A bizarre situation unfolded on American Airlines flight AA171 from New York JFK to Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 21. An AAdvantage Executive Platinum passenger says they were upgraded into seat 6A on the new Airbus A321XLR with business class suites.
This was a 6 a.m. flight and he went to sleep as soon as he boarded, but wound up getting into an altercation with a woman who demanded his seat because hers was broken – and a flight attendant told him he could either accept economy or get off the plane.
And yet he somehow argued his way back into his original seat. The plane wound up departing at 6:36 a.m. and arriving at 8:46 a.m., about half an hour late.
- The woman apparently had a seat whose controls were broken and wouldn’t recline.
- He says she complained and asked the crew to identify someone who had received a complimentary upgrade.
- A flight attendant woke him and asked whether he would switch with the woman. He was half asleep, wearing earplugs and a hat over his eyes, and initially agreed without understanding why she wanted the seat. The first flight attendant did not disclose that 3F was defective.
- A second flight attendant then warned him that the replacement seat did not work. He withdrew his agreement.
- In the meantime, the woman allegedly gathered her belongings, moved to 6A, spread out her possessions and settled into the seat.
- She allegedly argued that because she had paid for her premium cabin ticket and he had been upgraded, he was required to give her the functioning seat.
He recorded several other videos with backstory. After he refused a flight attendant’s options to switch seats, move to economy, or leave the aircraft – putting his earplugs back in, and going to sleep – he ultimately flew to Los Angeles in his original 6A. Meanwhile he calls the woman who took his seat a “Karen.”
It is currently six in the morning, and I am getting in a fight in the first-class section on a flight back to L.A. from New York.
So, I was half asleep, and this woman—she is currently in my seat—woke me up because she was like, “Hey, do you mind swapping seats?”
And I thought it was because she wanted a better view or something. And no: it’s because her seat doesn’t recline. And she’s acting like it’s somehow my fault. And she won’t get out of my seat. She’s just in it.
Passenger, addressing the woman: You’ve got to get out of my seat. This is crazy.
Woman: What? I’m going to UCLA.
Passenger: I went to USC, so that makes it even worse. You’re holding up the entire flight. You’ve got to get out of my seat.
Woman: You were moved, sir.
Passenger: My boarding pass says 6A. Yours says 3F. You’re just such a— …Well, got my seat back. Oh, good Lord.
Nearby passenger: Bro, you almost got robbed, bro. You saw that? You almost got robbed, bro.
I like that the woman explained she needed the seat because was was ‘headed to UCLA’. He says “I went to USC, so that makes it even worse.” I still have my ‘Trample The Trojans’ t-shirt from Beat ‘SC Week.
This Was Clearly Handled Badly
It seems to me that <asking him to switch seats was reasonable, but he should have been informed about issues with the seat (why is it always American Airlines? and with a plane in service just about seven months only).
Allowing the woman to move into the new seats before discussing it with the passenger who had been assigned there is a recipe for conflict. What’s very strange about this story is:
- Saying a paying passenger is entitled to displace an upgraded passenger when their seat is discovered not to work post-boarding is not actually a rule.
- Offering economy or the broken seat would be valid only if the airline had actually reassigned him to 3F
- But they clearly had not done so since he says they ultimately allowed him to remain in 6A.
Leaving two passengers to argue over possession of the seat rather than making a single decision about how to proceed at the airline level is problematic.
Maybe Try To Fix The Broken Seat?
I wonder if American might have considered calling maintenance to address what was wrong with seat 3F here. I realize this wasn’t considered a genuinely inoperative seat, since they were allowing the passenger to sit there (inoperative positioning controls don’t disqualify a seat as long as it’s secured and immovable in the taxi, takeoff and landing position). Otherwise it would have to have been blocked and marked ‘Do Not Occupy.’
A Downgraded Passenger Is Entitled To Compensation
If they were offering a seat that wasn’t fully functioning to a passenger in lie flat business class on a premium cross-country flight, that should come with significant customer service compensation. If he was downgraded I’d make the argument for significant compensation, too, and not just as a customer service matter.
- That’s an involuntary downgrade, entitling him to a refund (if he chose not to travel) or a difference in fare
- The difference in fare would have been zero since it’s a complimentary upgrade
- So while no statutory refund would be due, American’s contract of carriage appears to require one.
