That Guy

In my travels I often run into That Guy. He's the guy that is obnoxious for no apparent reason, looks down on everyone that isn't him and believes that the world and those in it should revolve around him for some reason. He has forgotten how to use please and thank you since he is the most important person in the area and everyone should obviously bend over backwards in his presence. That guy uses terms like "Do you know who I am?" and "I should know to expect this kind of thing from INSERT AIRLINES NAME HERE." I hate That Guy, he makes me angry, isn't considerate and is very rude, especially to those poor airport workers.

In some ways he does make my life easy when I'm behind him in line since he makes me look really good in comparison. I'm always certain to act especially nice after That Guy as the contrast is even greater. Speaking slowly, calmly and smiling makes a world of difference to the person that just had their day ruined. This even works if there's a really long line of semi cranky people. I've gotten onto "sold out" flights that That Guy was just denied access to, it really works.

Most recently That Guy took the form of a crazy businessman who kind of looked like Roy Disney and acted like J.J. Jameson from Spiderman (the newspaper guy). He was being super obnoxious to an unfortunate coworker via his hands free headset. He was also being oblivious to those around him as he was yelling on the plane. Despite his phone being hands free he dropped his diet coke twice. The second time I helped him with it and he said he was going to open it behind my head. Ass.

After the flight (I sat next to a lady that was bipolar who enjoyed telling me that she was medicated and about all the things she did with her 27 year old boyfriend) we all met back at the baggage claim area. I sat around and only got one of my bags. That Guy looked frustrated and he went to the baggage claim help desk and started yelling about how important he was and that he should expect United to lose his bags. I've been through this airport 6 times or so with United and only lost my bags once.

At any rate I went up and calmly asked about my bags and they took my claim tags. They glanced at them and informed me that the bag was in oversized baggage land which I thought odd because that same bag was never oversized at this airport before then. I thanked them and picked up my second bag. As I left That Guy was still yelling about how he didn't know where the bag should go since he wasn't staying the night in Toronto.

So my advice to everyone who travels is to not be That Guy. Sometimes the people deserve it but try to reserve that for special occasions. Just put on a smile and slip behind That Guy to get the service that he could have had.

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