the flight attendant. Passenger 1D told the first class flight attendant that she should not be talking so much etc and wanted the flight attendants employee number so she could report her. At this time passenger in 1C, who bumped with me earlier, decided to jump in and call the passenger in 1D a “nasty person” and other couple of choice verbs at which point passenger 1D told passenger 1C to mind her own damn business. Passenger 1C decided to continue her defense of the flight attendant by calling 1D shameful etc.. Somewhere during the argument, passenger 1D called passenger 1C a “.....” and the flight attendant had enough.
The FA told passenger 1D to sit down because 1D needed a talk with security. Once the cockpit door opened, the flight attendant asked the pilots to call security. At this point, passenger 1D decided to take her argument to the captain who told passenger 1D that we did not want to listen to her and then he went into the lavatory. During this show, the aircraft door finally opened and 1D actually cracked a smile when she saw a United employee on the jet bridge which it seemed like she knew. 1D left with the United employee and I do not know what happened to her after that.
From all of the grumblings in the first class cabin, 1D was being nasty even before boarding the aircraft. Passenger 1D finally decided to go off on the flight attendant because there was no champagne onboard the flight and because according to passenger 1D, the flight attendant should not have been so chatty with passenger 1C during landing. With 1D departing with the United employee and 1C staying behind in the galley to give her statement, the aisle was finally clear and the rest of us were allowed to deplane.
Passenger 1D from what I could tell was just a nasty person. She wasn't having a bad day, but her whole life was one big bad day. One does not develop that skrowl on her face without years and years of being nasty to others. If the Christmas Carol was reimagined with Scrooge as a woman, passenger 1D would fit the role perfectly!
More pictures from
United Airlines flight
UA 5986 from SFO to
Orange County SNA Airport.