Two women on a delayed July 15 Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to San Diego have been dubbed “Karen and Karen 2.0” after boarding late onto the aircraft and screaming at passengers that they should move so that the mother and daughter duo could sit together with an aisle.
One flight attendant admonished, “We have families. We have little kids. We can’t have people yelling.” The daughter, though, claimed not to be yelling – just “trying to make an announcement.” But the announcement turned into a threat – against the flight attendant.
While a flight attendant offered to call a supervisor to handle the incident, the daughter turns to the flight attendant to say her mother will grab, scream and cry, according to the viral video, which has nearly half-a-million views.
Another flight attendant then had to approach them and said they could not be making statements like that or they would be booted off the flight.
The situation turned bleak for the cause of justice when someone actually moved so the mother could have an aisle seat. But another flight attendant informed them that their threats were “unsafe” and so both passengers would be removed from the aircraft.
@official_norcal_mom Southwest flight Karen encounter passengers removed. #passengerremoval #karen
The two hour delay turned into a three hour delay, with the rest of the flight’s beleaguered passengers applauding the women being escorted off the aircraft as a consequence of their flight privilege.
The takeaway though is that you need to understand how Southwest works when choosing to book the airline. They do not have pre-assigned seats, and it’s first-come first-served. If there are passengers already on board from an earlier segment of a ‘through flight’ they get first pick. There are those passengers designated to have extra time and board first. Then full fare passengers, followed by elites, and those who have paid to be auto-checked in automatically. Between the A and B groups there’s priority boarding for those who didn’t get a low boarding group number (such as elites who may have changed flights within 24 hours of departure and family boarding). And then there’s everyone else, sorted by check-in time.
Open seating by the way is a windfall for new parents with a lap infant because if there are empty seats on the flight it’ll be next to them – no one wants to listen to a screaming baby, so they get that extra seat for free. Things also work out really well for business travelers.
That was pretty boring. I was waiting for the screaming and applause.
Don’t forget the handicapped and seniors get first priority boarding as well.
Gary Leff, I wish you wouldn’t use a pejorative like “Karen” on this blog. Let your commenters use it and reveal themselves the low class fools they are. When you use the term it stokes division, racism, and erodes our collective empathy.
I agree with Qinxuan Pan. We need to find a better term than “Karen.” Although it’s historical in origin, the behavior predates that individual and “Karen” implies that the problems arise primarily with women. I am male, travel the world, and have seen other males bully their way into what they want for decades, particularly when they are on business trips, away from the observation of their families. So the problem is a long-standing misperception of self-privilege that justifies bullying. It’s been around forever and is not exclusive to any gender.
An appropriate term would be “privilegista” because it achieves two goals: (1) It mocks that the actor has no actual superiority (which obviously doesn’t exists), and (2) It drives the actor crazy since they then have to either back down, shut up, or—better yet— try to argue that they are actually superior to everyone else, much to everyone else’s entertainment.
@Michael – Actually seniors don’t get early / priority boarding. Though it may seem like it. It is just those “handicapped” and others with disabilities that may need extra time boarding get that privilege. As this “typically” is the condition of some seniors, it does not apply to all. Thankfully I am in the “not needing extra boarding time.” Though I guess I might be in the senior category. BTW… what is the starting point for that?
While Karen and the mom Karen got whats due, I do find that the FA’s pulled the “threat to the flight” card over this is just another data point in FA Nazi’s in the sky.
and at Qinxuan Pan – “Gary Leff, I wish you wouldn’t use a pejorative like “Karen” on this blog. Let your commenters use it and reveal themselves the low class fools they are. When you use the term it stokes division, racism, and erodes our collective empathy.”
Get over it; it does not stoke any racism, division [well only against the Karen who asked for it] or empathy. Karen’s typically deserve NO empathy.
@Qinxuan Pan – Another stunning display of ineptitude and hypocrisy on your part.
Hint #1 – Avoid using insulting or pejorative terms and statements. Doubly so if you’re denouncing pejorative terms and statements.
Hint #2 – Move out of mom’s basement. Calling out people for calling a Karen a Karen ranks pretty low on the overall list of world problems. Being in the real world shows you that there are actual bigger issues.
Hint #3 – Address the issue rather than some weird tangent. For once.
This story sucks. Karen of the week trash
@Christian: thank you. @Qinxuan Pan is just a troll that seems to be on the wrong side of everything. Such a tool.
@Qinxuan Pan — thanks — yes, using “Karen” as an insult is sexist and the joke worn old. Why not just say “entitled jerks” — it could apply to men as well and it would describe these passengers and their behavior far better without insulting anyone actually named Karen. (for the record, I know several Karens who are lovely people, so perhaps that is why I find this particularly grating)
@Christian — clearly you are finding time to comment on this article, just as Qinxuan Pan. So I guess you both had time for this. And now I joined you as well! We probably all have better things to do.
@ InLA
Well it can’t be privilegista can it? That would make the word feminine. So it cannot be privilegisto either We would need to use privilegistx so as not to offend the woke community should any of its sadly misguided proponents be reading this. Not that any of them would write in about something as mundane as use of the appellation, Karen.
Poorly handled. They could have just offered Karen and Karen 2.0 a couple of double cheeseburgers and large fries to leave the plane.
Note: Karen applies to women and Kevin applies to men.
Applying something to women doesn’t make it sexist since the term describes a woman acting in a trash way, not women in general.
They both were Karens because they felt entitled to get seats they wanted after being EXTREMELY late.
By the way, what “creative” word would you use if these were two black women?
From my extensive research it is “Shaniqua”
I was on a Southwest flight once where I had A boarding and I remember the flight attendent saying to the last people on “Please find your seat and remember C stands for center” If you want a guarantee pay the $15.00
Perhaps this site needs a sub-section in which to report all this boring, unimportant, stupid stuff that travelling people are doing out in public. Then the rest of us, who have working brains, can just read what is news in the travel world that will help and educate us about the topics we’re interested in. Hint: not much interest in who is racist and who is entitled … give ’em their own section.
much ado about nothing. moving right along……..
I like turtles.
“Entitled jerks” sounds good to me as an all purpose and often well merited pejorative whose meaning is crystal clear to all, and avoids discomfiting perfectly reasonable people whose given name happens to Karen (or now, I see, Kevin).
With uses of the terms Karen and flight privilege we know exactly that Gary is trying to make this a race thing. Anything to get clicks I guess.