montreid

Perhaps if you towed around an infant and child all day between airports by yourself and then whacked upside the head and then trying to care for them afterwards...then see you really cared to be upgraded or not. --smh

SeaHawg

At some point the supervisor or the supe's boss would have a card. I would be persistent haha!

wolf72

Isn't it standard OP for all strollers to be dropped off at the aircraft door area for the ground crews to load into the cargo hold? Never heard of strollers being allowed into a cabin.

She has two babies..could none of the ground staff or FA's assisted her from the gate to her seat? This is a norm in asian countries and in europe. Not sure if america does the same or mistreats it's passengers as per normal with a i don't care attitude.

reamworks

Airplaines are crowded. I fly at least once a week and I probably get wacked by crew or pax about once a month. Only an insane person would think it's intentional We say excuse me and move on.

But next time I'm on American, I'm going to try crying to get an upgrade!

james dean

wanted: pax for upgrade...those with intelligence need not apply

Time traveller

LOL, this happens all the time on planes where people are seated in the aisle seats early and other passengers whiles walking by wacks seated passengers with their bags they are slinging 360 degrees while looking at their phones, seat numbers and trying to talk to their co-travelers all at the same time!

ashill

Standard operating procedure is for strollers that don't collapse down small enough to be a legal carry-on (ie most strollers) to be gate checked. But there are strollers that are small enough to fit in the bag sizer as well as the overhead bin and thus be legal carryons that do not need to be gate checked. There hasn't been a clear statement one way or the other in this particular case, but there are some indications in the eyewitness reports on social media that this stroller was one of the very small ones.

That is certainly not the norm in the US. I have a toddler and have never been offered assistance getting to the seat (although I wouldn't take it). I never encountered it in travels with the baby/toddler in Australia or Europe either, though most of the time we've had two parents and one baby, which is obviously a heck of a lot easier than one parent and two babies.

ashill

Um, yes, that happens all the time, but the reports are very clear that that is not what happened in this case. What every report I've seen agrees on is that the FA grabbed the stroller out of the woman's hand and, in the process, hit her rather violently (if probably accidentally) in the face, just missing one of the babies. Accidentally whacking someone as you walk by in a crowded plane is very different than accidentally whacking someone in the process of deliberately grabbing a heavy item out of her hands.

(Whether she bore some responsibility for the confrontation is another question.)

Kevin AA

Granted, the F passenger could have said something to the male FA that didn't invite a fight, the problem is that it's tough to think everything through on such short notice. Us keyboard warriors have a lot more time to think it through.

The best thing for the F passenger to say was "I'm reporting you for assault! What it your name?" and then follow through. There is absolutely no reason for a flight attendant to remain on that flight with such a horrible attitude towards people.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but at least AA did the right thing, unlike UA where SOP is that the employees are always right and the customers are always wrong.

Segments

+1

FlyerTom111

That FA was a douche. The pilot was too passive. He should have kicked the FA off the flight.

The first class passenger was clearly upset at what happened but his reaction was entirely wrong also. I could understand if that was his wife, but he was only making the situation worse and more traumatic for the woman. He is lucky he didn't get kicked off the flight either.

As for the FA, not sure what happens to him. He will probably lose his job over it, but I believe in giving people second chances. If he has a clean record, they should give him some retraining and a warning. He likely won't screw up again. It would have been better off for him to get someone else to back him up and tell them woman the person who said she could bring the stroller down the jet bridge didn't mean on the airline. The woman was clearly overwhelmed and some kindness and gentle gloves would have helped her understand the situation better. Him ripping it out of her hands was clearly not the best thing to do.

The pilot needed to take charge and didn't. Perhaps he thought the situation was under control but it almost spun out of control with that passenger talking smack and then the FA telling him to go ahead and hit him. 2 wrongs don't make a right. 3 wrongs definitely don't make a right.

I think AA handled the situation very well. It was 180 degrees different than how UA handled it, but it was also a different situation. They didn't have the police knock a customer out and drag him off the plane. They also tried to take care of the woman as best they could given the circumstances at the time.

Another thing that would have made this much easier was for the woman to board when they asked for people who need extra time and assistance and those with very young children. She didn't board during that time and I'm not sure why. Was she late and in a hurry and already overwhelmed at the time?

wolf72

Understand. A general rule that all strollers must be deposited either upon check in or at the aircraft door and they are then sent down to the cargo section of the aircraft would appear to be more logical. No strollers in the cabin.

A lady with 2 babies...surely some common sense would kick in and for someone to assist her with the pram/stroller being packed up and passed to the ground crew who are handling loading of bags so the passenger can enter the aircraft with 2 babies.

Don't quite know how this escalated or why it escalated but...given the history of how arrogant american FA's are and the serious attitude problems with staff of airliners in America, I am not surprised.

able

There is no FA base in SFO. The CA can't "kick a flight attendant off" He/she can only ask that he be replaced and if there is not one available the only thing the pilot could do would be to refuse to work the flight, thereby cancelling said flight.

What should he have done to "take charge"? He touched the flight attendant which is enough to get him in serious trouble at American. He has responsibility but very little real authority while still at the gate.

I am not sure they did. If this woman was equally responsible for instigating this mess rewarding her will lead to more of this.

Wait, it's already started;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ocial-facebook

wolf72

I actually disagreed with the passenger (the male passenger who stood up to confront the male FA) making the threat to the FA. You can't do that. Regardless of what has transpired.

What he should have done was go to the other FA's and stated he wanted to file a complaint against the male FA and to be polite about it and not to get heated or angry. It just caused the situation to escalate.

The captain was utterly useless in diffusing the situation. His plane. His rules. He should have stepped in and told both sides to calm down and taken charge of the situation. It again, would probably not have escalated if there was someone there who showed some leadership and some sensible actions and got everyone to back down/calm down and to separate both parties.

1) Get the lady with the babies seated. Get her some water and someone to listen to her complaint and to get her calm.

2) Get the male FA outside the door and to get someone to talk to him and to find out what happened.

The captain to get on to all passengers to re-assure them everything is okey and it was a small misunderstanding that got bigger than it should have and that it has been resolved and they would be pushing back shortly.

josmul123

Is this Spirit Airlines? It's not clear from the video.