American Airlines adopted a rule where an involuntary downgrade entitles the passenger to a 40% refund. That’s normally a passenger-unfriendly rule, and they have no basis for limiting compensation this way. In fact, they told the Department of Transportation they’d back off of it by the end of July. However, in this case it would benefit the passenger.
Was She Actually A ‘Karen’?
“Karen” is slang generally used to describe a woman as privileged, indignant, and aggressively entitled in a public dispute. Originally it was more limited to a middle-aged white women invoking social or racial privilege to control or report others (‘to the manager’).
He uses the term because she treated her paid fare as conferring authority over another passenger, occcupied 6A without waiting for the exchange to be finalized and then refused to leave, presented the disputed reassignment as a settled fact—“You were moved, sir” and expected priority rather than requesting a favor.
That qualifies as “entitled public complainer” which fits the broad derogatory definition, but I wonder if the term has therefore lost all meaning.
This Situation Ultimately Makes No Sense
I do not understand a passenger moving to another seat and occupying it, flight crew then presenting the choice of taking a broken seat or a downgrade, but actually allowing the passenger to fly in their original seat when they pushed back.
One Mile at a Time thinks that the passenger here was formally downgraded but “somehow bullied his way back into the original seat” and is therefore in the wrong.
I agree that’s one way to square the circle for how a situation that makes no sense could have happened, but it assumes a lot. If he was formally downgraded and refused to move that usually ends up with either police boarding the aircraft or everyone on the plane being offloaded, not flying in the original seat.
Why are flight attendants getting involved? They should have called the gate agent. I would have just said no I do not want to switch seats and put my ear buds in.
The bigger problem here is that both of them feel they are entitled to have preferential treatment. First class whiners encouraged to act like spoiled children by the Airlines, and they all do it.
The moral of the story is! The customer is always SCREWED! Loyalty means Nothing! CEO’S have told us so. It’s profit then wheat the flight attendants can get away with. You are at their mercy.
The laws will Never be changed for the consumers. Remember all the secret ways the airlines flew, took care of, sped thru the back secret halls for your Congress! They will never rock that boat for themselves over Us
This… is an OUTRAGE! ….harumph, harumph, harumph.
What is even worse if you stated he made several videos. The narcissium today that everything has to be recorded is sickening. We would all be better off if video cameras had never been included with cell phones.
I think LA says it all!
@Retired Gambler — ‘Kids these days…’ Yeah, yeah, ‘narcissium.’ Almost as if they the worst possible role-model leading the… (TDS! Woke! DEI! Communists!) Naw, naw, it’s the daaaamn phones!
Has to be the wheat.
The want to move an upgraded whinner so a paying customer gets a proper seat. Just another reason to eliminate upgrades. At minimum all upgrades should be subject to revocation as needed to accommodate the paying oax.
IME if a seat issue is known prior to boarding the gate agent may do seat changes and call impacted passengers up to the podium. Potentially an adverse passenger could ask to be moved to another flight but if it involves a complimentary upgrade there are probably no options.
However, if the issue isn’t known until onboard unless a gate agent wants to intervene you get what you get. A broken seat, a broken tray table, broken IFE. Flight attendants should not get involved in seat changes. Again, potentially the adverse passenger could be moved to another flight but that might not be practical.
Not my problem. I boarded with a proper seat assignment. When my ass hits this seat, it isn’t going anywhere.
Yes, that is pure Karen material.
Why did the flight attendant give the other pax info about another pax’s fare?
And why didn’t the flight attendant make the ask to him?
I’m amazed he was able to keep the seat once she sat in it.
The ‘jury’ here was the guy across the aisle who said he was getting the short end. Though in one of the videos the poster says another pax called him a jerk, but when he said ‘maybe you switch then’ he refused.
That said he lost my sympathy with the latest video on his feed….recording video while driving (and it wasn’t stationary, the phone was moving)
To: 1990
I didn’t get a harumph out of you!
There may be an issue here that has not been addressed. Does anyone think that there is a racial issue here, with 3F being a white woman and 6A being a non-white male?
