Gay couple forced to move plane seats to make way for straight couple to sit together
Jul 30, 2018, 10:32 am
#1
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Gay couple forced to move plane seats to make way for straight couple to sit together
"Alaska Airlines says it is investigating a mistake in which a gay couple were told they had to switch seats to make way for a heterosexual couple who wished to sit together.
David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman. He’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay hotspot, The Abbey.
Yesterday, he was flying from New York to Los Angeles. However, what should have been a smooth journey was seriously disrupted when his partner was instructed that he had to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin. It was either that or leave the plane."
To me, this sounds like a simple duplicate seat issue, but the way it was handled onboard is where I think AS is getting itself into hot water...
Link to article which includes statement from Alaska Airlines:
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...ey/#gs.JP931jc
David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman. He’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay hotspot, The Abbey.
Yesterday, he was flying from New York to Los Angeles. However, what should have been a smooth journey was seriously disrupted when his partner was instructed that he had to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin. It was either that or leave the plane."
To me, this sounds like a simple duplicate seat issue, but the way it was handled onboard is where I think AS is getting itself into hot water...
Link to article which includes statement from Alaska Airlines:
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...ey/#gs.JP931jc
Jul 30, 2018, 11:34 am
#3
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"Alaska Airlines says it is investigating a mistake in which a gay couple were told they had to switch seats to make way for a heterosexual couple who wished to sit together.
David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman. He’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay hotspot, The Abbey.
Yesterday, he was flying from New York to Los Angeles. However, what should have been a smooth journey was seriously disrupted when his partner was instructed that he had to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin. It was either that or leave the plane."
To me, this sounds like a simple duplicate seat issue, but the way it was handled onboard is where I think AS is getting itself into hot water...
Link to article which includes statement from Alaska Airlines:
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...ey/#gs.JP931jc
David Cooley is a well-known gay businessman. He’s the founder and CEO of West Hollywood gay hotspot, The Abbey.
Yesterday, he was flying from New York to Los Angeles. However, what should have been a smooth journey was seriously disrupted when his partner was instructed that he had to move from his Premium seat to the main cabin. It was either that or leave the plane."
To me, this sounds like a simple duplicate seat issue, but the way it was handled onboard is where I think AS is getting itself into hot water...
Link to article which includes statement from Alaska Airlines:
https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/...ey/#gs.JP931jc
To me, it depends on how the business responds to my complaint that makes a difference.
That says, there is some missing information. The article indicated AS told it 2 couples were assigned the same seats.
How exactly would this happen unless someone manually overrode the computer. And, if the gay couple had valid boarding passes for the seats, and were able to board using them, why would they be kicked out of their seats?
Jul 30, 2018, 11:39 am
#4
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The Alaska statement confirms dupe seats, and as the CEO of the Abbey, I'd find guest passes to be doubtful. Maybe it came down to an upgrade processor glitch and the other pax had a higher status or fare, although I doubt we'll ever know. I do agree that it comes off as "whiney victims", but it does seem like 2 or 3 minutes of a GA/FA working with solo travelers to do a seat swap with either couple would've avoided this whole mess instead of going the deplane the aircraft route. (which is actually what the couple ended up doing in the end)
Jul 30, 2018, 1:13 pm
#6
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From a closed group:
Definitely not. Story is, one of the gentleman was seated in premium class and the other in the main cabin and they didn't have seats together. Alaska has assigned seating (which you can select to sit near a loved one prior to getting on board). So allegedly the gentleman seated in the main cabin moved himself to the seat next to his loved one in premium class hoping the person actually assigned that seat in premium class wouldn't show up, well the person did and they got upset and left the airplane.
Jul 30, 2018, 1:17 pm
#7
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Jul 30, 2018, 1:27 pm
#8
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As the Alaska/Virgin team members shed light on this, I am wanting to start a boycott against this guy's club.
#bipolarmedsforall
#everyseatmatters
#seatpoacher
#bipolarmedsforall
#everyseatmatters
#seatpoacher
Jul 30, 2018, 1:37 pm
#10
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We’ll likely never know the answer to this, but is it possible the Abbey guy and his companion were on separate reservations?
That might sync up the “closed group” note of originally not sitting together, if premium companion upgrades must be on the same reservation. If different reservations and different last names, the GA who reassigned may have mistakenly assumed they weren’t traveling together.
That might sync up the “closed group” note of originally not sitting together, if premium companion upgrades must be on the same reservation. If different reservations and different last names, the GA who reassigned may have mistakenly assumed they weren’t traveling together.
Jul 30, 2018, 2:12 pm
#11
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Are AS F/As allowed to offer compensation for someone to go from Premium to non-Premium Coach? As a solo traveler I would have happily moved for 20k miles, grudgingly for 10k. Avoiding the delay with someone's baggage being offloaded, etc. would have gotten me to move for free if there were a pair of empty seats in the back, though.
Jul 30, 2018, 2:15 pm
#12
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Offopic and probably OMNI but I must say that many businessman and/or rich people are not like the Kardashians and can be extremely frugal. So any thing is possible.
Who knows what really happened. I think most GAs/FAs are far from homophopic, and what happened was most likely, IMO, a result of something else, not the GA/FA's biases or prejudices (if any).
These things happen not infrequently and to heterosexual couples as well.
Who knows what really happened. I think most GAs/FAs are far from homophopic, and what happened was most likely, IMO, a result of something else, not the GA/FA's biases or prejudices (if any).
These things happen not infrequently and to heterosexual couples as well.
Jul 30, 2018, 2:33 pm
#14
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The Alaska statement confirms dupe seats, and as the CEO of the Abbey, I'd find guest passes to be doubtful. Maybe it came down to an upgrade processor glitch and the other pax had a higher status or fare, although I doubt we'll ever know. I do agree that it comes off as "whiney victims", but it does seem like 2 or 3 minutes of a GA/FA working with solo travelers to do a seat swap with either couple would've avoided this whole mess instead of going the deplane the aircraft route. (which is actually what the couple ended up doing in the end)
Jul 30, 2018, 3:21 pm
#15
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 597
“After my traveling companion and I had been seated in our assigned seats for a while, we were approached by the flight attendant and my companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a couple could sit together."
Could it be that Cooley's partner was bounced from his seat by a Federal Air Marshal? Seems more than possible at this point. There are only eight seats up front, and if Cooley's partner had an aisle seat, that would be my bet.