American Airlines Melee: Wheelchair Assistant Assaulted by Furious Passengers [Roundup]

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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. Looks like the wheelchair assistant was impeding and confronting the passengers – particularly the female passenger, at which point her traveling companion intervened. Obviously we don’t know what started the confrontation but I have noticed that the attendants can obstruct the jetway to the point of slowing down deplaning. In general, with more people bringing in more bags, deplaning has gotten slower in recent years…

  2. The melee was atypical problem solving session.

    I have typically not saved miles earned with Asian airlines unless I had a way to redeem some against the price of a ticket because I don’t accumulate them fast enough to get free flights. The only one I have with stranded miles is Singapore Airlines. The miles earned are directed toward USA airline mileage programs, even those I typically don’t fly, in the hopes of having enough for a free flight in the future.

  3. Certainly looks like the wheelchair attendant was blocking the way and people weren’t happy with it.

  4. To Anthony and Loren I am retired and now work seasonal as a wheelchair attendant. He was not impending or in the way. Wheelchair units need to be in the jetway to meet the incoming disabled passengers who are unable to walk at the jetway where else would you think the the I have a little patience planning wheelchair attendant should stand? Let’s use some common sense and have a little patience when deplaning. Anyone checking luggage is going to have to wait in the baggage area 20 to 30 minutes anyway to get their bags.

  5. On the Korean Air front it’s really disheartening how the airline has been so meticulous about not offering first class award space – even to their own members.

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