Consumerist reader Jacob had planned to ask his girlfriend for her hand in marriage mid-flight during their recent trip from Tel Aviv to Memphis. But thanks to a terribly rude flight attendant, those plans were almost grounded.

There were indications early on during the first leg of the trip — a KLM fight from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam — that one particular attendant was going to give them a hard time about everything. First, she refused to allow Jacob to have a second blanket after he gave his to his shivering girlfriend (a second attendant helped him out with no issues).

There were also some tense moments over Jacob’s request for a can of Coke, but that is nothing, he says, compared to what happened toward the end of the flight.

After noticing that his girlfriend’s visit to the restroom was taking longer than it should, Jacob became concerned and went to make sure she was okay, especially since she hadn’t been feeling well before they boarded the plane.

When he got to the back of the plane, he was greeted by the short-tempered flight attendant who he claims stuck her hand in his face before commencing the following exchange:
FA: “Sir – Sit. Back. Down. The lavatories are closed.”
Me: “Ma’am, I just want to check on my girlfriend.”
FA: “She’s fine, don’t worry about her.”
Me: “Yeah, but she’s been gone for over 30 minutes and wasn’t feeling well prior to the flight.”
FA: “Well, maybe she had to wait in line…”
Me: “That’s fine, I just want to see if she’s okay.”
FA: “What – do you want to use the restroom with her?”
Me: “What? I just want to check if she’s okay and didn’t pass out or anything.”

He says the flight attendant eventually, and reluctantly, relented and allowed him to check on his girlfriend.

That’s when, claims Jacob, the flight attendant said to other passengers within earshot, “It must suck to have an overprotective boyfriend like that – can’t even use the bathroom in peace.”

This resulted in another exchange:
Me: “Excuse me, ma’am? That was inappropriate; don’t make comments about my relationship. Now, I need to know your name.”
FA: “I don’t have a name.”
Me: “What do you mean you don’t have a name?”
FA: “We don’t have names at KLM.”
Me: “Okay, I’ll take your employee ID or some other form of identification.”
FA: “I don’t have to give you that!”

She may not have been willing to share that information, but the head flight attendant had no problem providing that attendant’s name and ID number after the flight landed.

The experience had left such a bad taste in his mouth that he almost decided against his plan to pop the question during the connecting flight from Amsterdam to Memphis, especially since it was through KLM’s SkyTeam partner Delta.

But he says the Delta cabin crew were incredibly helpful and actually assisted in his marriage proposal shortly after the plane departed from Amsterdam.

Says Jacob, “If the crew on the Delta flight wasn’t as kind as they were I would have surely scrapped the whole plan, and proposed to her another way.”

And as you can see from the above photo, the proposal was a flying success!

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