[Susan2011]

How I got kicked off of US Airways flight 1753 from Charlotte to Tampa

I’d just spent a great weekend of snowmobiling in Michigan and now it’s time to go home. I’m beat up, tired and having to do one of my least favorite things in the world, taking a commercial flight home. I’ve paid my $25 to check my 50lb bag leaving me with just a small backpack and a heavy wool jacket as my carry-on and personal item. I have just enough time between my connecting flights in Charlotte to use the restroom and be one of the last people on the flight 1753 to Tampa Monday evening.

As I come to my seat a couple of rows from the back of the aircraft and see the doors to the compartments have all been closed. Now to me it’s just selfish and inconsiderate the way most people these days seem to be trying to avoid paying to check their bags by overstuffing their mini steamer trunk wheely bags, oversized mommy bags, laptop carriers and anything else they’re taking on their trip with them onto the aircraft with them. The result is overhead storage compartments which are quickly filled which is exactly what I’m looking at now.

No problem I think. I’m not carrying that much and I’ve gotten pretty good at finding some free space or even making some by turning someone’s wheely bag lengthwise the way their supposed to go instead of sideways in order to free up some space. It’s always worked before when I’ve faced this situation but not this time.

As soon as I open the first bin the flight attendant in the galley a few feet away (I’ll call her Boots because of the knee high boots she’s wearing) telling me rather curtly that I’ll “have to put my bag beneath the seat in front of me.” To me this just isn’t right. In my eyes when we pay for a seat on a flight we are also paying for a fair and equal amount of space for a bag and carry on item in the overhead compartments. In this case, I’m pretty disgusted with the situation and tell the people around me “You people bring way too much stuff with you onboard the aircraft”.

Boots is not happy with my comment or the fact that I’ve turned a sideways facing wheely bag put in the bin over my seat 90 degrees so that I can free up some space for my things. She grabs the bag and tells me “That’s my bag and it has to go on the flight.” I must have been busy telling her “I didn’t like the way you’re speaking” to me to pick up on the fact she had just implied that her bag had to go on the flight but I didn’t. I asked her if she’d at least find a place to hang or put my coat but her reply was an immediate “No” followed by a new catch phrase flight attendants seem to have been taught in the past couple of years and now enjoy using liberally, “Are we going to have a problem on this flight?”

I’m smart enough to have caught her hint the second time. I’ve heard the horror stories about normal even-tempered average Joe passengers being charged with federal crimes for insisting to be let out of a 90 degree plane with overflowing lavatories that’s been waiting 6 hours on the hot tarmac waiting for a repair. Not having space for my bag and coat isn’t worth dealing with a federal felony charge. I stuffed my bag under the seat in front me, sat down, fastened my seatbelt, put my coat in my lap. But I’ll be damned if I was going to give her the added satisfaction of replying to someone threatening me the way you would when dealing with a pissy 4 year old. Instead, I put my headphones on and resigned myself to adding this to a long list of why flying commercially these days sucks. Here’s where things took a serious turn for the worse.

Boots has a male colleague who I’ll call Richard. He comes up and taps me on the shoulder, I take my ear bud out and he asks me “Are we going to have a problem on this flight?” I am not going to give him the reply he’s looking for so I tell him “Not if you’ll stop talking to me and go back and do your job.” I put my ear bud back in, crossed my arms, closed my eyes and tried to calm down but within a minute Richard comes back and taps me on the shoulder again. ”Don’t get too comfortable” says and walks to the front of the plane.

At this point I figure a senior attendant or someone from the flight deck is going to come back to talk to me so I just sat and tried to keep my composure while I waited for them. Turns out he had gone out to the terminal and brought back someone with a walkie talkie ear thing in his ear and a mini-badge of some kind on his chest and a name tag that ironically says “John C.”. He asks me if I’d gather my things and come with him off of the aircraft. I collect my things and start walking out with John C. behind me and Richard in front of me.

I know I’m not getting back on this plane so I figure there’s no point in holding back any longer. I’m looking at the back of Richard’s head and having violent thoughts of what I’d like to do to this guy. Instead I simply said “You’re a d--k”. He actually stopped in his tracks, turned around and looked at me like he couldn’t believe I’d just called him a d--k. He asked me what I’d said so I repeated myself and told him to get out of my way. We’re about half way up the aircraft where Boots and some others are sitting in their “Flight attendants prepare for departure” seats. She’s giving me a condescending smile and Richard wisely chooses to join them by stepping to the side allowing me and John C. exit the plane.

I feel bad for John C. I can tell this is the part of his job he really doesn’t like doing. Even if I don’t like what they’re doing I don’t believe in giving anyone a hard time when they’re just trying to do their jobs. It’s not his fault I’m going to miss this As far as I’m concerned John C. doesn’t deserve any of the wrath I feel bubbling up inside of me so I keep it to myself.

He takes me to the check in counter at the terminal end of the jet way to work on getting me a refund for the flight. While I’m standing across the counter from him I see Richard poke his head out the jet way door. This ******* has actually walked all the way off the plane, up the jet way and come back to the terminal to give me a “nah nah nah nah goo goo” grin/smile/smirk that he’s probably been perfecting ever since his play ground days where he used to tattle to teacher about some girl beating him up and taking his jump rope.

