Pandemonium In Premium Economy: British Airways Flight To Austin Delayed By MAGA Hat Fisticuffs

British Airways flight 191 from London Heathrow to Austin departed two hours late on Monday when passengers got into a fight because one of them was wearing a MAGA hat.

Both passengers were seated in premium economy. One woman demand that the other remove her pro-Trump hat. When she was refused, the pair began fighting. This apparently happened at first in the gate area and continued in the cabin after boarding. Flight attendants reported this to the captain who called authorities. The women were not immediately arrested, but they were not permitted to fly.

According to police,

Shortly after 12.45pm on Monday, 28 October, police at Heathrow were made aware of an incident involving two women waiting to board a plane in Terminal 5. A woman in her 40s and a woman in her 60s made counter allegations of affray. Enquiries are ongoing.

British Airways, for their part, “apologised to our customers for the delay and got them on the way as quickly as possible.”

It’s a little weird this happened on the Austin flight. There aren’t a lot of Trump supporters here. Austin went for Bernie in the Democratic primaries in 2016 and 2020. I can see the woman objecting to the hat being triggered – she’s probably never seen one in person before.

Over the summer, one woman got a drink in American Airlines first class and somehow thinks she got less-than-usual service because of her MAGA hat. She must not fly American very often. On United a man in a MAGA hat was removed from the aircraft, but in his case it was for self-upgrading. And here’s a woman in a MAGA hat during the pandemic refusing to wear a mask and using a racial epithet on Frontier.

@alexbarkley4

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♬ original sound – Alex Barkley

This election is incredibly close, and I don’t know anyone who actually knows what will happen to any degree of certainty. In 2016 I was confident that Hillary Clinton would win on the theory that Trump would underperform Mitt Romney with women and minorities, and you don’t become President by underperforming Mitt Romney. I was wrong. In 2020 things were closer than I expected, but went the way that I expected.

Now? Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are just too close to be certain, and North Carolina is in play. One likely scenario is that Pennsylvania is the tipping point, and Kamala Harris will regret passing on that state’s governor as her VP nominee because the left wing of her party wouldn’t accept him as a Jew and supporter of Israel. But she could just as easily run the table on swing states.

Shortly after the 2016 election, when President Trump was first elected, a United pilot made a pre-departure announcement that passengers had to keep politics off the plane. The whole cabin cheered. No matter what happens on Tuesday, I think we’ll all be grateful to stop getting candidate and fundraising texts.

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. People shouldn’t be harassed for wearing clothes that advertise their political affiliation, but advertising your political affiliation is a weird thing to do.

  2. Recently saw a person wearing a “Make Israel Palestine Again” hat on the plane. Classy!

  3. Interesting that you frame a woman attacked for wearing a maga hat as somehow at fault. First amendment rights are not surrendered on an airplane.
    Leftists are the true fascists.

  4. “One woman demand that the other remove her pro-Trump hat. ” Freedom of speech means she has a right to wear her hat with a message expressing her right to believe in Trumps leadership.

  5. Those women were the true ugly Americans, both of them. British Airways should have not let either one board after they got into an argument in the terminal that was being settled with fists.

  6. I see plenty of camo Harris/walz hats here at the Alaska lounge at SFO.

    I do wonder what they would say or react to a MAGA hat in the lounge.

    I would suspect sadly that a negative reaction and insistence of taking it off because they deem it hate speech.

    I know a lot of people that would be completely triggered by a MAGA hat and yelling would ensure.

    Again, this behavior is why the democrats just don’t get why they may very well lose next week. Just because you are Republican, doesn’t mean you are evil. Just because you are a democrat doesn’t mean you are a communist.

    (I’m not a Trump supporter….but just an observation on the hypocritical polarization)

  7. My understanding is that Harris picked Waltz because during his interview with her he asked, “What can I do to help you?” and said he did not want to be president. Shapiro on the other hand, allegedly said something like, “What will be my powers in office?”. And there’s the difference. I don’t know the ins and outs of all this but here in Minnesota Tim Waltz has been an excellent governor who really cares about all the state’s people. Has he made mistakes? Sure, but he is a very decent and normal person, something which Harris undoubtedly picked up on.

