Upgrading the innocent party
Not quite the same thing, but we had a pax at LHR who refused to sit next to a a black girl for a long haul. He said his company did a lot of business with us and demanded an upgrade. The crew called me on board to help and I suggested I discuss it with him in the gate lounge. When I got him there I informed him we would not fly him anywhere. He was offloaded. Luckily we were able to offload his bags fairly quickly. He threatened us with legal action but it didn't materialise. I asked the young black lady if she would be our guest in First as we were embarrassed by the man's behaviour. She declined but after t/o the crew did persuade her to go up front. We rebooked the offending pax on a rival carrier the same night - but seated in an area where there was a large delegation of businessmen from Africa!!! And the carrier's staff were all told to make sure he did NOT get a seta move! Obnoxious pax beware - we have ways of getting back at you!!