Two Coach Passengers Refused to Leave First Class on American Airlines in Miami — Police Removed Them in Cuffs

Two women were pulled off of an American Airlines flight in Miami this weekend, reportedly for sitting themselves down in first class where they didn’t belong. The self-upgraders weren’t going to last long there – there’s a flight manifest, and it’s rare that a first class seat is going to go out empty.

If you try to self-upgrade, act confused and apologetic when called out, and do the walk of shame to your seats in the back of the aircraft things will generally turn out fine. If you insist on sitting where you don’t belong, and make a big entitled deal of it when you’re called out, you’ll receive a VIP escort to your final destination – possibly a holding cell – by airport police.

That appears to be what happened as multiple uniformed officers take these two women out of the gate area. One, in a red outfit, is escorted out relatively calmly. The other, in a gray top and black pants, is on the floor with officers around her at one point, then is brought up and escorted out under control of the officers.

Apparently the women sat in first class, refused to move, and escalated the disturbance. The crew called for airport law enforcement. But it’s not totally clear which flight this was. My best guess is it’s actually American Airlines 1816 from Miami to Phoenix on Friday evening. That’s the only flight over the weekend that was actually delayed, and it ran 1 hour 6 minutes late.

Looking at gate E5 departures, though, other candidates would be:

  • AA1901 MIA → PLS (Providenciales): departed 08:30 AM (on time).
  • AA3065 MIA → UVF (St. Lucia): departed 09:51 AM (on time).
  • AA3098 MIA → SVD (Argyle, St. Vincent): departed 11:16 AM (on time).
  • AA313 MIA → SJO (San José, Costa Rica): departed 11:42 AM (about 5 min off schedule).

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Airport Operations Bureau handled this one well, as things didn’t escalate further and delays were not significant regardless of which flight was involved, especially since this was a removal that involved cuffs rather than simply assisting the airline in enforcing a decision not to carry the passengers.

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. These two are idiots. You always bring you own handcuffs so that when you jump into first class you can cuff yourself to the chair. As always, keep your arm closest to the aisle free so you can fight of FA’s and police.

  2. Read through the comments on IG – at least one of them posts and tries to defend their actions.

  3. From the looks of them NOTHING First Class about them in any sense of the word and I bet they STUNK………..like an abandoned Bait Shop Long nails like claws,Big Lips, Eye lashes like brooms on a street sweeper, titties on full display and an ass on them that is desperately in need of some fine tuning,lol. Yea…………they First Class alright. WAFJ!

  4. This world gets sicker by the day.

    Hopefully they will be banned from flying AA in the future. Not for sitting in the wrong seats but for causing a needless delay in departure.

  5. @Denver Refugee – Thanks for the chuckle.

    These 2 were looking for clicks and internet fame.

  6. Classy and dressed magnificently
    Ready to star in the newly revised Jerry Springer show

  7. See me wearing a red cat suit, gold belt , and MAGA hair extensions; please put me out of my misery. thank you.

  8. For some reason, their boob jobs and loud mouths didn’t let them get their way, this time.

  9. These kind of incidents should be followed by a banning from flying for a year or two. That will help get rid of this kind of bad behavior.

  10. As in so many of these cases, I’d just wish I could ask them: “how did you think this would turn out?”

  11. AM: in the old days there were Greyhound buses for this type of customers. Now look at what we get on board!

  12. @Michael Mainello — Aww. Actually, it was @Maryland who is, though, stuff is going around here, too. Post-holidays, mid-winter colds. Rest up!

  13. If you were around during the “Golden Age of Flying”, First Class looks like what Coach was back then, and the back of the plane looks like the luggage hold. Easy to make that mistake.

  14. Hysterical! It is too bad that there is not a national “do not fly” list. Once “convicted”, they are banned from flying on all airlines for XX years or forever. Once other bad actors see what will really happen… TADA! The flights become calmer!

  15. @Larry: No indication they were unassigned. They just needed to board before the assigned passengers did.

  16. Booze and drugs never help improve on IQ and lack of class. I want to know were those seats actually taken. It’s very, very rare for open seats up front, particularly on a longer flight.

    Hope this finds its way to YT soon. I could use a good laugh.

  17. All of the following info is in the public domain. There are two IG accounts under the names Sania Blanchard and lacey_jayne that each feature the same photo of recent mugshots with faces of two women bearing a strong resemblance to the handcuffed women shown in the video. “Lacey Jayne” is a content creator and adult entertainment performer. She has achieved millions of video views and thousands of subscribers on adult content platforms, and her IG has nearly half a million followers. Public records indicate that a person named Sania Blanchard was arrested at Miami International Airport on January 9th at 5:59 PM on a charge of “M/1 TRESPASS PROPERTY/AFTER WARNING.” Records show Blanchard as having a Las Vegas address with an occupation of “real estate.” Her co-defendant is shown on the same arrest affidavit as Jordan Danee Lantry. The corresponding arrest affidavit for Lantry shows an occupation of “actress” with a Phoenix address. The arrest summary reads as follows: “DISPATCHED TO GATE E5 REFERENCE TWO INTOXICATED PASSENGERS REFUSING TO EXIT THE AIRCRAFT. UPON ARRIVAL CONTACT WAS MADE WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES SUPERVISOR WHO ADVISED DEFENDANT AND CO DEFENDANT WERE INTOXICATED, SAT IN THE WRONG SEATS AND REFUSED TO EXIT THE AIRCRAFT. DEFENDANT AND CO DEFENDANT WERE WARNED BY THE AIRLINE AND DEPUTY RODRIGUEZ TO EXIT THE AIRCRAFT AND BOTH REFUSED. DEFENDANT AND CO DEFENDANT WERE ADVISED THAT THEY WILL BE ARRESTED IF THEY DID NOT EXIT THE AIRCRAFT AND AGAIN THEY REFUSED. DEFENDANT AND CO DEFENDANT WERE PLACED IN TO CUSTODY AND TRANSPORTED TO TGK.” Both individuals were released on $500 surety bonds.

  18. These are … content creators, and this was a stunt. They posted their own video where you can hear them giggling together that they’re going to get kicked off, and later telling a flight attendant, “you don’t want to deal with us because we’re drunk and don’t have our boarding passes”.

    So if you’re curious about them, by all means, give them what they want and look them up.

  19. @Gary K Boatman And where did you get the idea they are MAGA? They look like ladies of the evening that have moved past their prime.

  20. It was 1816 to Phoenix. I was on that plane last Friday. We didn’t know what was going on at first but heard through the passengers that they were sitting in the wrong seats in first class and told the flight attendant the gate told them to tell the FA it was okay. They were wasted, or at least acted like it. Flights don’t work like that.

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