  8. Mr Mantis,

    The way the article reads they were in London which is the UK, not the US. They were on a British Airline. I’m not sure there are any “first amendment rights” in play.

    You might want to educate us (and yourself) before pointing fingers.

  9. A lesson obviously missed in many circles. You have every right to your opinion as to who you support. You have absolutely no right to insist that I agree with you or conform to your wishes. When will people understand that little fact.

  10. Trash is trash regardless of your candidate of choice
    And you do nothing when you display bad behavior to improve perception of your preferred party.You just display ignorance and how obnoxious you are as a human being

  11. Both political parties dislike each other. The big difference is the Democrat Party is violent and, I believe, immature. They want to control and if they can’t they will work to destroy the other. Now I ask, sincerely, what has VP Harris and the Democrat Party accomplished that earns them a vote and to remain in power? I don’t expect a logical answer, but I do have an open mind.

  12. Symbols of 1930’s Germany would also invoke trouble on a plane if worn in the form of a hat. A large percentage of the world rightfully sees MAGA as being no different.

  13. @Mike Mainello. The difference being that Democrats never formed a mob of thousands that stormed the capital and was involved in the injury of hundreds of police officers including secondary deaths to some later. And, of course, wanted to hang the Vice President and kill Nancy Pelosi. All of this as Trump muttered, “So What.”

  14. Yet only one party candidate has decided that I and all other democrats are “enemies of the state”, and the military should be sent to polling places to prevent democrats from voting.

    And on “day one”, the same candidate states that they will nationalize the police force and there will be interment camps.

    But yet, somehow, democrats are “intollerant” and “fascists.”

    My family has already lived this once. And that time it was the Americans that ended it in Berlin.

  15. @Mike Mainello Speaking as an old-time libertarian (small L), with no love lost for or allegiance to either of the large parties, I have to in all honesty ask you…are you bonkers?

  16. In about a week, about 50% of voters are going to be saying, “If only we hadn’t nominated X, we could have beaten Y so easily.” And the other 50% are going to be saying “If only we hadn’t nominated Y, that was too close. We could have easily won with anyone else against a candidate as weak as X.” And 100% of the voters are going to say, “Thank the stars we’re finally done with candidates born in the 1950s and earlier.”

  17. Driving around Berkeley its pretty disappointing to see the number of Palestine flags, all the same folks who had BLM posters.

  18. More than 200 former Trump administration officials have since come out opposing him. More than 200 mental health professionals have warned that he is unfit. If that doesn’t convince someone that Trump is the ultimate POS, nothing will. Current Trump supporters are the dumbest human beings on the face of the Earth, they’re too stupid to vote and with any luck, they’re too stupid to procreate.

  19. I wanted to weigh in on this topic because from what I read,watch and once and a while see,I would honestly say here that I think things are really getting out of hand with all this Un-necessary crap. To me,I think peoples should be allowed to vote for whom they want,wear what they want and say what they want as well and if there are peoples out there that have a problem with that,then that is on them

  20. If a MAGA hat triggers you stay home. You’re a hysterical woman that is a hassle to the general public.

  21. If this situation were reversed there would most likely never been any confrontation. Liberals are some of the most intolerant people I have ever met even though they preached tolerance.

  22. @intelligence.. your handle suggests the opposite. Where I live the average income is $132k a year. Private jets galore. I know six airline pilots that are voting for Trump two pharmacists and a doctor hardly dumb people. But you go right on ahead with your name calling that’s what Democrats are great at.

  23. Mentally unstable Karen flipping out at the sight of a MAGA hat. Get a life (and therapy)!

    Now, the little fascist will need to find another way to get home to Portland, Oregon – to see her unemployed Antifa offspring.

  24. Be careful when quoting the First Amendment. It does not apply in this case. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It does not apply to private property. However, the ONLY exceptions to this, according to SCOTUS is: Incitement to imminent lawless action, Fighting words, True threats, Obscenity, Defamation, Harassment , Material and substantial disruption, Child pornography & False advertising. In other words, your “right” does not extend to my property or to those exceptions above. So an airline or any other company CAN deny the passenger’s “right” to wear what it deems as “unacceptable”.

