Friday morning I was flying from John Wayne (Orange County) Airport to Atlanta and connecting to Philadelphia. I was able to secure a rather cheap first class rate through Travelocity by skipping LAX and connecting. The schedule also had me flying out on USAirways and this afforded me a chance to try both products. But today’s blog is about men behaving badly. While in line to board first (this, of course, is the beauty of being in first class), I saw a youngish chap, head down in his Blackberry, bypassing the line. As he passed me, I said – and these are my exact words – “There is kind of a line here.” And he turned to me and said “Oh, sorry, but you don’t have to be an ass about it.” Frankly, I was shocked. I looked at him (of course, no one came to my aid) and you could hear a pin drop. I thought and then said, “Ok, let me tell you more directly, you are butting in line and you are behind me, is that better?” He called me an ass again and the guy in front of me started laughing as we walked down the jetway. He told me he was a million-miler and he thought he had seen everything! I said something about him being so crabby in the morning and we all laughed! On the plane I received a call from one of my clients and I had to tell her the story. “It’s Orange County, Fran – that’s the way they are!” At the same moment, I looked up at the flight attendant and she was mouthing to me the same thing. I was just laughing and said that had never happened to me before! And I have to say, nobody in Orange County treated me badly, so it must have been him. Now, I am not saying I never butt in line, ’cause I do, but if I get caught, I either say I’m sorry and get back in line, or sometimes, I pretend not to hear the person. Bottom line is, I would not call a person who is right an ass. Frankly, that is not acceptable behavior, especially at an airport and in first class. The passenger did come onboard, after me, of course. He did not say a peep the rest of the flight and thankfully he was not sitting next to me! Have we now passed the air rage timetable? Air rage was all the rage prior to 9/11. Post 9/11, airlines adopted a no-tolerance policy. So, are these people, many of whom were not flying in the years before 9/11 nor the few years after, who are now are flying and maybe they don’t know the rules? If any of you are reading this, trust me, I will tell you when you break a rule! -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO