Then there is the other side of the fence .......
Ready to depart for 7 hour night sector from a S.E. Asia airport.
Company Agent asks if I will declare a 10 min.Crew Delay, 'cos the wife of some Far Eastern Potentate, who is commercially important to the airline, is still shopping in Duty Free.
No, crew is ready, but if you wish to declare a 10 min Traffic delay, be my guest, we have some spare Duty Time to play with.
Company Agent wets himself but declares 10 min Traffic Delay "due late pax"
10 mins later scene replayed, same solution.
10 mins later I again refuse a further "Crew Delay" and ask Agent to leave the flight deck and close the forward door, we have the loadsheet, 300 other pax have connections to make, we're off.
Can't leave Mrs. Potentate behind, says Agent, Oh yes I can says I.
Agent then plays his Trump card, can't leave because Mrs. Potentates' bags are on board, and that is a security risk , so we will have to look for them, which will take time.
Oh yes we can, I say, because I don't believe Mrs. Potentate is a terrorist (the TSA hadn't been invented )
You don't mean you will leave Mrs. Potentate ( I think he called her a Queen, in fact ) behind but take her bags away, do you ? Yes, and please close the door as we now have an ATC clearance to meet.
Agent wets himself again, but just then 2 large Mercedes limousines appear, heading for the aircraft, so in the end Mrs."Queen" Potentate got on board, I had informed the waiting pax of the reason for their inconvenience, so she was greeted by ironic clapping. (tho' she probably thought it was adoration)
Those sort of passengers p**sed me off.