coachrowsey

I would love to know the real story

cherylsiscon

At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

ssing

These sorts of threads are so predictable. Some of us will find ways to undermine OP's story and other will get enraged over the escalating wrongs done by the airline industry. Personally, I do no think OP has to prove or explain anything. He already told his story and described his experience. I see no reason to doubt it.

longing4piedmont

Then perhaps you should have followed his/her advice.

I simply do not believe you are telling the whole story. Doesn't really matter in the end, but the facts as you have presented them simply do not add up in my opinion.

Note: Quote above was edited during this posting and was NOT the OP's original post

gardengirl

I also long for the old Piedmont.

My husband's an attorney and I can see one of our friends calling him out of desperation and asking for help--even if it's late at night because that's the kind of guy he is.

cherylsiscon

The attorney I called is a very close family friend. I do not have an attorney on retainer because I have never had the need for one. But when I heard that I could not fly out until the next day I called him out of desperation to get some advice. Thank goodness I did...by simply making the call it got me on the next flight!

longing4piedmont

And yet you did not take his advice. He suggested that you get a blood test. You choose not to do so. Why?

I've been flying for close to 35 years virtually every week of the year. As much as those here want to blame an FA or "they needed the seat because the flight was oversold" I have NEVER seen a person pulled off a plane that did not do something to deserve it. Many more times the FA should have pulled the person off the plane for any number of reasons such as simply not following the direction of the FA and the pax developing a make me attitude. I am amazed at the attitude of passengers today that simply don't do what is asked because they FEEL they do not have to.

If your story is exactly as told here, you would be the first in a career of flying. I remain unconvinced. It simply does not happen this way.

cherylsiscon

I would of agreed with you 100 percent before this actually happened to me. I also have been a frequent flyer for over 20 years and never in my wildest dreams would of thought that this could of happened to me. That is one of the reasons why it is so puzzling to me and the ONLY reason I can think of why I was removed was because they needed the seat. I chose not to get a blood alcohol test because I would have to leave the airport and exhausted as I was I wanted to get home. What I did do instead was get testimony from people at the airport on my state of responsiveness. The simple fact that they rebooked me 15 min later in an exit row on the next flight also speaks to the fact that I was responsive. Sometimes FACT is more bizarre than FICTION. I think if I was reading this post before this happened to me I would be inclined to think also that it could not of happened the way it did, which is why I feel motivated to take this to the next level. I would hate for this to happen to anyone else who is tired, exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Obviously Us-airways needs to reevaluate it systems. As I have heard over and over again on this post, the final call is on the pilot. I believe this would of never happened if the pilot had been personally involved and had spoken to me. ONE FA managed to get me deplaned when several others said I was fine to fly. If their is a difference in option than the pilot should have the final word and be required to evaluate the situation. Just my opinion...

gardengirl

The OP made it clear why she didn't get the blood test back on page 2 of this thread. (above quote)

Hind sight is 20/20 and now she may have insisted on it. I find it hard to believe that in all the airport no security had a breathalyzer tester to accommodate her request. They should have done more to search one out. You would think they would if they really felt they had a case.

dhuey

I share your skepticism. It doesn't help that the OP first showed up here only 14 days ago.

tommyleo

Hold on a second. Re-read the sections in bold. Your can NOT include in your personal, eye-witnessed experiences with an incident that you did not witness. The OP's incident is simply not in the set that is your "career of flying."


This thread is getting very odd.

tommyleo

Fascinating reasoning. Should we also discount every other post made on FT within 14 days of an OP's registration?

tommyleo

Contact USAirways again and make it very clear that your are upset with the last response from them. Make it clear that you never met with the pilot and that other staff on the ground immediately rebooked you into an exit row. Do NOT let up on this. US will often not take responsibility for issues the first time around in the hopes that you will go away.

PHLGovFlyer

The more I read here and the more I think about it the simpler this whole thing becomes. I stand by my assertion in post 68 that this was simply a convenient way to empty a seat on the aircraft without registering an IDB against US or costing US the IDB comp.

In the context of it being a possible IDB situation threatening to go to the DoT gets a lot of attention from the airlines.

My thought is that there is a lot that we don't know about the situation, but applying good old Occam's Razor to what we do know still brings me back to my earlier post.

I've seen plenty of people pulled off of airplanes that did nothing to deserve it in my decades of flying -- they were IDB'd. Again I simply think that the OP was an easy target for the GAs once they got a tip that they might have a reason (valid or not) to pull her off the plane without IDB'ing her.

Hammer, meet nail.

Of course US is going to stand by the story told by its crew. It benefits the airline and it benefits the crew. In the long run you have very little recourse to do anything about it and US knows it. The moment that they "admit" that something was amiss with your situation they only get themselves into deeper trouble.

dcpatti

While I'm not an attorney and may be missing some of the subtleties in the Contract of Carriage, it appears to me that IDB compensation is not due when the passenger is removed for appearance of intoxication, and the CoC clearly states that appearance of intoxication is a Reason for which US can refuse to transport any passenger.

I 100% agree with the flight crew wanting to handle this on the ground rather than in the plane. If the FA really believed the OP was too drunk to fly, they can't be expected to sort that out on a crowded plane full of bystanders.

Perhaps the walk to wherever the OP sorted this with the ground crew; perhaps the emotion sharpened her alertness; probably a mix of both. The ground crew assessed her as OK to fly and put her on a layer flight, due to the FA's concerns. Personally I'm ok with this, too; Who knows what kind of fit someone will throw once you kick them off the plane then let them back on?

I don't doubt the OP's story although I'm not sure she is fully aware of how she looked to an observer. I don't think there's been any infraction by US here, as much as the OP was upset. It really sounds like an unpleasant situation that was handled by the book and that no compensation is warranted.