Man Identifying Himself As An American Airlines Pilot Is Making Threats On Twitter

by Gary Leff

A man identifying himself as an American Airlines pilot is threatening a travel blogger on twitter because the blogger has exposed the poor service offered by the airline in international first class, in a flight attendant’s own words.

The pilot is threatening to abuse his authority and kick travel blogger Ben Schlappig (also known as Lucky) off of American Airlines flights if he finds himself piloting a plane Ben is flying. The chances this could happen are reasonable as Ben is a long-time American Airlines Executive Platinum member.

American Airlines International First Class Is One Of The Poorest In The World

I’ve covered just how poor the experience in American Airlines international first class has become (for instance here and here). While the seats and meal service is below world standard, it’s the service that really sets things apart.

American Airlines has virtually no standards for flight attendants that are actually enforced and while there are great American Airlines crews the service they provide is largely out of their own internal motivation and not because of anything the airline does to encourage it (or to discourage poor service). And it’s really tough for the great flight attendants out there to continue to provide service when they work alongside colleagues who don’t, and who do just as well at the airline without putting in any effort.

I’ve even wondered whether American Airlines international first class is the worst in the world? I haven’t flown TAAG Angola first class, and would likely have to do so before rendering judgment.

american airlines international first class
American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER First Class, Credit: American

Schlappig Explains Poor American Airlines Service, In A Flight Attendant’s Own Words

Lucky from One Mile at a Time flew American Airlines Dallas Fort-Worth – Hong Kong in international first class. He had a lackluster experience, frankly better than the ones I’ve written about, but concluded that it was still worse than anything he’s experienced except for TAAG Angola and China Southern (and China Southern has improved).

A flight attendant helpfully offered an explanation for the service failings in American Airlines first class, and it underscored exactly the point about the service levels American offers.

  • It takes too long to welcome someone aboard or address them individually
  • It’s a security risk for a flight attendant to introduce themselves by name, even though they’re wearing their name on their uniform
  • It’s too hard to remember the names of 8 passengers in the cabin or keep notes, so don’t expect to be addressed by name
  • Flight attendants are too busy during a 16 hour flight to say thank you to 8 passengers in international first class

The very best though? American invested in upgraded Casper bedding and offers turn down service. What do their flight attendants think of passengers in international first class who ask for it? (And expect to ask – not have it offered.)

Turndown service. I know that airlines offer it. I know we are expected to do it. And I will do my job if it is requested. But any person with fully functioning limbs who asks for a turndown service on a non-luxury airline is an ASSHOLE. The luxury airlines (like Emirates) have sheets and extra pillows to go with extra staff who make up the bed. Domestic carriers, there is usually a fluffy mattress pad that can be added. So you’re asking someone who is already covering either multiple cabins, or a galley, or the pilots’ needs to lay it down and unfold your blanket all pretty for you. You feel such a need to be served that you’re asking someone else to come over and lay out one single blanket.

american airlines casper blanket
American Airlines Casper Blanket and Pillow

American Airlines Management Sets The Poor Tone For Service

Little kind gestures differentiate first class from a more mass business product. However American’s management provides no clear vision for the airline (other than ‘never lose money again’). Flight attendants perceive mixed messages over whether the carrier is trying to deliver a premium product or chase the bottom of the market.

Self-Identified Pilot Goes On The Attack

First the man who identifies as an American Airlines pilot attacks an airline customer on twitter.

Then he threatens to kick Ben off of his flights.

He doubles down on his authority to kick Ben off at will, for any reason or no reason (which in fact exceeds his authority).

49 USC 44902(b) and 14 CFR 121.533(d) makes the pilot responsible for safety and allows the airline to refuse transport to an individual the airline decides might be inimical to safety. However the pilot’s belief about a passenger’s threat to safety must be both genuine (honestly held, not pretext for another issue) and objectively reasonable.

Our hero also makes this knowingly false claim about Lucky – that his reviews are for sale.

For what it’s worth he doesn’t have a particularly high opinion of American Airlines joint venture airline partners, either.

What Should Social Media Standards Be For Public Companies?

In my own view the best approach is personal responsibility, not prior restraint – an employee should be able to say what they wish but bear the consequences of their statements.

Here I think the consequences are clear. If this individual is an American Airlines pilot, or pilot for any airline, an investigation should determine their fitness to fly (whether their social media threats signify issues that are themselves inimical to safety) and their employer should consider whether the individual represents them well in public and should counsel them on how they can become better stewards of their employer’s brand.

I’m no fan of cancel culture. I’m also no fan of making threats against passengers and especially threats to abuse authority granted by the government. That behavior should be held to a higher standard.

