My wife was flying my 91yo FIL to our house to stay and he had an F ticket. NW let her move up front, which I appreciatied.

Off topic because she did not "sneak" but I wanted to mention it. Thanks NW!

On a NWA flight MSP-DTW last year I was the last passenger aboard and found an older businessman type sitting in my assigned First Class seat. I pointed it out to the FA who asked him for his boarding pass but when he said it was buried in his bag in the overhead bin, she took his word for it and sent me packing to any empty seat in coach.

After the beverage service, I approached the lead FA who went up to the gentleman again and made him dig out the boarding pass which unsurprisingly showed him as being in a seat in coach. Shockingly enough though, he was allowed to remain in First Class and I continued to be banished to steerage.

Of course on a short hop like that it wasn't a big deal comfortwise (especially since I got a row to myself at the back) but the principle that they would take his lying word over mine simply because he was a white middle-aged businessman in a suit and I was a younger brown dishevelled type fresh off a redeye irked me.

NWA apologized profusely for the event and gave me a handful of miles as compensation, so all's well that ends well. However, keep in mind that appearances are the key to pulling this kinda stunt off succesfully.

That's appalling. I would have gone freaking ballistic!! How did you stay calm?


[This message has been edited by RevvedUp (edited 07-19-2003).]

What was my option? As a brown skinned young male if I so much as let out a peep in opposition of a FA, I get myself thrown off the plane if I'm lucky and sent to jail if I'm not. Gotta learn to deal with it.

The reason we have crooked politicians on both sides is the reason we have an "economy class". If they were gone, we'd all be in First Class. That's the truth.

Vote for Dean to at least change Bush.

That I believe is sadly true these days, especially in the U.S.

I still think that in the future if this were to happen to you that you just say to the FA in a friendly, calm voice, "I would be happy to show you my eticket /itinerary/documentation to prove my assigned seat/cabin. I'm sure it might be a misunderstanding or computer glitch, but I don't mind waiting as I doubt the boarding pass could be buried too deep as he just got on?" Then looking at the seat stealer "I'm sure you won't mind helping to clear this up, it would only take a minute and I am sure that we can get it all figured out. You know, computer glitches do happen"


Being as calm as you were I am sure that you are also aware that attitude is everything especially in a case like that and you really did handle yourself extremely well .

What really really bothers me is that you had a confirmed F seat. Whether it is easier to go to the back or not, you paid for the seat and no one should be able to take that from you. It's truly disgusting that this happened.

I'm a white guy and often have wondered how terrible it must be, especially in the U.S. to fly as a non-white since 9/11 and then have a problem that needs to be dealt with. Sorry to hear about your story but glad to hear that NW came through. Any mention of what might happen to the FA in this case?

Did you not have a boarding pass?

That is not cool what they did to you. Even if his boarding pass was hassle to take out, the FA's could of asked for a form of identification and match it with the manifest.

If I held an airline generated boarding pass with a first class seat, I wouldn't have simply been led back to coach. I would ask the lead flight attendent to check with the gate staff to identify the name of the passenger in the disputed seat. I'd do this even if they were trying to shut the door! That should very quickly clear up the confusion.

Yes, I had a boarding pass with the seat assignment but the FA was of the opinion that because I had boarded so late they had released my seat to the other guy. This of course was untrue because I had been at the gate for a while being subject to the usual secondary screening, otherwise I would likely have boarded soon after the rest of the First Class passengers.

Again, when the FA said "ok, go take an empty seat in coach - we have to leave now" there is no room for argument, whether or not you are in the right. You have to comply with a crewmember instructions or else you wind up in trouble. Such is the reality.

I've had other similar incidents too (including the now infamous run-in with Captain Daniel Broderdorf of Continental and it's follow up), all of which contributed to my final decision to relocate to a country that does not condone such institutional discrimination under the guise of security.

I've had my boarding pass checked a number of times in AA F as I board. I'm a 23-year-old student who dresses fairly casually and doesn't really look the First Class part, so it's never particularly surprised me, though it does bug me a little. They've always been quite professional about it, though, doing it under the guise of helping me find my seat.

This is such a BS story. Give mw a break. There is no way anything could be done to you. What is this BS about the color of your skin and you had no choice or what? you would be dragged and whipped or something? What do you think security would do in front of all the witnesses? The airline, the employee could face such a huge lawsuit for anything that would resemble even a minor appearance of discrimination. Contractually you were in the right, so please don't BS us here that the white man won again. That freaking plane is not moving till I either get my seat for which I paid for, or if there was some kind of computer glitch, I get a satisfactory resolve, which would have to be beneficial to me in many different ways
Please stop being the victim, it is getting old.

I 100% agree with the above. Your sob stories are getting really old...........millions of people travel in this country travel in this country every day without incident, of all races,religions,..etc..yet, with you, there is always something.

Why don't you get your little friend who insults FT'ers in the the Trip Reports section when they disagree with you, to travel with you. He can yell at the airline staff "who are all out to get the little brown man" for you .....

Some battles are not worth fighting. I might of insisted on seeing the other passenger's BP but otherwise it could be a computer glitch. B747-437B was compensated by NW for their mistake.

As far as not putting much of a fuss I see his point. A friend of mine had been placed on an alert list and denied boarding by AA. At one point she made a bit of a fuss about this. She was delisted but AA still denies her boarding decause of the fuss she made. The bottom line, if anyone starts creating a fuss, you take the chance of being taken off the plane. Pick your battles!

I kind of see this whole sneaking into First Class thing as pretty wrong.

If you become a member of a cheap golf club then you can't go and sneak off and play at a championship course merely because you are a member of another golf club. Even though it doesnt cost the championship course anything to host you, in a similar way that it doesn't really cost the airline anything much to host you in F rather than Y (except for all the Krug you drink )

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'There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror'
Orson Welles (1915�1985)