ESPN Sportscenter anchor Ashley Brewer chronicled drama between flight attendants on an American Eagle regional jet operated by SkyWest. Flying to see her fiance for 24 hours, the moments of her short visit ticked away as two cabin crew members got into a fight over a passenger’s seating request. In the end they refused to work together, one left, and the flight took a delay to try to replace crew.
She called it the “most unprofessional thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”
Guys. My flight can’t take off bc 2 flight attendants got in a fight and now are REFUSING to work together. Now were delayed. We’re sitting here waiting for them to talk it out but nope! Lady wont budge. She reopened the door and all…I can’t believe this is real life 😩
— Ashley Brewer (@ESPNAshley) March 12, 2023
A woman seated in the first class cabin asked permission to switch seats with someone seated in coach, in order to sit beside her husband. One flight attendant said sure, the other one claimed it’s not allowed (yes, it is).
@ashleyebrewer Aint nobody got time for that @americanair 🙄🙄🙄 #petty #rude #delayed #dramatiktok ♬ original sound – Ashley Brewer
In order to calm things, airline staff boarded the aircraft, but one of the flight attendants grabbed their bags and left the aircraft. Everyone waited about an hour for replacement crew, but then the second flight attendant in the altercation left and they had to wait again, eventually suffering a two hour delay.
The ‘no she can’t, yes she can’ altercation over switching seats seemed like something akin to the movie Airplane!
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
Unfortunate situation for which I don’t blame AA. This kind of behavior cannot be screened out in the hiring process. AS had a similar issue last year with two pilots instead of FAs.
Not to let AA of the hook more generally for being a s**t airline providing s**t service, though.
I’ll bet they didn’t even bothering offering a pdb either! For comparison, Delta offered me one this morning ahead of the 26 minute MCO/MIA flight. 730am is a bit early for me these days so I declined. I’m so glad to finally have another option instead of AA on this route. Gate agent told me they’re going go 4x daily instead of the current 2x to feed LATAM in MIA.
Gary, while I find the entire thing hysterical and appreciate you posting it, I wish you would have clarified what AA’s policy is on this.
According to TPG from 2019 “American Airlines: Not Allowed”
“Customers traveling in different cabins are not allowed to switch seats but in cases like an illness or a special need, customers can communicate and work directly with the Flight Attendants if they need to switch seats. And customers who are traveling in different cabins are allowed to visit with each other provided that they’re not interfering with any duties of the Flight Attendant, disrupting other customers or the seatbelt sign is on.”
https://thepointsguy.com/guide/can-you-share-first-class-seat/
Do you know of this is still their policy?
I hope the FA that walked off gets termed, but my guess is he won’t.
This isn’t even remotely what happened. Wow. The click bait is real. The couple that was upgraded downgraded to sit together before boarding and then made a deal about it on the plane and tried to upgrade themselves to someone else’s seats and then the Flight Attendants fought over an entirely different thing. I was there. The flight attendant never walked off. The pilots had them removed AFTER the replacements came on board from working a flight from Colorado. Recording people doing their job is disgusting and disrespectful.
This is funny drama. Sometimes I wonder if single-class aircraft have this type of drama. I’ve never flown La Compagnie, but I suppose the have drama about einow, aisle, near exit, near toilet, and other seat switching drama.
This is Skywest not AA
SkyWest is a regional airline that flies for Delta and American….it’s not AA…if the CA had them removed, they’re in big trouble…they caused a significant delay…their CRM was absent from the situation..that’s bad…