As I said, I am in the customer service business and I am a qualified Sales trainer and I know a gross over reaction when I see one. Had I have been aggressive or curt then that would have different. I also waited until he was by the galley at the head of the cabin section and while he was (like all of us) just waiting for the luggage to be unloaded (the ill PAX had been evacuated by then). He was not in the thick of a crisis at that moment...far from it. You are right though he reacted like someone who was threatened ...but without due cause. If this guy lost his cool and over reacted to a passenger calmly asking a legitimate question he has no right to be in a job that requires ice water running through your veins in an emergency. If it was company policy to treat PAX like that I think I would have encountered it many times in the past. ...and yes I know you were not there but this was so poor its enough to make me question 35+ years of loyalty to the flying kangaroo!
With the greatest of sincere respect I would note that it is your view that he had no due cause to feel (or act like he felt) threatened and respond the way he did. Everyone is different and reacts differently. It's not that fair just because you feel you acted in an appropriate manner that he saw it differently.... Plus some people's notion or feelings of what is agressive or curt attitudes and behaviour can differ based on their own personal tolerance levels.
And I am not talking about calmly asking to be reseated. I am referering to the act of touching this crewmember and saying "wait a inute" - you may have felt it was fine, and probably to 80% of us would agree, but it takes two to tango, and at that point you clearly overstepped a line for him.
I'm NOT trying to attack you personally or disregard your stated experience in training and customer service, but by the same token not a lot of jobs out there equate to the pressures of being in a confined cabin with hundreds of other humans when you do not know how any one will react or what they could do next in a confined space.
And you're probably right, that individual, on that day at least, probably did not handle the situation well and was not at their best. Perhaps 90% of the rest of the time he's a great FA and nobody would have an issue. Who knows.
I would be very interested in the known pilots in the group making comment on this as it's their workplace too and how they may see the situation in terms of touching the crewmember on the arm and that aspect of it.
And finally, you'd question decades of loyalty to a company based on the actions of one or two employees? I think someone who decided to shift business on those grounds may not do business with terribly many companies then. Again, though it reads like it, I'm not trying to have a go at you personally (promise!) more a general observation.. because a lot of people post rants on facebook and similar about "airline X" (QF, JQ, CX, UA, BA etc etc etc etc) "I had a coughpy flight because.... .... and I'll never fly with you again!" - absolutely one's right to feel and act that way. absolutely... but in this world nobody is perfect and we can all have difficult customer service experiences (I just had a bad one with my vet today!).. so my point is more that.