Earlier in the month Alaska Airlines needed to bump a passenger from first class on a New York JFK to San Francisco flight for a pilot traveling to a duty assignment. The passenger they downgraded to economy was John Kasich, who just finished serving 8 years as Governor of Ohio and who sought the Republican nomination for President in 2016.
Only Governor Kasich didn’t leave the first class cabin, he sat down in another passenger’s seat instead.
Omg this is insane. Kasich was asked to move to premium from first class & took my seat instead. I volunteered to take a later flight instead of fighting. @alaskaairlines, your employees are the BEST, sweetest people. And thanks, airport employees, for working without pay today. https://t.co/vmnBEIds0S
— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) January 16, 2019
Passenger Julie Klausner agreed to take a later flight rather than engage the drama. Alaska Airlines reimbursed the cost of the margherita flatbread she purchased while waiting an extra four hours.
It’s been reported that Kasich was asked to move to extra legroom coach (‘premium’) and also to 12F which I don’t think is an extra legroom seat on any Alaska aircraft (and we know that since this wasn’t the last flight of the day on the route that the aircraft was an Airbus A320). Here’s where he sat instead.
— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) January 16, 2019
A Kasich spokesperson “attributed the whole ordeal to confusion, though didn’t elaborate on specifics.”
Thought leadership?
He’s making noises that suggest he could challenge Trump for the Republican nomination next year. If true, this story will come back to haunt him.
The world of airlines is topsy-turvy! A pilot traveling to a duty assignment can very well sit in economy, no? I don’t get it! Why bump a customer in order for an employee to have the 1st class seat??? This is mind boggling!
This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with consumers’ rights. Something needs to be done about this nonsense.
@Kalboz – agree! The pilot didn’t pay for his seat! damn it! The passenger did…oh…but maybe not?Yeah it has nothing to do with politics. But, I can’t control myself…this is the kind of treatment he’s ‘gonna get when he runs for Prez in ’20.
Have you ever heard John Kasich speak. He is the greatest, most moral, super agreeable, and fantastically understanding person in the universe. And every place he goes, he gets things done. Big things. Yuck.
Company had no choice as First class seat for the employee en route to work is a union guaranteed benefit. But why they chose the Ohio governor to try to downgrade is beyond me
@Charles – it was probably a hyper-liberal gate agent who recognized his name, and tried to stick it to him.
This story is odd. I fly Alaska Air all the time and I”m top tier in their frequent flyer program. I NEVER see crew in first class. They always put their top level frequent flyers in first class with the airline crews in the back in the best seat they can find. I’m not saying I would put it past Kasich to be a dick, but there’s something wrong in the narrative.
Remember, Johnny, you’re the son of a postman. A much higher station in life than a pundit.
Julie Klausner is the writer & co-star of the sitcom series “Difficult People.” (Now cancelled.) She is NOT one to go away quietly.
@Charles, I appreciate the working people and the respect shown for the CBA and its provisions. But the issue here is the airline needs to get the pilot from point A to point B. This is the airline’s obligation and passing the problem to a customer who is in his assigned seat is utter BS!
Charles, you’re correct. Saw the same thing on an SFO-JFK flight in October. Alaska paid that customer $800 to move to coach. Pilot with contract that guarantees first class seat. I was traveling with my wife and wanted to enjoy the flight with her, so didn’t even think about volunteering.
Pilots traveling go first class by contract. This isn’t up for negotiation at the gate.
Any discussion to the contrary is misinformed and/or designed to stir shit.
Maybe we should wait until we hear from both the sides before we pass judgements. Haven’t we learned lately of the consequences of passing judgements too early without ever hearing from the other side?
Let’s stop making ourselves fools.
@tyler
So if it was between you and some republican figure for the last first class seat you’d gladly give yours up?
Who cares if it’s the former governor of anything. Just because you’re a politician it doesn’t mean you should get special service.
also it could just as easily be some super MAGA person who tried to stick it to Kasich for speaking out against their Dear Leader. In all honesty most people have forgotten who this person is if they ever knew.
In getting a pilot to his next job which entails being responsible for the lives of all the passengers not to mention crew, as well rested and in as best shape as possible, flying First is certainly not too much to ask, in my opinion.
If you’re going to downgrade the passenger, you need to make it financially worthwhile – and also supply some 1st class booze and food. And also be nice about it – explain that the pilot’s seat is union-guaranteed. I would move in a minute. Was Kasich given these options?
