Action against unprincipled passenger?

Old Jul 28, 2018, 6:42 pm
  #61  
 
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AA should address the FA who facilitated the move. Don’t care if it was a CK regular ... FA was so wrong to downgrade a paid pax to pacify another pax. Sounds like that will happen due to the miles and reimbursement already noted.

Yes, the CK was a DYKWIA (or worse). But in his defense he may of thought they were UMs placed there by the crew, and if someone was going to get an operational upgrade why not his family? FA could have / should have straightened out that mis-perception.

Kids are evidently too too immature to travel alone and this was a good lesson for them and their parents. While they might have been taught to respect elders and people in authority, neither one thought to notify their parents they had been moved. Letting them be in a separate cabin was a good learning experience but I wouldn’t be letting them travel alone anytime soon. And parents transiting cabins with food says they aren’t necessarily equipped to be role models on travel etiquette and norms.

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Old Jul 28, 2018, 7:00 pm
  #62  
 
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In other threads many advocate it is always OK to ask people to change seats for your own benefit and think it is just fine take advantage of nice but inexperienced flyers when they do.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 7:18 pm
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by Ldnn1
I'm curious though, why did they agree to move? Presumably the guy must have made out as if there was some benefit in it for them, perhaps a row of 3 to themselves with spare middle instead of seatmates in Premium?
If you’re a teen and a pompous adult tells you to do something...often you do it.

The Concierge Key guy is a despicable person, and I’d tell him so, but nothing more to be done here.

I also question parents who travel in a higher class of service than their children. I don’t like that, either.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 7:41 pm
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by lobo411
Well, you're free to play it as you see it. As general advice, though...it's bad practice to let yourself be punked.
I appreciate your concern but the thread is about an adult "punking" children... Complaining about every "punking" incident by AA is not going to get you anything. Complaining to an airline about being "punked" by another customer, even less. Unfortunately, OP's friend is about to realize if this if they pursue this...
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 7:44 pm
  #65  
 
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Originally Posted by NYCommuter


If you’re a teen and a pompous adult tells you to do something...often you do it.

The Concierge Key guy is a despicable person, and I’d tell him so, but nothing more to be done here.

I also question parents who travel in a higher class of service than their children. I don’t like that, either.
Bingo! On all three points.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 8:00 pm
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Originally Posted by NYCommuter
The Concierge Key guy is a despicable person, and I’d tell him so [...]
What's the benefit of doing so? It's not as if the guy will say, "You know what, you are right, I am despicable." The guy is going to get defensive and you may have just started a confrontation.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 8:52 pm
  #67  
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Originally Posted by davie355
What's the benefit of doing so? It's not as if the guy will say, "You know what, you are right, I am despicable." The guy is going to get defensive and you may have just started a confrontation.
these jackasses (this person and people who act like this - not all CK obviously) have to be called out and put in their place.....usually once they are they sit down and shut up.
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Last edited by AANYC1981; Jul 28, 2018 at 9:12 pm
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 9:46 pm
  #68  
 
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Originally Posted by Segments
Kids are evidently too too immature to travel alone and this was a good lesson for them and their parents. While they might have been taught to respect elders and people in authority, neither one thought to notify their parents they had been moved. Letting them be in a separate cabin was a good learning experience but I wouldn’t be letting them travel alone anytime soon. And parents transiting cabins with food says they aren’t necessarily equipped to be role models on travel etiquette and norms.
This seems like a wild stretch on both counts.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 10:04 pm
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by NeedstoFly
Interesting thing about this story is that at age 16, the kid is not just viewed as an adult by airlines but adult enough to supervise a 14 yr old.

