Category Archives for Passengers.
An Aeroméxico passenger showed up at the gate for a Mexico City–Barcelona flight seven minutes after its scheduled departure time, then demanded to be let onboard anyway. Once she started shoving staff and pushing toward police, her case was not being made better…
A Delta A321neo had just arrived from Cancun in Seattle when smoke and a small fire near the nose triggered an emergency evacuation down the slides. Now, nearly two years later, a passenger who says she was injured evacuating is suing — but because this was an international flight, the Montreal Convention may keep Delta’s exposure capped even if she proves the injury.
A passenger at an airport gate in 2026 wore a helmet and mask, and the internet reacted like someone had proposed bringing back federal mandates. But if nobody else is being forced to wear one, the outrage says less about PPE than about what the mask fight was really about.
A United passenger tried to move ahead during deplaning, got blocked, and then posted her own profanity-filled argument as if it would prove she was right. Instead, the video turned into a deplaning etiquette referendum: wait your turn, move only when there is a clean opening, and do not make your case by screaming around kids.
A Delta passenger stuck for hours on an Atlanta tarmac delay declared, “You know who matters? Me!” — then cracked open the aircraft door when he demanded to be taken back to the gate. The flight did return, police removed him, and everyone else still got to Chicago more than eight hours late.
A Delta passenger on a Miami–Atlanta flight reportedly refused to end a phone call or put their phone in airplane mode. The standoff ended with everyone being ordered off the aircraft. The rule may be imperfect and unevenly enforced, but once crew tells you to comply, the alternative is not winning the argument — it is delaying the whole plane.
A Delta passenger says crew turned a desperate need to use the bathroom into a security incident, restraining him, exposing him, and denying lavatory access until he soiled himself. He won a $7.2 million verdict, but Delta got it tossed and is now arguing it is immune because law enforcement became involved.
ICE was escorting a man who had agreed to leave the U.S. onto a commercial flight from Seattle to New York so he could connect to India. The officers bypassed the boarding gate process, and walked him onto the Alaska Airlines flight at the next gate that was going to Sitka, Alaska, instead.
Flight attendants told them it was the wrong plane. They ordered crew to board him anyway.
The son of a top Iranian regime insider was filmed boarding a private jet to Ibiza with a Louis Vuitton bag, the latest display in a long-running social media parade of luxury cars, parties, and contempt for poorer Iranians – underscoring the Islamic Republic’s core hypocrisy: austerity, repression, and moral policing for everyone else, indulgence and Western excess for the families of insiders.
An off-duty flight attendant flying as a passenger delayed an AirAsia flight for about 90 minutes after refusing to calm down, insisting crew speak Chinese, and forcing police to board the aircraft.
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 »
