The Plane Ride Home

This is a letter I sent to Delta Airlines following our recent trip to visit my parents in Texas (which was DELIGHTFUL!!!! and I will blog about later it's been a little crazy around here since we got home. Jo, can this count as disappointing?) I know there are more details than any of you need but I just copy and pasted it :)

To the complaints department of Delta Airlines,

I recently returned from the most miserable flights I have ever been on. Connection flight DL 1226 from Salt Lake City to Seattle on October 26^th.

Seated next to my 26 month old daughter was a completely inebriated woman. I couldn't move my daughter because my son (4) was on the other side of the isle and I needed to be able to reach both of them (row 18, seats B, C, and D were ours and I couldn't have her sitting alone in seat B).

This woman was swearing and miserable. She hated Delta, children, Mormons, Utah, the stupid Mormons who had kicked her out of the bar before her flight, flight attendants, checking baggage, no room in over head compartments, (which she stored hers at our feet! Placing her bags in a nearby over head compartment was apparently completely out of the question even though I pointed out several places) charging for headphones, and charging for beer. I could tell this woman had issues and possibly was physiologically challenged. I tried to take a high road, I made nice – I ignored her when she used offensive derogatory language and consoled her as she complained about everything I listed – however being a Mormon it was very difficult, and as you can imagine I kept my mouth shut about my religious beliefs. My daughter began to get wiggly; she's 2, that happens. She stood in my lap and turned my light on and off, this woman informed me that it was enough and turned my light off. I told her that it entertained my daughter and kept her from crying. The woman then told me I needed to – I'll spare you the language and translate – "beat her bum" I informed her I didn't do that to my children and she told me to shut my *bleeping* mouth so I held it wide open, sorry. Then my daughter began to buckle and unbuckle my seatbelt each time exclaiming – ta daa! (It was actually really quiet because she had a binky in her mouth) and clapping. This woman grabbed her beer glass and threw the beverage on my child, my barely 2 year old daughter and said (in writing you can't grasp intonation and sarcasm but let me tell you it was DRIPPING with it)"Oh, oooooooooopps, sorry 'bout that!" I had had enough. I pushed my call light and yelled my head off! By then the flight attendant rushed over to investigate the situation and the kind woman to the other side of my son (18 A) offered us her seat. You can correlate with any number of people, I would refer you to her (18 A) if necessary or to those seated in rows 17 C, D, and E or row 19 C, D, and E as they all witnessed her "issues". The only further incident happened when multiple times she would look over and ask, "You happy now, huh, you happy now?" I'm not exactly certain how I could be happy holding a beer soaked, scared 2 year old, and calming an angry, scared 4 year old (who had no concept of beer, until this incident)

Delta should not serve alcohol to people who are so clearly already above the limit for a public place, if you are uncertain ask the person seated around them. If that were already the case, we would possibly have been spared such an ugly experience and the worst we would have had to put up with was a woman with a nasty, dirty mouth.

This should not have happened. This woman verbally assaulted a baby and its mother, and assaulted the baby with an alcoholic beverage. I should have had the police come but after such a long miserable day the last thing I wanted to do was stay another 2 hours speaking to the police! This woman was out of control. She should be fined the cost of our tickets, dry cleaning, and never allowed on Delta again!

PS They replied with $100 on my next Delta flight.