Neil791

While i agree with your summary of events, sadly in my experience and i'm sure the vast majority on this board who are viewing things through the lens of experienced travelers across a wide range of carriers, this sort of 'maturity' does not appear to exist when it comes to Rouge FA's. Sure they've gotten 'better' in comparison to when they first launched with their energetic FA's straight out of the Mickey Mouse training centre but i can't say by how much and the comments made about the bilingualism of the same is questionable at best too but that's an entirely different topic.

We will never know the entire story unless we were there physically to witness it and even then people have a tendency to put their own perspective on things so suffice it to say the truth is out there, but we'll likely never come to know it. It seems to me though that the entire situation (based on the account given by the pax on Reddit) was blown out of proportion by an otherwise inexperienced FA who believed their only course of action in dealing with a seemingly innocuous issue was to kick them off the plane and subsequently ban them? I'd like to think that for that result to occur there would have to be a much greater 'threat' than a game of musical chairs, but then again as has been said the passenger is guilty until proven innocent when dealing with the word of a FA but i still don't know why the SD (or I/C) was not called to assist if the issue was such that it required people to be removed from the plane?
I agree as well with the comments about cell phone cameras as in this day and age everyone has one and they're quick to pull them out for the most mundane and ridiculous event so if this were such a big drama where is the video evidence to prove / disprove??

JustSomeGuy1978

From her quoted reddit post:
Bolding mine.
Mom was in row 28 daughter was in row 36. That's 8 rows, not too far for a conspicuous wave to alert mom that daughter had moved. If really concerned that mom would flip on not finding daughter where she left her a note left in mom's seat could work as well. There are lavatories right in front of row 28, not far away and mom would have to PASS daughter on her way back to her seat if she used the rear lavatory. There was no need to wait around for mom to return.

MSPeconomist

RangerNS

Daughter might have been entirely ignorant of the concept of "assigned seat". That ignorance was burst when a PAX tried to lay claim to their assigned seat.

From that instant on she went from ignorant/tied/ditzy/new to non-compliant.

​​​​​​I'd have sympathy is she got kicked off for arguing with another PAX for the seat her BP said was hers.

Rereading her words, she admires to wanting to strategize with mom about where to sit once she was caught. She would have been further back (closer to the lav (assuming mom did not use the J lav)) and mom would have had to pass by returning. No need for notes.

Unclear if mom further escalated things, but it would be difficult to read a problem PAX being directed to her proper seat actually going to the LAV as anything but an effort at recruiting reenforcements.
​​​​​​
It's a small confined space and a big ocean with no cops to be found.

Lifetime ban is heavy handed, but I don't want to fly with PAX like that.

DrunkCargo

Some public data (I'm sure AC has more accurate data, and more history to search, but reaching back 2 months I see a "possible pattern"):
Jun 17 - inbound arrived on time, 95 minutes late departing
Jul 29 - inbound arrived 5 minutes early, 60 minutes late departing
Jul 31 - inbound arrived on time, 90 minutes late departing (the date the two pax claim they were denied flight)
Aug 2 - inbound arrived 25 minutes early, 120 minutes late departing

I will leave interpretation to the experts here.

Error 601

Talking to a friend last night I am wondering about how a charge-back would go in this situation, she said that she has done two successful charge-backs after being refused service.

One against a vacation rental that claimed she lied about the number of adults who would be staying in the condo (she claims they didn't ask) and another against a vendor that claimed she had "cancelled" when her wedding venue changed to another location ten miles away on the very same date.

MSPeconomist

RangerNS

A random vacation cottage doesn't have hundreds of pages of tarifs, thousands of pages of treaties and regulations, teams of lawyers on staff, or the millions a day in spend that Air Canada does.

JustSomeGuy1978

Sorry I was posting from my mobile and did not want to fiddle with the quote function of the forum. I was referring to the Reddit post linked where daughter did not want to leave her seat without first notifying mom about her change. My point was there are ways to communicate with mom without waiting for her return. I will edit my post to make the context more clear

ffsim

I suspect we all fly with "PAX like that" more often than we know. And they don't get lifetime bans because the vast majority of FAs know how to handle simple seat assignment / occupation conflicts.

Fiordland

One way would be to tell the daughter , "You can trade seats with your mom, have a seat, when she gets back we will sort out the rest of this."

MSPeconomist

JustSomeGuy1978

Per her version of the events. She also was the only calm one in the interaction, French businessman got agitated, FA got agitated, but according to her she was calm cool and collected the whole time. Yet the plane left without her and her mom

canadiancow

No part of your post is contradictory or surprising in the context of AC employees.

Your argument is that they were kicked off, therefore they must have deserved it. If we're going to accept that, might as well just close the thread.

MSPeconomist