Wiggylamp
Whether the Captian should exit the cockpit in flight wasn't the basis of my OP - it was to discuss if the actions of some of the cheap airlines leads to more of the pax disruption that I witnessed.
Regrettably the answer to that has to be yes.
At the risk of being accused of arrogance or being pompous, etc, etc, the cheap airlines are targetting a market that would not ordinarily fly. They are also operating a pricing policy that is not understood by those at the lower end of the social scale, who if they can read, can only read poorly, and inevitably do not read the terms and conditions. They therefore turn up and place themselves in conflict situations even before they checkin simply because they have not bothered to get all the facts in a row.
You can see this regularly on the various TV programmes. Because they do not have the disposal income to pay further money their only route is their natural route of agressiveness.
The cheap airlines in some cases do appear to go out of their way to appease these people which broadcasts the idea that if you are aggressive enough then the staff will give you what we want, indeed I have actually seen at least one person boasting that they had been allowed to transfer to another flight simply because they had in their words "caused a scene and shouted loud enough".
Many of these people are the ones who can be found lying in gutters and on street corners completely out of their minds on cheap lager, and doubtless covered in blood following some fight or other with the locals.
As long as airlines derive the majority of income from this level of society they will continue to attract and have to deal with such problem individuals, and I feel for the staff who have this tedious job.
That is not to say that obnoxious passengers from higher levels of society do not exist, they clearly do and in many cases it is those with little power or control over their lives who are travelling on Company tickets, who know that they have an opportunity to be in the driving seat so to speak. These people really are a pain in the arse.
Prior to going into engineering I spent many years on frontline operations in BR. The really powerful and important people in First Class for example were the nicest people you would meet, the most obnoxious were those in junior positions who had gained a little power for the day.
From my experiences in flying I am sure the same applies in avitation as well.