JetBlue Flagged A Mint Passenger For Solo Sexual Conduct — Then Made Sure To Mention His Elite Status

JetBlue redeye flight 2858 from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale sent a message ahead on Friday night that a passenger in seat 5C in the business class ‘Mint cabin’ was engaged in hand-to-gland combat with Palmela Handerson.

Flight crew gave the man a ‘yellow ticket’ and noted that he was “Mosaic 4,” the airline’s top elite status level, and asked the ground team whether police or security would meet the aircraft. The Airbus A321 landed in Fort Lauderdale at 4:53 a.m.

/FB 0243/AD KFLL/N 34.706,W106.108,JBU2858,SOMO3,PASSENGER IN 5C MINT,IS MASTURBATING,IN FLIGHT GAVE HIM A,YELLOW TICKET,HE IS A MOSAIC4,PLEASE INFORM BLUE,WATGH ETC AND LET ME,KNOW WHAT THE PROCEDURE,WILL BE WHEN WE LAND,I.E. POLICE OR SECURITY

Crew or another passenger noticed the conduct. He was issued a written warning (“yellow ticket”). Crew escalated it to JetBlue operations. Blue Watch is the airline’s 24/7 security desk. The flight continued normally – so the conduct was deemed serious enough to document and escalate, but not urgent enough for a diversion.

The Mosaic 4 detail is what makes this. It’s the highest published status tier. But what he was doing is decidedly not an elite benefit. It is not immediately clear why elite status is included along with public sexual misconduct. Ultimately, this is highly inappropriate but seeing it written as an ACARS message, cold and clinically, is also awesome.

Some of my favorite comments:

“As long as it is less than 100ml”

You don’t get to do that until they create a new Mosaic 5

“Sir, I need to gatecheck your oversized … item.”

“If they didn’t let him finish, it’s now called JetBlueBalls.”

If you’re wondering what a situation like this is worth as another passenger, American Airlines says 5,000 miles. It’s much worse for the perpetrator. One American Airlines customer in a similar predicament found themselves investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Here’s another American Airlines first class passenger caught urinating and ‘flicking the bean’ after downing reportedly 9 jack and cokes.

Another American Airlines first class passenger was caught watching porn. A United Airlines business class passenger was, also. (An Etihad pilot once wrote up the inflight wifi over an inability to download porn.)

(HT: One Mile at a Time)