We´ve had two posters on the AA forum in the last week that have posted tales of woe and disappeared, too (one about his account being locked). Saves them from answering any followup questions when some posters may have questions (like the one I asked about how frequently he asks FA´s about compensation).

Tom in Buenos Aires

Why our esteemed president used similar langauge when addressing the press while in public, and our esteemed vice president when speaking to another member of congress. As they are members of the party that promotes family values, clearly this type of behavior is perfectly acceptable, if not encouraged. So don't try to impose your family's values on the rest of us. I'm with the president and vice president on this one! However, in all honestly, I don't know if these events occurred in Virginia or in the District of Columbia.

Stay the curse!

i'm glad i'm not the only one who had this thought!

You may consider the President and Vice-President to be role models, others might disagree. At least 1 flight attendant for example.

"The Party that promotes family values". Yeah, right .

Why would OP post again? 10 pages of comments with almost 9 pages harshly criticizing the OP.

Why do some FAs see all passengers as a threat Yes, 9/11 happened but that doesn't mean passengers on planes are any more likely post 9/11 to be nefarious, evil-doers. In truth, with all the added security, planes should be safer than before 9/10/01. And really, is a terrorist going to swear about a gate delay?

Why hasn't anybody complained on this thread about the waste of taxpayer dollars for the cops?

Methinks AA needs to train its FAs and pilots on how to deal with overcrowded flights and delays so that passengers don't become irate. A little customer service and crowd control training. . .

OTOH, I have had good FAs and pilots on most of my last few sitting on the plane but going nowhere AA flights. The pilot kept us informed with regular announcements and the FAs had a good sense of humor.

That's the part I just don't get. Everyone is focusing on the OPs mistake, yet the vast majority of those same people seem to put no blame on the FA. Why is that? I can only guess, but maybe they don't think that FA's have any responsibility to react accordingly.

The airlines and TSA are all about making examples of frustrated and, in this case, inappropriately behaving pax, but the same can't be said in reverse.

The old motto that the customer is always right is unknown in the commercial air travel sector these days.

Anyone can play the "this is not the entire story". The OP didn't tell us if they were wearing a black shirt or a green shirt. And we don't know if the FA and pilot dislike green shirts or not or had too much sugar in their coffee or not.

There really need not be much more that is relevant to the situation than what can be discerned in the OP. Some FAs and captains really go off the wall when a passenger makes a comment that the FA and captain don't like. That some threaten passengers because of harmless statements or even carry out on their threats because of an essentially harmless statement does not shock me. I've seen it happen and so have prosecutors who decided the matter is not worth pursuing even as flight crews got the police involved and arrests were made.

I wouldn't always or necessarily make something of someone being some kind of one-time poster. When people are frustrated or disappointed in a situation they complain where they can and sometimes disappear permanently or for a long time after "getting it out". This is sort of to be expected, just like complaint letters seem to be escalated by customers more than letters of compliment.

The motivation is not always to avoid answering follow questions, although sometimes it may be.

Sometimes, for some people at least, it's really not worth engaging in a back and forth with parties whose opinion is either set in stone or will require so much engagement to change that it's really not considered worthwhile to continue participating.

I think you've taken it a bit out of context there. This has nothing to do with 9/11. Just because someone is arrested doesn't mean the flight attendant thinks their a terrorist. It can be for a range of reasons (trivial as some of them may be) such as being abusive, drunk, etc. The FA in this situation - in her view thought the OP was being unruly and warranted a police escort. I'm sure the thought of him being a terrorist didn't even cross her mind given that the flight had landed anyway.

Because there wasn't any. The cops are on duty anyway, the only complaint would be they had to leave the donut stand.

Actually, I do think 9/11 has a hand in this. Prior to that date, FA's and crews were not as quick to punish a passenger. A climate of constant fear and supposed constant vigilance by FA's and crew has given far too many of them itchy trigger fingers.

It's as if they're thinking, "We have to worry about terrorism and more security threats, so we're not going to put up with someone with a bad attitude."

When while making a complaint you use obscene language, you immediately give the person you're complaining to an excuse to shift the focus of the situation from what you are complaining about to your language. You might as well say, "Now let's stop talking about my concerns and instead talk about my language." It's a tactical mistake which will guarantee that you've lost the argument right there.

Not to change the subject but FWIW Dulles is in Virginia, National is not, so VA laws are not exactly relevant here.....

DCA is most certainly within the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A long time ago, that land was not. It is now.