“You Missed Your Child’s Birth Because You Couldn’t Fly Business Class?”

The FlyerTalk Forum is a pretty big place, so when a particularly good piece of FlyerTalk comes across our desks, we put it on the front page for regular Reports From the Forum. Want to read more? Check out the Reports From the Forum tag, or head to the forum yourself to see what the FlyerTalk is about.

The FlyerTalk forum is full of interesting travel stories. DYKWIA is a state of being, and no one is afraid to get frustrated with a first world problem. But, every once in awhile, we come across a post that’s bound to raise eyebrows. Titled What Compensations Can/Should I Get for My Paid Business Class Seat Given Away, it was a fair question: the poster was late to the gate and was told by the gate agent that they’d given his first-class seat away to someone on the waitlist because they thought that he was a no show:

I booked a flight from Boston to South Korea (via Chicago and Tokyo) a few weeks back. When I arrived at Boston Logan International airport, the flight was delayed. The reason (I was told at the lounge) was that a flight attendant had woken up late and was on her way.

We departed 45 minutes late and arrived around in Chicago 45 minutes late. I, and several other passengers, ran to our next gate. As they scanned my boarding pass, they asked me to go to the counter where they told me my first class seat had been given away because they thought I wasn’t coming. They offered to put me in economy.

A Frustrating Situation and a Frustrating Exchange

And, that’s frustrating. It wasn’t his fault his flight arrived late and the gate agent did not sound very helpful:

I was quite upset considering I paid full fare for a business class ticket and was already checked in to the last two legs of my trip. I asked what my other options were and the lady was quite curt and said they could rebook me two days later or I could take the ecnomy seat.

I asked if there were any other flights that day and she sighed, rolled her eyes and waved to the other worker who closed the door, then handed me back my boarding pass and told me I missed the flight and need to go to the ticketing desk.

We Sort of Get It

When you’ve paid $5,000 for a business class ticket you want to sit in a business class seat. And, it bears mentioning, this leg of his trip was from Chicago to Tokyo which is a little over 13 hours. That is a long time to fly in economy, especially when you planned and paid to be considerably more comfortable. And, as someone else commented, “It is entirely lame that they couldn’t take into account that your inbound, same-ticket flight was in the air and you could conceivably have made the connection, and held off on giving the seat away.”

But, when the poster mentioned that he’d also missed the birth of his daughter because he refused to fly in economy, the eyebrows we mentioned previously went up.

“Hold Up”

Post a thread in the FlyerTalk forums and you’re going to get some follow up questions. “Hold up,” asked one commenter, “you missed the birth of your daughter because you didn’t take the offered economy seat on a flight to which you showed up late (understanding that you were delayed) and you want compensation from American Airlines for delaying you a day?? You should have taken the seat in economy and followed up for compensation later. That’s all I have to offer – it’s your own fault per your story you missed the auspicious occasion.”

More to the Story

No, it is not my fault and you shouldn’t assume. The birth happened while I was in the air from Chicago to Japan and was early due to a medical emergency, so I didn’t know the consequences of missing the flight at the time.

But, the fact remains that if they hadn’t given away my seat, I would have been there on time. They weren’t forthcoming with any information at the gate, saying they didn’t know if I would get refunded (fully or partially) if I flew in economy, and saying the desk would rebook me on a later flight if I wanted.

When I was asking what “later flight” meant, they closed the doors and told me to go to the desk since I’d missed the flight and the next time this flight left was in 2 days.

Lastly, I am quite tall and have lots of metal hardware in my body from a major car accident years prior, so sitting in an economy seat for 14 hours would literally have been excruciating and I doubt I could have done it. That’s why I planned ahead, saved up and paid for a business class seat, and made sure to arrive at the airport plenty early for my flight…

Is He Due Compensation?

I’ve seen a number of stories in the FlyerTalk forums where passengers have showed up for their flights before the boarding door closes and while other passengers are still being loaded only to find their reserved business class seat has already been given away to another passenger. Why would American Airlines do this and not wait until boarding has concluded to give away those seats?