Back when Virgin Blue did the first row of economy as a kind of a poor excuse for a premium economy.
i was on a flight from Perth to melbourne.
it was back when they had live to air TV. Foxtel.
economy had to pay for it but if you were booked in the Y+ it was free. To pay, you just swiped your credit card.
I was on the window with nobody in the two seats next to me.
it was a Saturday night in footy season which meant you could watch the whole game live on the seat back screen, or in my case it was embedded into the bulkhead.
30 minutes into the flight, happily watching the AFL footy for free and with a cold beverage and some young bloke plonks himself next to me and starts watching the rugby league.
at first I thought he was just waiting for the bathroom and sat there until it was empty.
but nope. Stayed there for a good.
obviously his team wasn’t doing too well and he started swearing at the screen. Hey, I’ve been there with my TV many times.
by now it really started to annoy me so I beckoned the FA subtlety and he was sent back to where he came from.
an hour later he came back and said to me he had to watch the last 10 minutes of the game and to not say anything.
I didn’t need to. he was banished once again.
I left the screen on to what he was watching and was quite amused when his side lost in golden point. I resisted the urge to walk back to him and tell him the result.