Agree the seat poacher was a <redacted> and it's bad if the FA, who helped the kids move, didn't point out to the kids that they were getting inferior seats.
Of course, there is this rule from AA's T&C's:

Age rangeRestrictions
0-5Children under 5 years of age may not travel alone under any circumstances.
5-7Can only travel on nonstop or direct flights.
8-14Can travel on any nonstop or direct flight, or any connecting flight through Charlotte, NC (CLT), Washington Reagan, D.C. (DCA), Dallas Forth Worth, TX (DFW), New York, NY (JFK and LGA), Los Angeles, CA (LAX), Miami, FL (MIA), Chicago, IL (ORD), Philadelphia, PA (PHL) and Phoenix, AZ (PHX).
15-17Children in this age range don’t have to use the unaccompanied minor service, but it’s still available to them. When traveling alone,
children 16 years of age and older can book online, to book children 15 years of age, you’ll need to call Reservations.Note:
Children 2-14 years old can travel as an 'accompanied minor' with someone 16 years or older.
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Last edited by JDiver; Jul 28, 2018 at 10:56 pm Reason: Redacted previously deleted post content
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 10:58 pm
  #70  
 
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Originally Posted by NYCommuter


If you’re a teen and a pompous adult tells you to do something...often you do it.

The Concierge Key guy is a despicable person, and I’d tell him so, but nothing more to be done here.

I also question parents who travel in a higher class of service than their children. I don’t like that, either.
Obviously, to each their own, but I do not see why, at ages 16 & 14, that this should be a big deal. It's not like they were 8 & 10. At 16 & 14, they are more than able-bodied to take care of themselves for 10 hours, much of which will probably be spent sleeping. They have access to bathrooms, free food & drink, and don't have to cook. There are a multitude of possible reasons that the parents booked two different classes. No shame in the parents taking the more comfortable ride. Teenagers can pretty much sleep anywhere, are most likely smaller than the parents and can be just as comfortable in a smaller seat, and will probably just watch movies while they are not sleeping. It's not like the parents stuck them in Y, which I still would have no problem with, and feel all of my points above would still apply. If I were one of the teens, I would consider myself lucky to have had my parents spring for a PE seat for me.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 11:16 pm
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Originally Posted by NYCommuter
I also question parents who travel in a higher class of service than their children I don’t like that, either.
Yes , almost as bad as those parents who drive Porsches and then buy their teen a Toyota, or worse eat Caviar but only allow their children lobster . Child Services should get involved.

Last edited by 3544quebec; Jul 29, 2018 at 4:09 am
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 11:18 pm
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by Segments
FA was so wrong to downgrade a paid pax to pacify another pax.
But passengers often agree to this. I once had a guy come from business class back to our economy row and say "Will someone take my business class seat so I can sit back here with my colleague/girlfriend?" Also, we have whole threads devoted to seat swaps where, believe it or not, people do ask other (adult) passengers seated in one class to downgrade "could you move back to economy so I can sit up here with my wife"

The problem here is that the OP's friends thought that the kids were old enough and responsible enough to sit alone but then freaked out when they made an adult-type (bad) decision to give up their seats for someone else.
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Old Jul 28, 2018, 11:34 pm
  #73  
 
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Also, it sounds to me like the CK was in PE and the two kids were next to him and he asked them to swap with his wife and kid in the back? It's very possible (likely?) that he would have asked anyone, adult or kid, seated next to him to swap, and he just got lucky being seated next to a couple of gullible kids who were more likely than adults to agree to the swap. I don't think it's fair to suggest that he specifically targeted the kids for chicanery.
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Old Jul 29, 2018, 1:35 am
  #74  
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Originally Posted by Segments
AA should address the FA who facilitated the move. Don’t care if it was a CK regular ... FA was so wrong to downgrade a paid pax to pacify another pax. Sounds like that will happen due to the miles and reimbursement already noted.
I missed how the FA is at fault. The FA didn't know whether or not they knew each other. The FA didn't downgrade the kids, they were asked by the passenger if they would swap
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Old Jul 29, 2018, 4:12 am
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by 3544quebec
Yes , almost as bad as those parents who drive Porsches and then buy their teen a Toyota, or worse eat Caviar but only allow their children lobster . Child Services should get involved.
No need for sarcasm. My family wouldn’t put children in a lower class of service, and I wouldn’t put a family member (older or younger) in a lower class of service. Based on responses to this point, clearly some people find children in a lower class of service offensive, and some people do not. There’s no unanimous view on this point, which is fine.
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