How to Get ‘Bumped’ to First Class

Here’s a story that happened to us on the flight, that at the time was quite scary.

About 20 minutes into the 13 hour LA to Seoul flight, Kevin and I (Mike) are at the restrooms at back of the plane – Kevin’s inside, I’m waiting outside. The plane’s still climbing, the nose pitched up, so it’s slightly downhill going toward the aft. When the aisle reaches the bathroom, it jogs a little to the side to go around the bathroom.

Anyway, I’m standing there and look up just in time to see a 40-something white guy in sort of a stumble or fast walk, smack head first into the magazine rack on the bathroom wall. He doesn’t lift his hands, just hits the wall hard, falls straight backwards, and lands almost flat on his back in the aisle with a loud thud. He’s out cold. From what I can tell, he must have passed out a few steps before the wall. I open the curtains to the galley and get the flight attendants’ attention. One of them immediately calls someone on the phone and several more flight crew arrive (big, long haul flights like this have something like a dozen crew).

My first thought was, oh great, I just saw watched someone have a heart attack and die right in front of me. Kevin, who heard the crash in the bathroom, emerges so we cross through the galley, up the other aisle, and make out way to our seats. Someone on the PA announces in Korean and English that there’s a very sick passenger on board and they need medical help. Since this happened at back, most passengers didn’t notice anything is wrong. After several minutes we see he’s moving (good, he’s not dead).

Our next thought, "Are their going to land in San Francisco to let him off?" They move him to the jump seat in the back and treat him for another 15 minutes. He must have hit his head on an armrest on the way down, because later we see he had a bad cut on the top of his head (this is in addition to the forehead into the wall and back of head on the floor). Maybe 30 minutes after the fall he’s able to walk back to his seat, which happened to be immediately behind mine.

About 15 minutes later, the head flight attendant helps him get his carry-on items and they move him up to the front of the plane, presumably to a business or first class seat. We saw him after we got off the place in Seoul and he appeared OK.

The message of this story is that if you’re willing to knock yourself out, there’s a good chance you’ll be upgraded to first class.
-Mike