MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

A few years back I was flying DFW/MIA. I remember the flight because I received a $500 voucher for downgrading from F to Y. I'm in like row 13 and there's a woman seated in a bulkhead. I got the story later from people sitting in that row as we were both waiting for an Uber outside. Apparently the women in the bulkhead had her purse at her foot and the FA came by and yelled at her to put her purse up into the overhead. The woman then told the FA should would comply if asked in a more congenial way. At that point the FA yelled your off my flight. The woman refused to budge. The GA was summoned and told the woman she had to go. She refused. Interestingly the Captain never came back. Ultimately the airport police came onboard and told the woman she either leaves voluntarily or she will be forcibly taken off the a/c and arrested. She then relented and was offload. The entire ordeal took a good 30 minutes.

FlyerWx

It's interesting that AA commented this, according to the article.
Good on AA, I'm sure they want to get the story straight and do what's needed to the FA.

davie355

JonNYC

Making them aware of it (which happened when AA saw it on my Twitter on Monday,) was the easy part.

The rest, "do what's needed to the FA" -- I think that very much remains to be seen.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

The issue is that it can turn into a he said/she said. The FA if questioned could say the passenger became hostile (asking why). While the Captain took the pax's side he specifically did not witness the exchange. The article/story doesn't say where the other FA was stationed at the time (what did he witness?). I'm not a lawyer but how much wiggle room can Mesa have other than a warning and note in the employee file. Assuming nothing else has surfaced previously for this FA.

Eastbay1K

That is all well and good, but sometimes you need to get where you're going. "Sorry, boss, I just cost the company a cool $M because I asked for a PDB and the FA gave me an attitude and had the captain toss me off the flight." You just never know where things are going to go. You never know if the FA and Captain shtooped during their (no pun intended) layover before your flight. You never know if the Captain hates men wearing way-too-long red ties, and you happen to be wearing one. You don't expect that when you hand an FA your used newspapers and ask if she could please take them away (another airline, on a long haul flight) that the FA will take them and slam them back down on your footrest and walk away. Most often, in the current state of affairs, it is best to just write it up after the flight. Even (and especially) with made up rules du jour, once they're made up, and you don't follow them, you're interfering with a crewmember instruction.

davie355

What about the safety issue created by an attitudinal FA in flight?

Remember that "safety" isn't just about yelling at pax not to grab overhead bags in an emergency landing. That I'm sure even the most enraged FA could still do, because it involves yelling.

Safety's also about watching for signs of child trafficking and all sorts of other things that FAs are trained and expected to be aware of. OP's FA's attitude would have clouded judgment and reduced her awareness of this sort of safety issue.

VegasGambler

1. If your flight not getting there will cost $1M... you should really be on an earlier flight. Flights get canceled all the time.

2. I'm not important enough to cost anyone $1M if I'm not somewhere.

Out of principle, I simply will not let someone treat me that way, particularly an employee of a company that I'm paying for a service. I can assure you that I've never been arrested, despite refusing to let people treat me like dirt. There is no law (not even in airports) that says that you have to let people treat you this way. Standing up for yourself is not a crime, and you will not be arrested. Claims to the contrary are FUD.

iadisgreat

It will be some sort of internal discipline and no one will be fired. I had a (gay male) FA find me (a gay male) on Facebook and sexually harass me on messenger during a flight - all I got was an apology call from someone two weeks later after I complained on Twitter even though I spoke with the station manager of the hub I arrived in immediately after the flight.

The offender still works for AA and is also an elected official in MA. I'm not an easily scared person or against being hit on, but violating my privacy in a situation where I can't leave is unsettling - if I ever see this FA again on one of my flights I will refuse to board until he's removed or they rebook me and pay for any associated costs.

davie355

This is a good principle, but personality can't be helped. Some (a lot) of people simply don't have it in them to stand up to others the way you do.

For those people, faking or forcing the behaviors you espouse may get them into hot water (even if it wouldn't get you in hot water).

I "let" people treat me however they wish; I've never "let" people get away with treating me poorly. That could take the form of giving a low rating, submitting a dispassionate and factual complaint to the employer, or improving my educational credentials and professional skills to attain a higher income so my own sense of worth increases and thus I give less of a damn about how the dimwitted lower class schmucks treat me.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

VegasGambler

Ok, just keep taking it i guess!

If you are equating a branch of the federal government with a private company you are very, very confused.

jn in ca

As I have written on FT before, covering up a name tag should be an automatic firing offense. I don't need to know the rest of this story. No one covers up their name tag because they are doing the right thing. When she covered up her name tag, we know she knew what she was doing and she should be fired. Any airline that will not do that is simply not taking employee abuse seriously.

bocastephen

Checking back in - has the OP filed the reports with the ASR/NASA service and the DOT? Don't wait for AA to "proactively" handle this their own way.

iadisgreat

I don't think NASA cares.