Did I miss something? Why didn’t the airline just have the pilot said in the premium economy seat? The pilots only get the set in first class? If first class with Full then just have the pilot sitin premium economy. Problem solved.
+1 on waiting until the other side of this story surfaces. The story is plausible, but there is always another side.
Hmm. Sounds like someone who feels entitled to his seat only because he is a noted politician.
Seems pretty clear to me.
Why not make this headline news. When UA does anything like this – it is all over the news.
These airlines have to stop taking people out of their seats once they have boarded the plane. The results are bad for the passenger and airline. Offer compensation until someone accepts. This will save them a PR disaster. Airline customer service skills are simply horrible.
According to Julie, she was informed that the person bumped is whoever paid the least (she got a great deal on her ticket, but it wasn’t her).
She observed multiple people (including the gate agent) try to talk to him and explain the situation and he wouldn’t budge. She was standing with the flight attendants right in front of him and he completely ignored her.
Hard to understand why the person who the ex-gov stole a seat from only got free flatbread. Did they get other compensation, cause I would not budge for goodwill and 4 hours. Seems like one very agreeable person.
More on this, as reported by the woman who took the voluntary bump because Kasich wouldn’t get out of her seat:
https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/01/comedian-details-full-encounter-with-john-kasich-taking-her-airplane-seat.html?fbclid=IwAR0Ug8sTiWYEiXDQe0rQF5NoaSGEJy-a8cKNVv4kiYFviJMZ7M36pyURsD0
Wow. I wish that I was so important that I could just steal someone else’s seat. I don’t give a crap what the guy’s political affiliation is or what his prior position, this guy has massive entitlement issues, and shouldn’t talk them out on some lady who hasn’t boarded yet.
If they need a seat they should first downgrade people who got free upgrades (not clear if that happened here). If the seats are all paid (which is quite possible these days) then the airline should seek volunteers. If you paid then essentially you are being IDB’d into your paid seat.
OTOH if you are told to move you don’t steal another seat. Demand an IDB and some documentation to prove what happened.
I would have lost my mind. I think they do this, just saw a crew not in uniform get upgraded on last flight rather than next MVP as we knew almost entire flight coming home from a meeting. I was Inn First and heard him get upgraded rather than next on list.
I’ve worked with Airlines for many years – I work for a group of hotels, and we have had lots of contracts with lots of airlines, so I understand some of their issues (hotels revenue management oversells, rooms go out of order, etc.
When things go wrong in Airline operations, you have a limited amount of options. The crew are all unionized, and whether you like that or not, it’s the society we live in. Those rules govern how the airlines OPERATE – if they can’t operate, the customers cannot get to where they are going. While that is not the customers fault, they will undoubtedly suffer from time to time, and should be compensated appropriately.
So all of you saying ‘the pilot should fly coach’ and AS should have been more proactive, you don’t understand the full scope of their operations as a whole, and that’s no surprise. This might have been their very last option!
But the conditions of carriage are real. He agreed to them when he ‘bought’ the ticket, and when crew tells him his options, he doesn’t get to create new ones. What an entitled fcuk, and in my opinion, this is a large problem for our society.
A bit confused here. Was Kasich the first passenger asked to move (and he declined?) After he declined, the airline then asked her to move? Just a lot of questions here and best to hear the other sides of the story (airlines and Kasich himself) before passing judgment. Would her reaction have been different if the politician was a democrat who also declined to move? Maybe instead of saying he stole her seat, she would have said I volunteered to change my flight and gave my first class seat to the Democrat politician? Just my two cents on different perspectives.
I have no problem with the pilot flying first. I think they should fly first when traveling for work given their job. I do have a problem with downgrading a paying passenger for a flight that he or she paid for and has been planning around. I wouldn’t move either. It’s not my job as a passenger to accommodate the airline’s problem. Fly the pilot on a different flight. Fly the pilot on a competitor flight (if the union contract allows). Have multiple contingency plans. Figure something out that doesn’t make it my problem as the passenger.
Many things and sides to consider. But the *most* telling aspect of this event is that Kasich used his white male privilege to the max by asserting that he is more important than some other person also seated in first class. What an arrogant self-absorbed SOB.
This sounds like fake news. The person who Volunteered to give up their seat is a liberal commedian. Hardly someone i would consider a reliable source but sure go ahead and smear the guy based on her word. It is absurd an airline is bumping passengers out of first class for one of their employees. Guess instead of travel i clicked on a TMZ wannabe website.
