Hi Everyone,

First, thank you all for your comments on this topic. I want you to know I did seriously consider all of you comments in making my final decision.

In the end, I have decided to write and alert AA to this situation. In my note, I am going to state that I do NOT want any compensation for this issue. Rather, I want AA to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure that passenger safety is not at risk moving forward.

The funny thing is that those who tried to justify the FA’s actions are actually the ones who helped push me to decide to write to AA Management. As I read your arguments justifying this behavior, I quickly determined that I did not agree with any of them.

I am not saying there were not extenuating circumstances in play here. What I am saying, however, is that the validity of the circumstances are not for me (or us) to decide. Rather, AA should conduct an investigation on this matter. If this individual was truly ill or had other personal issues that prevented him from doing his job, I trust AA will ‘do the right thing’ and give the FA some consideration. On the other hand, I hope disciplinary action occurs if the FA was simply not doing his job because he did not want to.

As I have stated previously, I spent the early years of my career managing hotels and fielding guest complaints. In this role, I did not take guest complaints about associates at face value. Instead, I would investigate each complaint and determine their validity. An associate was never terminated by a single complaint. But, discipline, up to and including termination, did occur when there was a trend of complaints regarding the associate's performance. I’m going to trust AA will handle this situation with the same decorum that I did.

Thanks again for your feedback, and I hope I do not get flamed too badly!! If I do, I hope others will come to my defense.