michael n and his wife were booked and ticketed for their flight from Siem Reap to Hanoi. Everything was set when they arrived at the airport … or so they thought until they were told they needed to meet with the Manager of the check-in agents.

And that’s when they came face-to-face with a briber.

Or is it bribe-taker? Bribe artist?

Regardless, it was a relationship they would rather not have entered into. This “manager” wanted to charge them a “fee” in order to board the flight they had already booked and paid for. And based on the replies it seems like a more common tactic, especially in SE Asia, than one might normally expect.

Personally, if faced with a similar situation I’d like to think I would take the principled approach described by froggyEngland:

“I would be seriously tempted to take it to the nth degree. I’d want to see the supervisors supervisors and take the chance of staying an extra night, just to see where the employee took it”

But if I’m being completely honest, I’m sure I would be fearfully tempted to pay the bribe and get my wife and I the hell out of there.

If you have had experience with airline and/or travel bribery, please post your experience on the TripAdvisor thread. If you haven’t, go ahead and post how you think you would handle it here, as I would like some better ideas than throwing money at the person and running away.