Nope! No way Jose. Just think how many FO’s lose out on a good line simply on account of one douchebag? And then do you want to have some new guy just barely hanging on to the tail flying with someone like that because you’re being a pansy? Hell no!

Zap, you gotta man up and throw it right back in their face in no uncertain terms, and then point blank ask them if they want to play this game over the next 3 days, or if they wanna have a nice, mellow, easy-going next 3 days. The ball is entirely in their court.

The point of the exercise is for them to realize that you won’t tolerate their BS and shall stand your ground. And secondly, open their eyes that they’re being called on their behavior and you won’t subject some newbie to this abuse either. You also need to be able to clearly differentiate between insubordination (a big no-no) and abuse. With bullies, it’s easy.

Every single bully I’ve encountered in my career has backed down and we had a good trip afterwards. At Southwest, I’ve flown with two, and as I said, things were worked out by the end of the second leg and ended up being good trips.