I would have refused the downgrade, treated it as an IDB and asked to be de-planed and put on the next flight in F or business, even if the next day, with decent compensation (with me going away quickly and happily if all that was done). In fact, I did just that once. Once you are upgraded, that is your class. If they take it away, that is a downgrade like any other. However, the one time a similar thing with the seat happened when I was in a non-reclining business class seat TATL (on UA, I think), I was not made to move, the FAs just fiddled with the seat to do a manual recline after we took off. There is a trick to doing it, and I studied what they did at the time thinking it would be useful to know. There are probably videos online showing how to manually recline and put back up business class seats of various types.
@jsm
Only the one you dreamed up. You should probably call Sharpton and file a suit…. Smh
Hi Gary,
what do you think is appropriate comp for the following similar situation: J award ticket on QF with AA miles from AsiaPac to the US (over 14 hour flight), seat non operational and marked as such. upgraded passengers assigned functioning seats. My seat had no electronics, reclining, etc. Was offered A$ 100, that I did not accept – I would accept refund of miles but AA will not help. I am considering taking QF to small courts.
Thoughts? where should I file small courts? thinking that compensation amounts should be based on fare difference between PE and J, thoughts?? Thanks for your insight!
Julian
OFFICIAL American Airlines policy is to get the lowest fare, last booked. That should also include last upgraded.
While I REALLY want to side with Karen, this should have been handled by a gate agent.
@Dave — “Right, as usual, sir!”
“…gentlemen, please rest your sphincters.”
Did the seat break after the previous flight ended and crew departed or did a member of the previous crew not report the broken seat?
Maintenance should have been called to try and fix the seat or the seat placed out of service.
That being said the Karen should have received compensation or asked to take the next flight. The USC passenger was in his assigned seat – regardless of price paid.
@Michael Mainello — Where’ve you been? (Oh, so, now you’re in-favor of airlines ‘compensating’ the passengers. Well, well, well… welcome to Communism. /s)
@1990 – It is Communism that is cruel (no /s). Instead of 1 mad passenger, said “Karen”, now you have 2 and passengers that were late arriving. Also the previous captain should receive a reprimand for not reporting the bad seat. As captain’s will tell you, they are responsible for the plane. I wonder what else he didn’t report?
@Michael Mainello — No problem! And by ‘no problem,’ I mean, ‘no, problem.’ (It’s from a film, don’t worry about it.) Anyway, this seems like more of an operations (Tech Ops, AMTs) issue than a crew (pilot, FA) issue, but agreed, unacceptable for AA to have a brand-new aircraft (a321XLR) with broken seats already. I get that the a321T had broken seats all the time, but those were getting old.
There is a power reset switch on the seat. If that doesn’t work the seat can be manually positioned to any position including flat bed.
He was upgraded and boarded as first class so it means it’s yours. Those flight attendants do not have authority to change seats without gate agent if door is open. Crew have authority once door closed. There is a manifest, gate agent maintain in charge and can’t be changed without notice until handed over to crew. YES an airline can sell a broken seat, a theater did that to me in NYC, it didn’t fold up, you sank after sitting in it. The airline is not required to offer a seat recline and contract of carriage probably never said it had to recline. If it reclines, it’s delightful. It is unfortunate that an airline won’t give half off for a no recline seat but it is your decision how badly do you want to accept the seat as is or get a refund. Airplanes are buses, don’t expect more.
I think it’s odd someone actually got an upgrade from NYC-LA.
The guy should’ve taken the broken seat since he wanted to sleep the whole flight. Those seats have a manual release that allow for full lay flat so he would be fine sleeping. Idk why the flight attendants didn’t tell him that
So my first red flag is that all of the lights are on and he was roaming the cabin. Everyone’s seats were upright including the guy who chimes in. Was this during boarding, in which case how could he have been sound asleep, with earplugs? All of Escalona’s follow ups are highly suspicious about this and it looks to me like a setup to go viral. He tags #larp and #fight in his posts on this and seems to be looking for confrontation to spike up Likes and Reposts. Also I’m curious if an airplane interior is considered public space, and if not can she sue him for videoing her without permission? I saw one response that said a flight attendant moved him, not the woman. If I were her I’d definitely have a lawyer looking at this. Dude gives off grifter vibes IHMO. Maybe hoping to monetize the post? And as everyone’s said – where was anyone from AA to help sort it out?