Category Archives for Passengers.
American Airlines flight AA893 from Charlotte to Nassau went mechanical on Monday, and the airline switched aircraft to get passengers on their way. Already delayed several hours, tensions were running high. And a group of high school students on board chose the moment they were on their second aircraft, ready to depart, to stage a mask protest that “lasted for hours.”
An American Airlines passenger performed his best Hoard Beale from the 1978 film Network on Thursday when the carrier cancelled flight 2398 from Charlotte to Baltimore – after a two hour delay, boarding, and push back from the gate. However there was no one to attach the jet bridge and let everyone off. So the flight full of customers waited. And waited. And waited.
They waited, that is, until our hero decided to open an emergency exit on the full Oasis’d Boeing 737 with 172 passengers, climb out onto the wing, and jump down onto the tarmac.
Some unscrupulous people used to request wheelchair assistance at the airport when they didn’t need it and use their ‘injury’ to get earlier boarding of their flight, better seats, and more.
Right now though there are very few people at the airport to help push wheelchairs so this is tough to do, but people are still faking injuries to make their travel experience a bit smoother, or at least cut lines.
At an American Airlines employee question and answer session mid-month, a recording of which was reviewed by View From The Wing, a flight attendant asked CEO Doug Parker about unruly passengers and blamed alcohol – not the alcohol on planes, because American hasn’t been serving alcohol in coach, but the alcohol that passengers have been bringing onto the aircraft themselves.
And the crewmember suggested that American’s move to have just a single agent at each gate to board aircraft makes it tougher to notice and do something about these passengers who are breaking the law and causing incidents inflight before they get onto the plane.
United Airlines flight UA5365 from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City was delayed 3 hours and 40 minutes Friday night, not arriving until 1:25 a.m. on Saturday, after a passenger tried to enter the cockpit of the SkyWest regional jet prior to departure from LAX. When that didn’t work, he opened the door of the aircraft, popping the slide, and slid down onto the tarmac.
The situation begins as the agent and passenger have a confrontation over her bag at the bottom of the jet bridge, in front of the aircraft’s boarding door. The woman has words with him, not wanting to give up the bag. They both have their hands on the bag, wrestling for it as the woman tries to board even as she’s told she can’t bring it on. And the words escalate to violence, as she lunges at the employee.
Finally the employee grabs the bag and starts taking it up the jet bridge. The passenger latches onto it, and starts to get dragged with it.
Peter Espinosa flew first class from Minneapolis to Dallas on Delta with his 20 year old daughter who has genetic disorder Fragile X Syndrome. They were headed to visit his son – her brother – for Father’s Day.
A flight attendant saw a Hispanic man with a woman young enough to be his daughter and questioned her. The syndrome makes her nervous. So police met the aircraft and arrested him.
An 18 year old woman says she was groped by a male passenger on her Spirit Airlines flight for an hour. She took video! And she says flight attendants told her to “sit down and stay quiet” when she reported it.
On Sunday – Fathers Days – a woman gave birth to a baby girl inside a restroom near Miami airport’s gate D43 after getting off of an American Airlines flight from Chicago.
The mother, traveling with her aunt, gave birth to the baby at 10:30 a.m. The Miami airport carries the 3 letter code MIA, and uses it in its branding. The mother decided to name the girl Mia, which the airport says they’re “honored” by.
Brittany Hockley, who made it to the finale of The Bachelor Australia in 2018 and returned for 2020’s Bachelor in Paradise, lashed out at Etihad Airways when they refused to sell her an upgrade to business or first class – but wanted $1000 to check her luggage.
First she complained she couldn’t book her extra checked bag online. Then she discovered at the airport that Etihad wanted $1000 to carry it.
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 »