@joey she is a liberal commedian with an extremely obvious bias against Republicans if you look at her tweets and the other reporting. That is why we should question her version since it does not make a whole lot of sense.
Why didn’t the Alaska agents force him to leave the plane?
I don’t have a political horse in this – but he doesn’t have security escorts so why the special treatment and enabling bad behavior here?
I hope the comedian gets INVOL denied boarding comp or better
Though frankly wouldn’t have done the identity shaming – whether Kasich or a nonpublic person it’s not acceptable
Too bad Kasich wasn’t dragged off the plane.
@Greg So what if Kasich was “identity shamed”? In the words of America’s dumbest journalist Don Lemmon, by becoming a politician, shaming is something “he signed up for.”
Thanks for warning us that Alaska Airlines will bump us out of a seat we paid for so an off duty pilot can take our seat…which I have never seen happen on the thousands of flights I’ve traveled on other airlines. Now I know I will never know the experience on Alaska Airlines…because they just lost any hope of getting my business! (btw…John Kasich is The Man!..)
The best John Kasich is too entitled video.
Perhaps Kasich felt worried for his safety if he thought there might be Trump supporters in the back.
In the aftermath of the United incident, where the doctor was dragged off the plane when he was involuntarily bumped after boarding, most airlines have forbidden this practice, and some politicians have attempted to ban the practice.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/330498-if-you-are-seated-on-the-plane-you-are-staying-on-the-plane
Where necessary, airlines are allowed to pay up to $10,000 for persons involuntarily denied boarding.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-airline-bumping-volunteer-payout-strategy-0429-biz-20170428-story.html
Any word on whether Alaska paid heed to these issues?
If she was that accommodating why didn’t she just go and sit in 12C – Kasich’s downgraded seat. Instead she asked to fly on the next flight so the plane flew with an empty Premium Economy seat. Think of the Greenhouse gases!!!
What would a private citizen Trump have done in the exact same situation?
I looked it up. After graduating from Ohio State 1974, in Kasich immediately became a researcher for government officials. He was first elected as a State Senator in 1978. In between his various stints of being paid by tax payers and lobbyists, he has worked as commentators on various networks. Since his term as Governor of Ohio ended on 1/1/19, he has been CNN commentator (no doubt doing extra unbiased commentary, nothing to see here.). So basically he has been mooching from, sorry, I mean serving the tax paying public his whole life, around 40 years.
Some people are born better than us working stiffs and somehow they all end up in the legislature. They deserve to get rewarded for their halos. According to Open Secrets dot org, Kasich was worth approximately $15,649,094 in 2014.
This is who he is. – an angry, petulant, disrespectful, entitled person who cares nothing for anyone but himself. He is not compassionate or moderate. He is the embodiment of white male privilege. I’m sorry for anyone who had to deal with him on that flight. We did it for eight years in Ohio so I feel your pain.
Assuming he was paid upfront and not an upgrade I get not wanting to leave. I get the pilot contract thing but this sounds to be yet another case of what is effectively an oversold situation from bad airline logistics which are their problem for the same reason that if I miss my flight or want to change it I don’t automatically get to change for free because of my own poor planning. Now maybe they offered him $1,000 and the next flight but I think they would have probably said that if so and I’m not agreeing it’s okay to automatically take someone else’s seat but the complaining person seems to have correctly calculated that she is getting some good publicity out of all of this and maybe will even get a new sitcom out of it. Also, as someone like him who has no doubt flown private more than I’ve flown commercial it really isn’t fair to move him to coach as he knows what he’s missing. I’ve flown private just enough that I die a little inside every time someone takes the middle seat next to me when I’m flying southwest.
@8bb8b8. How can it be be an oversold flight? Pilots free free
If this is all it takes to confuse John Kadich, he has no business being President of the US.
I guess it would depend if he had a paid for first class seat or he received an upgrade – complimentary or not. If he paid, he should get what he paid for. If he was comped, he should also get what he actually paid for. No defense of him offered. Politicians think they are gods.
While the Gov was wrong, the airline was worse; the traveling pilot should have sat on the jump seat in the cockpit, or taken a coach seat. Paying customers have become unimportant to the airlines. They forget who pays for their services. I am about to buy a jet card and stop using the commercial airlines at all. American was the best of them, but they have joined the rest in mistreating customers, especially their loyalty flyers. Too bad.