  25. I personally could’ve cared less if a lady sat next me wearing a MAGA hat.

    That being said, why would a lady wear a hat of a person who insults, gropes, ect. woman. This MAGA-hat wearing lady obviously has no sense of self-respect.

  26. The Anti-Trump people are on a righteous crusade, and too many feel that there are no limits to demonstrating their moral superiority – Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud yesterday when he simply dismissed them as garbage. I’ve never heard a story about anybody wearing Kamala gear getting threatened, much less attacked, but people know not to wear a Trump hat in certain places lest they get violently attacked.

  27. For all of the posters bringing up the first amendment and freedom of speech, how many times must you be reminded that the first amendment and “free speech” arguments only apply to GOVERNMENT censorship of said speech. There was no government censorship in this case.

  28. Fascists, socialists, communists. Who cares?
    The fact is one candidate has defied the constitution and intends to continue to defy the constitution. I don’t care what you call him, but as a matter of fact he is a traitor

  29. Blah! Blah! Blah!
    It’s life. If it doesn’t cost you money, if it doesnt make you ill or kill you, so what. Get over it and/or get a pair…

  30. What’s next? Do you have to show your voter registration card at the gate? And if it shows you voted in a Republican primary you will be denied boarding? And what about us independents or non-voters (like me)? Do I have to swear allegiance to the Democrat party to avoid assault or to travel at all?

  31. “Tim Waltz has been an excellent governor who really cares about all the state’s people. Has he made mistakes? Sure, but he is a very decent and normal person,”
    Tim Waltz has been a governor who really cares about all the state’s people. Has he made mistakes? Many, but he is a very decent and normal person,
    See I fixed it.

  32. I just would have asked for a change of seating and a preference to be upgraded to business, being highly allergic to the stench of insurrection. And of course, I’d need my clothes dry-cleaned on landing!
    But here, there’s no reasoning with stupidity and lack of class and clearly the MAGA are always looking to offend others. So the non-hat wearing woman shouldn’t have wasted her efforts on such a black hole of negative energy. Avoidance is often a smart policy!
    It’s hard maintaining a privileged position in a garbage country, isn’t it?? So I imagine one finds it necessary to advertise one’s ignorance to be sure.

  33. Maybe some of the MAGA-loving women want Tr*mp to grab them even as he clearly thinks of most of his female supporters as “deplorables” whom he wouldn’t invite home to stay in his home nor invite to get to know his “not Arnold Palmer” in the way some women of porn know it.

  34. I’m actually kind of amazed at the number of people here who seem to feel it should be OK to harass someone for wearing a MAGA hat.

    And we wonder why the world has become such an ugly, angry, and hate-filled place.

  35. @ Gary. “There aren’t a lot of Trump supporters here.” I have lived in Travis County for 47 years (and West Austin with the exception of the last 10 years) and I disagree with you. ABIA serves a lot of conservative counties. I’m not sure what part of Austin you reside but I’m guessing it is inside the city limits (NW Hills). For your readers, Travis County, unlike Austin which is Blue, does “lean” to be the “Blue dot in a sea of Red” but I assure you the majority of us who moved to escape the People’s Republic of Austin grasp tend to align ourselves with the Republican platform . . . unless, of course, one is a government employee, then it’s Democrat. One does not bite the hand that feeds them just as the airline executives support.

  36. Travis Cty is loaded with Trumpers.

    I voted Republican most of my life until 2016. It was amazing then and it’s angering now – after he turned out to be even worse than we thought – that ANYONE would still cast a vote for the bottom feeder of a human that Trump is. Much less about 45%, which is what we’ll see next week.

    are you really all that gullible? or sexist? or racist? Do MAGAts have any self resepect? I think that question answers itself, and that foul stench will still be lingering after the election. I won’t forget you, and probably won’t forgive you either if you vote for a guy who is running for office because he’s running from the law and $2 Billion in debt.

    Anyway for a premium experience fly Delta.

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