stephem

I took the last flight of the night down to Oakland on Friday and snagged an upgrade to row 1 so I could get a cat nap in during the flight. After boarding, the door remained open for a long time and it soon became clear that something was up way back in the plane. I tried to look back but was unable to see much due to the curtain and people still moving around. Then I heard staff talking up by the cockpit door and definitely heard "ok, I think we need to call the police."

A while later two uniformed police officers boarded and headed to the back and you could sense everyone freezing and wondering what were we going to witness.... The first class FA reassured us and was very professional but would give us no details. I think it was about 15 minutes before they got him out, no physical force or anything, and one of the officers very politely said something to the effect of "it's all ok, nothing to worry about" as he deplaned behind the guy.

A couple of interesting things. First, I almost ran into the guy in the terminal before we boarded, I just remember he was walking along with an earpiece in and almost ran into me while paying more attention to his call. He looked like a 30 something guy on a business trip. Not at all sure what happened- I wonder if maybe my he was angry I got a $53 upgrade at check in and he didnt get a seat in F ;-) After landing really late due to the delay, I wound up on a hotel shuttle with a couple of other pilots and recounted the incident. They said "this happens a number of times a day, usually without incident like you saw." And then they noted, "he was removed for a behavior, safety or security issue because Alaska has never removed people who are seated with a boarding pass for operational reasons."

SpicyMorale

Professional all around it seems.

First was United, second was American, whose next?

Quail

A passenger was removed on AS2195 MMH-LAX on 4/10.

Interesting timing because the (only) TV in the airport was covering the UA news that day. Many people were hearing about it for the first time and were discussing opinions in room, so when the announcement was finally made on the plane (after a delay and some pilot/FA discussion) you could hear chatter about that throughout the plane.

No police and the passenger complied. An FA was concerned about his mental stability, and the nominal reason was that he didn't listen to directions (stood a few times after being asked to sit as we were waiting before door closure). It was all handled professionally, though I'm not 100% convinced it was necessary.

SpicyMorale

And now Air Canada, for only bumping a passenger who then missed a $10,000 cruise. It's becoming clear passenger's are tired of airlines ...... practices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/news/commen...4b&sh=9b33eaf3

jrl767

Non Sequitur comic strip earlier this week was hilarious

notquiteaff

Raises the question on whether the impact of a bump should be considered in selecting the bump target.

This guy misses the cruise. The next guy misses a funeral. The lady in 21C is going to miss an important business meeting resulting in a lost contract. Most people have an important reason to be on the plane.

I have gone on expensive cruises where missing the flight would have meant missing the boat. I made sure I left a buffer of at least a day between arriving at the port of departure and the ship departing. Wasn't so much concerned about getting bumped. Mechanical/weather/ATC delays are much more likely. Or crashing the car on the way to the airport, I suspect

formeraa

And that has happened to me more times (once) than I've ever been IDBed (none).

SpicyMorale

Had to be that guy, but now Delta is up:
On Alaska I have asked most of the time, usually when I don't ask somebody else already asked, while the plane is still getting filled up and nothing has happened to me. It seems you should have your phone at the ready while boarding.

notquiteaff

This wasn't a case of the plan still getting filled up. They were taxiing.

Perhaps leave it to this thread in the Delta forum?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ta-flight.html