The Aha! Moment

This evening I’ve been watching “Airline” — lovin’ that Comcast On Demand — and I’m having a lovely time watching the morons berate the Southwest Airlines staff. If you’ve never seen this show, it’s a “day in the life” at Southwest Airlines, generally following three different incidents. They start out pretty typical, for example: man misses his flight.
Then come the AHA! moments. First, they introduce the guy, and he’s a big burly biker-type guy, wearing a bandanna around his head, shorts nearly down to his knees, a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and a dozen or so tattoos. Still, you have room for doubt. Next, he explains why he missed his flight: he couldn’t find the airport because the highway signs confused him. Not enough for you? Then the aggrieved passenger lets slip one bit of information that really gives you a clue what kind of person he is: he can’t call his wife to tell her he’ll be late because they don’t have a home phone.
Oh, but wait! You thought that was it, but there’s always one more amusement. He was delayed in security because his shoes smelled so bad.
The other thing these people have in common is that when they complain they give their life story — things like, “I’ve been flying for over 15 f**king years. Never been asked to get off a go**amned plane in the middle of my flight if I’ve had one drink. I’m 33 years old [she looked 45]. Had a miscarriage, had two other children [I’m betting when she was 15], never been asked to get off a f**king flight. And all you Southwest motherf**kers shove it up your a**.” Lovely.
From the woman who was returning home after 72 hours in rehab, to the woman who keeps missing her flights because she doesn’t hear her name announced (and has an abusive boyfriend) to the man who blamed Southwest for TSA’s treatment of him, there’s no shortage of creepy, low class, and just plain obnoxious passengers out there.
I hope that Southwest didn’t think this show would promote their airline, because I haven’t flown them since this show started. I don’t want to be surrounded by that kind of passenger.