If You Can’t Stand Each Other Please Don’t Fly Together

Right before Thanksgiving an American Airlines flight from Washington DC to Los Angeles had to divert when a husband and wife wouldn’t stop fighting. A flight attendant separated them, moving the husband to the back of the aircraft. However his wife followed and things escalated. I figured the guy must’ve said the wrong thing about his mother-in-law.

Now it seems another couple fought on board an American Airlines flight on Wednesday and caused the pilot to divert. They say two data points makes a trend so I can now write my trend piece on relationships breaking down more frequently in the air than ever before.

The CRJ-700 aircraft operated by SkyWest was enroute from Chicago to Toronto when this husband allegedly hit his wife and the pilot decided to turn around and go back to O’Hare.

No charges were filed and the couple was booked onto a later flight.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. The person who tweeted “assault” and “#domesticviolence” wasn’t even a witness. She only heard that the husband assaulted the wife. Dangerous tweet that could lead to a libel suit.

  2. The common denominator for both data points is American Airlines.
    Sane couples who shared rides to the airport with their spouses, shared space at the airport, TSA did not see them argue, gate agents ushered them in; started fighting as soon as they got into the plane. Ha Ha!

  3. Public decorum standards keep falling or more people keep failing at living up to them. Even as it’s better that a problem is out in the open than buried, it’s also telling how out of control people are when they behave so awfully in public and with no self-respect and no consideration for others or themselves in doing so.

  4. I had best tickets (E row middle) for the Broadway musical “Fiddler On The Roof”, so of course I took a date. For the whole first act, a couple behind us going into a whisper fight. Sort of ruined the first act for me and everyone in the best part of the theater. At least that couple had the decency to leave at intermission. I agree with GUWonder on this one.

  5. NOT ONLY THE AIRLINES, THE POLICE, FIRE DEPT,ETC ETC.
    THE COURTS . ONCE CHARGED IT BECOMES PUBLIC RECORD
    PUT THEIR NAME ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE DAILY PAPER.
    LEADING STORY ON THE 600 & 1000 NEWS, & THE NEXT DAY
    DITTO. PLUS THE BAIL SHOULD BE EQUAL TO THE COSTS OF
    WHAT THEY CAUSED.

  6. To DUDE: In the Gilbert & Sullivan’s famous light opera, Mikado, Ko-Ko, the lowly local tailor, was made the Grand High Executioner. The catch is, he has to execute someone by sundown, or he himself will be executed.

    “As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
    I’ve got a little list — I’ve got a little list
    Of society offenders who might well be underground,
    And who never would be missed — who never would be missed!
    There’s the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs —
    All people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs —”
    HUSBANDS THAT FIGHT WITH WIVES IN PUBLIC—
    WIVES YELL AT WITH HUSBANDS EVERYWHERE—
    PEOPLE THAT IRRITATE OTHER FLYERS—
    ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT DIVERT PLANES—
    POSTERS THAT TYPE IN ALL CAPS—
    OTHER POSTERS THAT QUOTE LIGHT OPERA—
    “They’d none of ’em be missed — they’d none of ’em be missed!”

    Chorus
    “He’s got ’em on the list — he’s got ’em on the list;”

    “Off with his head” said the Red Queen from Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. “To err is human, to forgive divine”. Not is today’s 21st Century. Seriously DUDE.

  7. It’s got to cost so much money to divert a flight for both the airline and the inconvenienced passengers, then in the end no one even gets arrested or even banned from the airline? There’s to be some consequences.

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