[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

With all due respect to Chris, causing someone to "feel threatened" is, in most states, neither a crime, nor a legal basis to remove someone from a public transportation facility. However, certain states may allow businesses, including airlines, to refuse service (or boarding) to someone who causes a staff member to feel threatened. In the case of an airline refusing service, on this basis, there is probably an obligation to refund, in full, and in cash, check, or credit to form of payment (not travel vouchers,) the amount of the fare paid, regardless of whether the ticket is "non-refundable."

Recently an employee of the Town where I live, in an open, and televised, Council meeting, stated, in referring to me, "...I will knock him on his ass." When I researched the law governing this subject I was surprised to find when such a statement is made, in anger, as this statement was, and there are no extenuating circumstances--such as the showing of a weapon, or raised fists, such a statement is not a crime. Pennsylvania is one such state where this principle applies.

Accordingly, people who find themselves escorted, and barred from, an air terminal (unless there is only one airline serving that terminal) as a result of a staff member who called the police over a customer who threatened to write a complaint letter, or sneezed, may have a basis for a law suit, against the offending airline, if that person's travel to his final destination was materially interfered with.