Poor Cam, flying coach... no leg room. Offers $1,500 to switch seats, gets rejected.

[Anybodyhome]

I'm 6'6" and, although I typically will fly coach if it's no more than a couple hours, I usually ask a flight attendant for some consideration should there be a seat available. Know how many times I've gotten an upgrade for nothing? Or at least moved to an exit row or a bulkhead seat. Oh, and I always book the aisle seat so I can stretch my legs into the aisle.  If it comes down to it, I'll let the flight attendants run over my feet or hit my knee with the beverage cart- always makes 'em feel sorry for me.

But the best is when dude in front of me starts hammering back on the seat trying to get it to recline; I tap him on the shoulder and tell him, "There's nothing wrong with the seat, but my knees wedged in here are why it's not moving."

[Palmetto]

23 hours ago, Panthera onca said:

I'm taking the 1500 for sure.

Unless the guy is a Bama, Falcons or Saints fan

[SmokinwithWilly]

19 hours ago, arbnranger said:

The original seat holder obviously had decent money. No way a normal person passes up 15 Hundo for a seat. 

I’ll sit in the lav , get up and stand outside anytime it needs to be used, for 1500. 

To be fair, maybe the company paid for his seat so he wasn’t out of pocket. Still, ..... 15 $100’s ...for sitting?

(I’ve flown on longer flights and would still smell arm pits for 1.5 K)

Weird times. 

I'm 6'3 and was stuck on a plane for 10 hours and I can tell you that is one of the most painful flights I have ever taken. You have to wedge into your seat and God help you if you have to get up. I started having trouble breathing because I was cramping so bad from being forced into the fetal position. I hurt for 2 days after and had a hard time moving. Cost of ticket aside, it would be hard for me to trade away that level of minimal comfort for 1500 bucks, especially if I'm headed on vacation.

For clarification - my wife and I had purchased the business class seats with the extra leg room for this reason, but our seats were taken away and given to kids whose parents were sitting in first class. I was put in the middle seat up against the bathroom wall so there was no room at all to move. The airline said our seats weren't guaranteed even though we purchased a higher grade seat, they refused to issue a refund, and their customer service department told us that our seats were at the discretion of the person who works at the counter. Needless to say, I have never flown US Air again, I have told everyone I know to never fly US AIR and I have repeated this story to everyone who has ever discussed which airline is good to fly. 

[TNPanther]

You know the boys in the locker room are going to have fun with this one. Airplane t-shirts and whatnot galore.

I bet the Panthers do a little skit with him to make light of the situation.

[bababoey]

I have flow from Charlotte to Spain  and Charlotte to Rome each several times.  Just FYI all planes are not made the same and all airlines are not equal.  If you can always fly Lufthansa for international flights.  No matter where you go.  There are so much better than everyone else.  Also try and get on an Airbus (380 if you can) rather than a Boeing.  They just seem to have more leg room, more room in the aisles and just more room in general.

[arbnranger]

1 hour ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

I'm 6'3 and was stuck on a plane for 10 hours and I can tell you that is one of the most painful flights I have ever taken. You have to wedge into your seat and God help you if you have to get up. I started having trouble breathing because I was cramping so bad from being forced into the fetal position. I hurt for 2 days after and had a hard time moving. Cost of ticket aside, it would be hard for me to trade away that level of minimal comfort for 1500 bucks, especially if I'm headed on vacation.

For clarification - my wife and I had purchased the business class seats with the extra leg room for this reason, but our seats were taken away and given to kids whose parents were sitting in first class. I was put in the middle seat up against the bathroom wall so there was no room at all to move. The airline said our seats weren't guaranteed even though we purchased a higher grade seat, they refused to issue a refund, and their customer service department told us that our seats were at the discretion of the person who works at the counter. Needless to say, I have never flown US Air again, I have told everyone I know to never fly US AIR and I have repeated this story to everyone who has ever discussed which airline is good to fly. 

Fair enough, I can understand that. 

That’s sort of ridiculous that your business class seat wasn’t guaranteed. I’m not sure what other industry has so many customer complaints and is still viable with so few options. I guess I should educate myself so I could do a more thorough rant. 

But, ...on the bright side, you’re 6’3 so you probably have a decent package. 

Always on the bright side. 

[thefuzz]

Gotta be honest, I may not have swapped seats either.

I'm sure it would probably be fine, but I'm not too keen on a plane load of people knowing I have 1500 in cash in my wallet, and the money certainly isn't life changing.

[CRA]

I suspect there are decent odds he had no clue that was Cam Newton (NFL player).  Random dude offering crazy cash money to switch from a coach seat to a coach seat w/ leg room?  I get him saying no if he didn't know who Cam was.   I wouldn't want to take a large amount of cash from a random stranger....nor would I like the idea of a plane full of strangers being able to ID me as a guy who just put a ton a cash into my pocket. 

then there is the obvious odds are the dude got legit money.  I mean, you don't even have to have Cam Newton money to turn down 1500k

I mean, if Cam asked me? Hell, I might not take the money.  I'd give him my seat.  But probably counter offer and tell him I want home game tickets for the season. 

[JawnyBlaze]

Wasn’t business class. There was no price difference between cams seat and that seat, that guy just got lucky and got the exit isle seat. I woulda taken the money even if it wasn’t cam, but who knows. Maybe that guy was even richer than cam and didn’t need the money. Cam handled it fine and there’s no real story here. Just fuel for the internet trolls to make baseless comments (I first saw this story on PFT. The comments were as to be expected. There was even a SB fumble comment...)

[frash.exe]

1500 schmackos would easily cover like 75% of the trip to europe that i’m planning to go on

[JawnyBlaze]

2 hours ago, bababoey said:

I have flow from Charlotte to Spain  and Charlotte to Rome each several times.  Just FYI all planes are not made the same and all airlines are not equal.  If you can always fly Lufthansa for international flights.  No matter where you go.  There are so much better than everyone else.  Also try and get on an Airbus (380 if you can) rather than a Boeing.  They just seem to have more leg room, more room in the aisles and just more room in general.

I’d pick Singapore air when I can choose, but I go to Asia when I travel not Europe heh. Never tried Lufthansa. 

[thefuzz]

7 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I’d pick Singapore air when I can choose, but I go to Asia when I travel not Europe heh. Never tried Lufthansa. 

He's right, Luft is my favorite when traveling abroad.  Much better than Delta.

[kungfoodude]

I would have absolutely taken that money. I'm short, so all that extra leg room is really an unnecessary luxury. Flew to Dubai a few years back with a buddy of mine that was 6-5. He was MISERABLE in coach. I thought it was perfectly comfortable. Air travel is one of those scenarios where being short is pretty sweet.

[JawnyBlaze]

14 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

He's right, Luft is my favorite when traveling abroad.  Much better than Delta.

Not a high hurdle heh. Delta was one of the worst of all airlines I’ve tried