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

  5. Good for you Gary. I read the article by Lucky and his points were reasoned and made sense. If this tweet was indeed put out by an AA pilot I hope that pilot is immediately removed from duty. I certainly wouldn’t be comfortable with such an unhinged person flying the plane I am on.

  7. Let’s think about this rationally.

    First, the dude looks like an idiot. He’s a moron. Ben should forward this to AA. He may or may not be an AA pilot. Let them deal with it.

    If he isn’t an AA pilot, then this is virtually a non-story. Someone on the internet is acting like an A-hole. Congratulations.

    If he is an AA pilot, and Ben happens to be on one of his flights, he probably won’t do a darn thing. So he’s not only an A-hole, but a coward. Congratulations.

    If he is an AA pilot and he denies Ben boarding, then he’s and A-hole and unemployed. Congratulations.

  8. Bravo, Gary!

    My employer would not tolerate any threats that its employees would make over any medium. Even if it were in jest, severe action would be taken.

    This pilot’s actions do not make things better for AA with Ben’s opinion of their service.

    Hope this goes well for all.

  9. Hahaha this is so on brand for America West, it’s not even funny. What a complete joke of an airline!

  13. There is hate for passengers starting at the top with the CEO and filtering down the ranks
    American has a largely toxic culture of hate and contempt for most customers and price gouging
    My Dr is a Concierge Key member and says they are awful and that’s the top of the food chain
    Thanks To all the bloggers that call them out on their failures which outweigh their overall good
    It has become a horrible spiteful company to do business with

  15. You’re no fan of cancel culture, but let’s ruin some guys life because he tweets stuff you don’t like. Got it.

  17. If Lucky has to be called out it should be basis his contradictory positions of “AA sucks”, and “here apply for this AA card which I’ll share 7 links for in this article so I can get referral fees”

  21. Clap Back if he actually works for AA won’t be much longer. Though like many I suspect this is an unemployed yob in mom’s basement

  22. Erik laid it out very well. In addition I wonder if AA could not pursue damages from this pretend pilot.
    Maybe someone at AA will ask “Are we really that bad?” Not likely though.

  23. Typical state of journalism or what passes for it today by referring to an opinion from an unverified source on Twitter or social media. In the past, a middle school newspaper wouldn’t even go down this path.
    A guy claims he is an AA pilot? One of the funniest repeating events in the 80’s when AA had a lot of young new hire Flight Attendants out in a group on layovers was guys hitting on them and claiming (guess what?) to be AA Airline pilots. They got shot down fast.
    What’s the future hold, safe spaces for bloggers who get triggered by “Dislikes”.
    Signed,
    An airline pilot with one of the largest companies.

  25. The biggest danger that ‘Lucky’ poses is when he starts pontificating about the airlines as a business. He is an economic illiterate and should stick to service reviews.

  26. I am sorry. I agree with my Captain. This dude has no idea what happens even though he is a FF. I see so many ENTITLED people being an ass on the flight it is incredible. I have been working for 37 years as a flight attendant and every flight has someone that decides they are the ONLY person in their cabin. Obviously their NEEDS are not taken cared of. Sorry, call ALL of the airlines and tell them to get more flight attendants taking care of your PERSONAL needs. No Us airlines are no longer subsidized from our government like many other countries do. Yes, our service was better when it. was. We can only provide for what our US airline company provides. We are understaffed. I want the best for you but hell I am sick and tired of the levels and who each individual thinks they are entitled to.

  28. Somebody like that is probably about 10% of what they say they are. He probably does live in America and flies remote control airplanes as a hobby. Thus he is an AA pilot in his mind….

  29. @matt Actually not. He spends 95% of his tweets bashing Trump and praising people like AOC, so no he is not a Trump supporter. He is clearly an extreme leftist. Nice try to bring up Trump in a conversation where he wasn’t relevant though.

  30. I’m an American million miler Exec Plat business flyer and I’m always thankful for the upgrade when I get it. I agree that there are no service standards on American. The service is different on every flight and is determined by what the flight attendants want to do. This is true for main line flights and the regional carriers. Every now and then a FA goes over board with great service and it “ruins the curve” for others. Sometimes they take coats sometimes they don’t. They often forget coats at the end of the flight. The order of service w is always different. Some do towels first, some do towels last. Some don’t do it all. Drinks on the ground or no drinks on the ground? Some state lates prevent it but they should tell you that. I was on one flight when the FA served drinks on the ground and an off duty FA seated in first reprimanded her and said that’s not allowed and told her to collect the drinks she had served. I never pay for first and I’m thrilled to get the upgrade. I love the larger seats. I’m in no place to criticize service that I’m getting as a reward for being a frequent flyer. But good customer service usually comes with standards that are consistent. Like Nordstrom.

