American Airlines Pilot Won’t Let Passengers Chant “USA! USA!”

People who flew to DC for Wednesday’s electoral ballot counting are flying home. Some people aren’t – they were arrested. Some will be arrested in coming days, as social media sleuths identify them and pass tips along to the FBI. And some of course really did peacefully protest, exercising their first amendment rights. I try not to lump them all together.

But that doesn’t mean I want to fly with them.

Passengers on board American Airlines flight AA1242 from Washington National to Phoenix broke out in chants of “USA! USA!” at the start of the flight. The captain came on to announce a warning: zero tolerance for inflight shenanigans, or he’d be diverting enroute.

The chants were captured by a passenger who finds it ‘un-American’ to object to the onboard demonstration.

There’s nothing wrong with a good old fashioned “USA! USA!” from time to time, for instance when you’re watching Red Dawn (the original 1984 version, natch). However I don’t want to hear it on an airplane. Noise cancelling headsets don’t have anything on this crew.

And since when does a conservative object to,

  • A private business enforcing its rules
  • Law and order…?

I’m not usually sympathetic to airlines pulling alcohol off of planes. American Airlines did that for DC flights on Thursday. The drinks are back.

And not for nothing, but notice how close together the seats are in that cabin, with no seat back entertainment either. For anyone flying out of DC today or on an Oasis-reconfigured aircraft, “thoughts and prayers.”

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. One not need to read all the ignorant comments on this thread to realize civics classes need a huge overhaul. Trumpist even FU their dearest amendment, the 2nd. Morons

  2. OneXMarine, you say: “Save your confederate money, the south’s going to rise again! TRUMP2024!”

    The South already rose with Georgia abandoning Trump and two Republican US Senators. Instead, Georgia went for Biden-Harris, Ossoff and Warnock. Given the KKK’s traditional enemies, the KKK in Georgia must really be freaking out that the US is going to have: a Catholic American for President, an Afro-Jamaican-Indian Vice-President, a Jewish US Senator, and an African-American US Senator. I’m surprised Newt Gingrich hasn’t had a heart-attack over how Georgia voted in November 20202 and now in January 2021.

  3. You can be proud to be an American but…. you cant be proud for what happen in DC . That was un American!!
    Applauding the pilot and crew and American Airlines!!

  4. Since when does American Airlines fly ONLY people from the United States of American? I was not aware that a commercial airline an discriminate with nationality.

  5. If they did it in a restaurant disturbing other patrons they would get kicked out. Oxymorons! Being rowdy, breaking laws , and hanging with lawless thugs doesn’t make you a patriot, it’s in opposition of what our USA stands for. If you can’t walk the walk don’t talk the talk. I support the Pilot 100% !
    Last thing they need is chaos at 37,000 feet!

  6. People on airplanes need to just stop , if a person even thinks of getting out of his seat or creating a scene it could cause the pilots to miss something happening on one of his instruments. You just should not cause a scene on any airplane.

  7. Funny. I’ve never seen a leftist that didnt support individual patrons rights to whatever they want. Wasnt there a decoration company in Portland who was sued out of existence by the Portland courts because they refused to be forced to do something against their religious values at the request of a customer?

    I really dont know anybody who can say with a straight face that asking someone to deal with a little noise is worse than asking them to forcibly violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

    Heck, the left/ Democrats strongly supports laws that protect the rights of rapists not to be harmed while they are committing their crimes in stores *during a break in. Hopefully I dont need a comparison statement to get that one to sink in.

    The righteousness and virtue-signalling on here is laughable. Nobody writing this article of commenting on it has any real principles. They just want the world to be the way they want it and get upset like children when it’s not.

  8. It’s ok for liberals to chant or say anything they want.
    I’m a retired f/a from AA and I find captains actions deplorable.

  9. I think everyone should behave like we used to when everyone dressed and paid respect to other passangers and the crew,I worked for the airline for over 30 years,keep your shouting or yelling to yourself or at home,persons who cannot behave on airplanes should be arrested,sweet and simple

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