How much power does this FA (nonrev) have?
 

Today I had an incident in the terminal at RIC with what I presume is a deadheading FA.

Briefly:

• my wife and I were sitting in the terminal near the gate for our flight, 1918.
• Mrs fdog got up to go to the bathroom.
• Shortly thereafter, a lady in civilian clothes sits in her seat.
• She has to move my wife's rollaboard to sit down.
• <me> "Excuse me, my wife just went to the bathroom, and she was sitting there. That's her luggage."
• <FA> "Oh. Well, she can just sit over there in those other seats, then <points to a bank of seats 20' away>
• <me, with sarcasm> Okay. Thanks for your politeness and consideration."
• <FA stands up, giving me ... eyes> "Here at American Airlines, we don't tolerate hostility of any kind"

I say FA because she had "crew bags and tags", after this she promptly marches over to the GA and has an animated discussion.

Seeing this, I had a sinking feeling. I went over and chatted with the GA, who was very nice, and I encountered nothing but smiles and politeness. Later on, on board, the FA in question walked by my seat, and I saw her eyes flick up to the seat number. The actual on-duty crew was very polite and nice.

It's entirely possible I misinterpreted some, or all, of this, but it seemed pretty clear-cut at the time.

How much juice does this FA really have? Can she get some of my Eagles taken away from my Helix Score, or have the airline drop me as a miscreant?

If I'm to be preemptive, how would I reach out to AA on this?

Help!

All the best, James

"Thanks for your opinion, my wife is sitting here, please move somewhere else." Sounds like a busybody...reminds me of the crew member in Meet the Parents.

"Then YOU can go sit over there in those seats, because this one is taken."

I would doubt she can do anything meaningful to you, but if it bothers you that much, write into AA. They'll know who it was on that flight # if needed.

Nominally I wouldn't be excessively concerned, but the way she rattled off "Here at AA we don't tolerate hostility of any kind" almost sounded like the magic empowerment phrase...

All the best, James

It probably is magical because she used it in the past and got what she wanted because she's a bully in a position of authority (at least within airports/airplanes).

I understand your concern but agree with other here. Zero chance this becomes something important. If she's cunning enough to use this line to get something as minor as a seat in the gate area, she's probably smart enough that she won't want to risk losing the opportunity to use it in the future for more substantial "wins."

If it were me I’d personally inform the GA of the situation and follow it up with an email to CS. Sounds like an unnecessarily combative employee. My understanding is the NRSAs are supposed to be on their best behavior.

It’s definitely worth a few minutes to draft a mean note for American to put in her file, and then never do anything about.

No power whatsoever, in fact, she'd be the one getting in trouble for being rude to fare paying customers while representing the company.

Unfortunately while I work alongside some great people there are some real "pieces of work" who work at the airlines.

Send an email to corporate, not CS.

Key words: "supposed to". Sadly, some NRSAs are incredibly unprofessional and abusive. A couple years ago, I had an off-duty FA traveling with his partner so he took my seat without even waiting for me to arrive... when I did, he rudely pointed me to sit somewhere else and I refused. The guy then told me that seat assignments are subject to change and I reminded him that non-revs can lose their flying benefits for violating rules, including taking the seats of full-fare passengers. He wouldn't stop arguing with me and I lost my patience... went up to the galley and asked the on-duty crew if AA's policies had changed overnight to allow non-revs to steal the seats of CK flyers. The purser wouldn't have it, told the guy to immediately move and wasn't shy to inform him that she would be writing him up. I tried to be classy and just gave him a winner's smile as he moved to the last row of F. His partner didn't say a word to me during the flight and I'm glad he didn't. :)

Can NRSAs see the ticket type and status of passengers on flights they're trying to catch? If so, it was incredibly stupid for this person to pick you when attempting to steal an assigned seat. Many CKs would know the rules, and someone on a paid expensive ticket is likely to complain and also to be a HVC to AA. A CK/HVC is also likely to have contacts within AA who would take this sort of situation seriously.

Too bad the OP didn’t get her name off of her bag somehow. I second an email to CS. This “safety of flight” bullying is getting out of control. AFA is the worst offender.

NRSAs do not have access to any details of the passengers on the flight. The only details they have are number of seats available by cabin and the standby list. On the standby list they can tell who are revenue standbys. The only information given on the standby list would be a persons status and abbreviated name (i.e. LAS/F)

I would write in to corporate instead of CS, as noted above. Her biggest mistake (aside from being inconsiderate) was saying, "Here at American Airines". That gives the impression that AA endorses this behavior of hers. And it isn't that hard for AA to figure out who she was if you provide them with all of the flight information. She was flying NRSA after all.

She represented her employer in a deplorable manner.

Termination.