  31. I’ve figured this guy out: He HAS the clap, failed to get treatment , and it’s affecting his brain.

  32. Mr. B Young, Which service are you talking about? What towels are you talking about? Hot towels? It is not determined by what a flight attendant wants to do, It is all about what catering provides us. Internationally we are supposed to have a before and after towel service. Before means before a meal after means prior to landing. Many times we only get one set of towel service. Domestically we get one set of towels that are to be provided Pre-meal. Forget your coats? Do you know how busy we are and what we are required by the FAA to be in our jumpseats at a certain point? Are you just a child or an adult child needing attention? Yes we are to provide drinks on the ground but depending on aircraft, we have to be at the doors at which we are responsible. If we are kept at minimum crew, or making up for a delay and trying to board quickly, we can not do that. Please contact AA for the additional crew member taht can provide all your wants and needs. DO NOT BLAME Flight Attendants! We can only give you what we get and have to abide by FAA laws or we get personally fined. Will you pay that for us to get your coat or drink?

  33. @skygal1: So your basic message is that AA first class service is pretty much flawless, any shortcomings are somebody else’s fault, and passengers should ‘stop whining’. Is that correct?

  34. @skygal1: Yes no doubts that you are an AA FA. Your tone and attitude is typical. Try flying International first class on a few other airlines in AA’s price bracket and you’ll find out how it should be done. Even BA puts American to shame.

  35. Crew members are not there to kiss your ass because you fly that carrier frequently. Yes, you’re in a nicer seat towards the forward section of the aircraft. As a pilot, I expect my fellow crewmembers to be well rehearsed in safety procedures to expedite your evacuation to the nearest egress point, and operate the limited medical equipment that we have staged onboard. Everything else is just frills. This is why I aspire to work with Southwest. Excellent service, standardization for all passengers, excellent equipment.

  36. I love all of the different reviews and it sparked my interest of the airline industry that I had not known existed. I’ve read a couple of articles about TAAG. I flew them from São Paulo to Luanda. Almost missed the flight because I could not find check in area.. I was just thrilled to be going to Angola after going through lots of mountains with the visa. I enjoyed the flight overall but I think it was because I was thrilled to be going to Angola and to Africa for the first time, so my vision may have been jaded. I’m just surprised that it’s been so bad for a few of the folks that writes the articles. Spirit for me hands down is the worse. Frontier close to second. International bigger carriers so far all have been the same. No one has impressed me much. Need to try some of the luxury airlines

  37. American Airlines has a social media policy and if this Kyle guy is in fact an AA pilot then his tweets go against that policy.

  38. I suspect that he’s a pilot for a regional carrier with both AA and Delta contracts. He refers to “one of my AA flights” so it is reasonable to infer that he has non-AA flights. He has repeatedly complained about Delta’s work culture supposedly contributing to suicides, including a Delta FA he often flew with. And one of his very first tweets was to complain to Shake Shack that he and his colleagues got sick from eating at their ATL restaurant – which is in all-Delta Concourse A.

  39. Omg, who gives a flying fuck. Seriously though. Just fly another airline and move on with your highly privileged life and with your first world problems. This entire blog does nothing but complain about others. Every article I read is trying to get someone fired. Same for all of you that support this blog too… Maybe try focusing on subjects that actually help others. It’s people like you who write these articles and fuel never ending hate, and hurt for people who they will only encounter once in thier life, yet they feel the need to do something about it to get justice? They feel the need to ruin someone else’s life beacuse of something so small? You are not right… Grow up and learn to move on. You are an adult, a “big boy” so throw on some “big boy” panties and stop with all your complaining and same for you who read these articles. Be grateful you have food to eat, be grateful you have a home to live in, and a computer to type these up. Be grateful for your opportunities so that you can stop ruining other’s. Use your platform to educate and spread logical information not to spread hate and get someone fired

    Nobody like a tattletale.

  40. Again to L3 and AJH1, I am not suggesting anything is flawless. We have issues with catering and video’s mechanical delays and weather delays. All we can do is our jobs with what tools and situations are given. I think people do not realize that Foreign carriers are subsidized, So much for Deregulation. I hope everyone that expects “priveledges” get it. I, however, would like to see you actually pay CASH for that “service”, not FREE upgrades. No, I do not like Whiners. Our job is to get you from point A to B and even C as quickly and safely as possible. ALL CUSTOMERS! Not to wipe your butt or massage your feet. If we have buttholes on the plane, the Captain and the flight attendants have the right to remove someone that may be an issue in flight. They are called FAA regulations. Thank you for your responses.

  41. PS. Even BA has major issues. I flew the BA Codeshare on our AC wearing Ba uniforms. Believe me, there were issues there as well.

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