Dr. HFH

He didn't give up any rights to a lawsuit (regardless of whether civil or criminal); but he seriously compromised his ability to prevail in same.


Fuggedaboutit. Ain't gonna happen. Without evidence (witnesses, photographs, video, etc.), your friend stands just as good a chance of having a note put into his record along the lines of, "This nut accused someone of elbowing him on a flight, provided no evidence, and declined offers of assistance from flight/cabin crew."


What makes you think that he has done this to others? You have zero evidence of same. And, even if you did, this instance would be irrelevant to those. There are very few situations in which one can use evidence of habit; and this isn't one of them.


And why would AA do this? Your friend declined and/or did not seek assistance at the time. AA is not going to release any information without legal process requiring same. If I contacted AA about my flight a couple of weeks ago, alleged a similar incident and demanded the identity of the person is seat 37X, you don't really think that I would receive it, do you?


Your friend of course has the right to make such a report. Absent more evidence than you've provided here, I can't see it going anywhere.


Are you an attorney? Ever tried to obtain such a court order? AA's lawyer in court opposing such an order: "Your honor, the plaintiff/complainant declined all offers of assistance at the time of the alleged incident, failed to make any police report upon arrival at the conclusion of the flight, and now seeks private identity information about another passenger several months after this alleged incident. Plaintiff/complainant claims a minor injury, but did not request medical assistance at the conclusion of the flight; nor did he seek medical assistance thereafter for the alleged injury."


As I said above, he can file whatever charges he likes; but whether or not they are taken seriously and actually go somewhere is a different matter.

LondonElite

CloudCoder

Now that the "case" has been fully "tried" in the Court Of Flyertalk ...

Why not let the experts handle it? We become experts through experience. OP's friend has lived 80+ years and this is the first time he experienced something like this. But AA probably hears about several of these incidents per month. Why not let AA decide how to handle it?

First, let's all agree that it would have been better to write up the incident at the moment in happened. But let's also agree that this did not happen. So there's no real need to keep mentioning that we shoulda woulda coulda. The question is, what do we do NOW?

If it were me, I'd take the OP's excellent Original Post, have the friend rewrite it into the first person, and send it to AA customer relations. Then let the experts (i.e. those who have lots of experience in matters like this) worry about the next step.

And for those who would immediately sue a stranger for bumping into them on an airplane, or (my favorite) hire someone to beat them up ... that attitude is a very large part of what's wrong with the world today. The elbowing could have been accidental. Indeed, a sincere apology, back when it happened, would have made this entire incident go away. Let's all try to be quicker to apologize and slower to sue people or beat them up.

arollins

This is the best advise given. Thanks for bringing it up. To the OP, good luck with your friend and speedy recovery, hopefully this incident will not discourage him on his future travels.

eastmanrg

Sending it to AA customer relations might net the OP 15000 bonus miles!

enpremiere

Post of the day right there!

donotblink

I'm guessing all the traveler will get is something like this in response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for choosing to fly American Airlines. We strive to make a safe and comfortable environment for all of our passengers. We're sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience on your flight flying to (insert city name here). We hope that you'll give us another chance and to see you on another American Airlines flight soon.

Regards,
Person who can type at 200 words per minute
American Airlines Customer Relations

Orange County Commuter

As someone who has dealt the "allegations" of abuse.

Your photo is worth absolutely nothing. The FBI, the local cops, AA etc are going to look at it and say "gee what a great photo" . But the photo provides no proof that your friend received it the way you claimed (or to be honest that it's even from the "victim", we all know about photo shop) There's no way to tie the photo to the "assault" you claim occurred. Your grand allegations of what you can get accomplished are just that "allegations" and will go as far as getting AA to respond "we are sorry" The authorities have real crimes to deal with, this won't even raise an eyebrow due to the failure to have good documentation (No, the authorities are not going to subpoena everyone in business to be a witness to this story) Even if my some miracle your friend gets this guys name his response is going to be either (A) I never touched that old man or (B) the old man shoved me out of the way

Your friend missed his only real opportunity to complain effectively. He might write AA but... at this point you need to move on. You have not shown that you really have any "role" in this besides "official person in charging of stirring things up".

And the title of this is truly misleading. You don't want advice unless it agrees with what you have already decided to do.

BeatCal

As Orange County said:: your friend blew it. "The bully" will now respond that it was your friend to pushed him and he only protected himself and blocked the attack.

mvoight

But, OP says payment is not wanted

Morgacj2004

My advice stay out of it. If anyone is going to pursue this it must be the alleged victim. You have no standing. Let it go

LINDEGR

Well, I am going to suggest something that I am surprised nobody else has thus far; Please be assured that I promise that don't mean any ill-will. With your friend's age, is it possible we are seeing the first signs of dementia? The sense of persecution and the irrational fear of being stranded in a foreign country seem odd to me. If he's so rich, he'd just replace the cancelled AA flight (which would have never happened) with a new one. After all, he is a seasoned traveler. Instead of your friend taking action (legal or otherwise), I'd politely but firmly suggest to him that he see a doctor for the bruise and perhaps a full check-up.

dgcpaphd

That is quite a fictional theory you created and posted to this forum.

You brought up your theory without accurately reading the facts that I presented in this thread. Instead, without any basis, you suggested that my friend is senile and should see a doctor.

Incredible!

You do not know my friend. I do. He is not senile.

In my post, I wrote that he still works part-time. He does not have to work. His clientele continue to encourage him from total retirement. He still has upper class clients who can afford to hire anyone they choose. They choose to retain my friend.

Do you regard all senior citizens as senile merely because they are old and get assaulted on an airplane?

Based on your use of selected pieces of information posted to this thread, you rewrote what was written and discounted my friend as senile.

Clint Eastwood is age 88 years old. He still writes and directs movies - does he fit your classification of senile?

Angela Lansbury is age 92 - She still does cameo roles. Does she fit your classification of senility?

I could list countless numbers of productive old people but I think you would not be swayed with facts.

You wrote that my friend has a - "sense of persecution and the irrational fear of being stranded in a foreign country - "

Where in the world did you get that? He was not persecuted and I never said he was.

Clearly, based on what was presented, he was intentionally elbowed by a bully on his flight as he tried to pass the bully in the aisle. You defined this incident as persecution?

Most people will agree it is an illogical leap to say he has a "sense of persecution" over the real life event of getting elbowed on an aircraft.

My friend did not want the inconvenience if AA canceled his return flight. My friend thought of this possibility after the flight attendant approached the bully and the bully began shouting denials over what he did to my friend.

My friend was concerned if he got involved in the bully's shouting, he and the bully could be removed from the flight and his return ticket could be canceled. I find that a very logical concern.

If you read travel blogs, there are countless reported instances of passengers being removed and/or denied boarding over disturbances aboard aircraft.

You further wrote that my friend would feel "stranded."

That is also false.

No, my friend would not be stranded. He would be inconvenienced if AA decided to cancel his return flight over the disturbance of the loud shouting by the bully.

However, my friend would simply purchase a ticket on another airline, if needed.

He would not be stranded. My goodness, your imagination is out of control.

A lot of good advice was posted here. Also many not-so-good responses were posted. Your response is insulting and is pure fiction not previously shown in any post.

When you began your post you wrote "Well, I am going to suggest something that I am surprised nobody else has thus far."

The reason no body else suggested your theory is because is contradicts logic and is contrary with the facts presented in this thread.

Uncle Nonny

Thread has run it's course.

dgcpaphd

I agree totally - thank you for the logical conclusion