Yesterday I covered a bizarre story about a family being denied boarding on an Alaska Airlines flight, because the carrier’s system had the wrong visa requirements (which is embarrassing, but let’s ignore that for a moment). Then after being downgraded on the next flight, they ended up being removed at the request of the flight attendant. I won’t recap the whole thing, so please read that post first.
I’d like to provide an update on this situation, as we have both an eyewitness report and a report from a pilot on a subsequent flight, and I think this perfectly sums up everything that’s wrong with some employees at carriers in the United States, where they just completely lack the ability to deescalate a situation, and ego gets in the way of performing their job functions.
An Alaska flight attendant’s disappointing power trip
As I explained yesterday, a family of four had first class tickets on Alaska. They were then rebooked because they were denied boarding due to a system glitch, and were downgraded. When they tried to board that flight, they were told they couldn’t take their assigned seats, because someone with an Alaska badge reportedly claimed that the flight attendant had saved the entire row for her. This is ridiculous on so many levels.
When he expressed his frustration and asked for the name of both employees, the flight attendant responded by having him removed from the flight. As I mentioned yesterday, Christophe is a long time reader, and he has always struck me as being level headed, so I was inclined to believe him. That’s why I think it’s interesting to cover the updates here.
First of all, someone left the following comment on that post, explaining that he was also on the flight, and talks about how good of a job the passenger did maintaining his composure:
I was on the flight from Missoula, it was a crap show. Alaska wasted about an hour of our time just sitting on board, trying to figure it out. They made no announcements, and acted like nothing happened when it was over. The guy was obviously upset and did a great job keeping his composure. I feel bad for the kids who had their soccer team jerseys on and were ready to go.
But here’s the more interesting point. There’s a Reddit thread about this situation (based on my blog post), and one comment caught my attention. As I mentioned, after the second denied boarding, Alaska prepared to rebook the family a third time, but then Christophe just decided not to gamble with the same thing happening again, and instead, he just booked another ticket on Delta.
Well, the person who claims to be the first officer on the next flight from Missoula (MSO) to Seattle (SEA) wrote the following on Reddit:
Dang, I was the FO of the flight they were supposed to be rebooked on before they decided to take Delta. We were warned about their experience and were prepared to try to make things as pleasant as possible for them. We were told the passengers weren’t aggressive or anything, but there was a “clash of personalities” with the FA and them on the previous flight
Some flight attendants really need to be reined in
I have a lot of respect for flight attendants at large, and I think a vast majority of them do their best, take care of customers, etc. However, the number of flight attendants who go on baseless power trips seems to be unique to the United States.
Passengers should be removed from a flight if they pose a threat to the safety of the flight, not because your personalities don’t necessarily jive. Accepting a passenger onto a flight isn’t like going on a date with them — your job is to just make sure you can transport them a distance of 389 miles without anything going wrong. That’s it. Nothing more.
Everything about this just strikes me as being completely unreasonable:
- Christophe was traveling with his wife and two young children, and wasn’t drunk or aggressive; that’s not really the profile of someone who is most likely to cause a disturbance
- Just look at the actual eyewitness report from another passenger, which confirms he wasn’t aggressive, but instead, was just (understandably) upset, as anyone would be
- If Alaska was immediately willing to rebook them on the next available flight, then it’s pretty clear the airline didn’t actually have concerns about the safety of transporting him
- The person who claims to be the first officer on the subsequent flight they were rebooked on even specifically noted how he wasn’t aggressive, but instead, there was a clash of personalities
- Also, just as a human, how could the flight attendant do this to the man’s young kids, as I can only imagine how rough their travel day was
I just don’t understand why airlines tolerate this kind of behavior. It feels like sometimes flight attendants are coddled in the same way I have to coddle our three-year-old. Like yesterday morning at a breakfast buffet, we made him a waffle (at the make-your-own waffle station), and we put Nutella in a little dish next to it. He insisted he didn’t want one Nutella dish, but he wanted two. I told him he could have a second one once he finished the first one. A 15-minute standoff ensued.
But the thing is, he’s three years old. Presumably this flight attendant has a few years on him, even if she’s acting similarly.
Bottom line
A family had a pretty awful experience flying with Alaska Airlines. They were denied boarding from one flight due to a system glitch. They were downgraded on the next flight, only to then be told they couldn’t take their assigned seats, because an Alaska employee was “reserving” those seats.
When the father asked for the names of the employees so he could report them, the response was to kick the family off the flight. Everything about this narrative struck me as being accurate, given that Christophe is a level headed guy.
That’s now basically confirmed — another passenger confirms he didn’t lose his cool, and someone who claims to be the pilot on the subsequent flight had even been warned by the company to take care of him, and that he wasn’t aggressive, but instead, personalities just clashed.
I hope the flight attendant involved gets a good talking to, because this isn’t how customers should be treated, and it doesn’t at all align with what I consider the Alaska Airlines ethos to be.
What do you make of this situation, based on these reports?