That ****ty grin confirmed for me that they enjoy any chance (and in my case instigated) to have passengers removed from a flight. I suspect this abuse of power is their way of getting some little satisfaction out of the crappy career they’ve chosen without worrying about any consequences for abusing a customer. The funny thing is when I looked him dead in the eye and told him to f off and called him a prick his smile went away and he gave me that stupid look again like he couldn’t believe I was saying these things to him. He went back to his airplane where I’m sure he told some tough guy story to his girlfriends about getting the last jab in.

John C. finished his work on the refund and escorted me out of the terminal. I went to ticketing and tried to find a flight back to Tampa that night but the only one available was on, you guessed it, US Airways. I swallowed my pride and tried to get a ticket on the 8:15. Unfortunately John C. had me blacklisted from flying on US Airways until the following day. Something like the silly 3 day cooling off period before taking the gun you just bought home. I hit up Enterprise, rented a car and drove back to Florida.

The inconveniences placed on passengers these days as a result of high tented security, the state of the global economy on the airline industry and more people traveling than ever before have all made flying commercially a less than pleasant experience. People’s patience wears thin. They get testy, cranky and sometimes rude. I’m sure all of these things have made being a flight attendant suck. I understand they’re people too and have limits but this is the profession they have chosen and at a minimum they need to stay professional no matter what situation is. Unfortunately I’ve been seeing and hearing about more and more passengers who are suffering similar or worse fates when dealing with an overzealous flight attendant who chooses to abuse their position and take their frustrations with today’s travelers out on the first person who gives them the slightest excuse to exercise their newly discovered authority.

There was no reason this situation to have ever existed. Ironically, it was Boots not the other passengers in my section (who I still think bring too much on board) who had taken up the space I could have used for my carry on items. If she had left her bag at the end of the jet way so it could be put in the cargo hold, if she had made any attempt to assist me, if she had simply treated me with a little respect and courtesy, if she and Richard had maintained their professionalism none of this would have happened.

Was there anything I could have done or done differently to avoid the situation? To be honest with myself; yes. My statement to the other passengers, while true, was impulsive and unnecessary. I should have taken a deep breath and focused on the situation instead. I could have reminded Boots she was there to assist the passengers by asking her to help me find some space for my things. I could have swallowed my pride and handed the two bullies an easy victory by saying “No there won’t be any problem from me during this flight”……………….Nah. scratch that last one. I don’t care how much it’s going to hurt me I refuse giving into people trying to abuse me.

As a customer I’m really not that difficult to please when it comes to paying for an item or a service. I simply want what I pay for, nothing more, nothing less and I expect the respect and courtesy a customer deserves. When I don’t get these things then depending on the situation and my mood at the time my complaints can range from polite, nice and considerate to matter of fact, direct and to the point but I’m never rude or abusive. Unfortunately, it seems we live in a time when these expectations seem unreasonable. Where standing up for is right and is being replaced by a society of sheep who don’t have the spine to stand for themselves or to do the hard right over the easy wrong. I just can’t resign myself to becoming one of those people.

I realize this is just one side (mine) of the story but I’ve tried to be as accurate as I could be. I didn’t embellish or exaggerate to make the attendants sound any worse than they were or to make myself out as an angelic victim. It went down pretty word for word and step by step the way it actually was. If you’re wondering if alcohol involved on my part the truth is I’d had two drinks before leaving Cleveland roughly 2.5 hours before this all went down so in my opinion I don’t think it contributed in any way.

Quite the little diatribe. Part of this was for me. Sharing this experience with you is an opportunity to vent so the frustration I’m still feeling can bleed off a bit. Another part of it is to share what I’d think would be a pretty interesting story as long as you weren’t the one it happened to. Then there’s the part where I’m hoping for some feedback so I can maybe learn a little more from this ordeal. Do you think I was out of line? Do you think I handled things poorly?

Those who know me well can probably imagine my tone and demeanor while reading this and you’re probably dead on. Before being asked to leave the plane I was simply treating Boots and Richard with the same tone and degree of attitude they were using with me. They were giving me **** and I let them know I wasn’t taking it and I wasn’t going to kiss any ***** after I’d conceded that I wasn’t going to have any space for my things, sat down and strapped in for the flight.

Do I plan to take any action on this matter? Absolutely! Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not the first person who has been treated this way by a flight attendant. I’m going to do some research online to try to find some other examples and see what happened in those cases and decide on how to proceed from there. I don’t see any point in filing any kind of complaint with US Airways as I have little trust they’d even look into it and that they wouldn’t be impartial if they did. At a minimum I’d like to be reimbursed for the personal expenses I had to go through in order to go home. It would be great if there was some form of reprimand given to Boots and Richard or something more severe is they’ve had similar complaints filed against them.

If anyone knows of any other avenues of I might take to file a formal complaint against the airline and/or the flight attendants please let me know how I can go about contacting them. I hope something like this never happens to any of you but if you’re ever in a similar situation I’d hope that my sharing this with you will help you through it as painlessly as possible while still maintaining your pride. Whatever you do please remember that letting people get away with abusing you leaves the door open for them to abuse others and let others think that this type of behavior is acceptable and that they can do it too.

[jimworcs]

There is a serious problem in the airline industry. It pays poorly and the standard of recruits reflects this. The power invested since 9/11 in these people, means that we have totally unaccountable people, without the education and training to know how to use the power they have. Properly trained people with power are taught that the use of this power is a last resort. There are many horror stories of stupid FA's who pour oil on the fire, or become abusive to passengers and lie about the circumstances. Googling such classics as the mother and baby thrown off a flight because the baby said "bye bye plane" or the AA Flight Attendant who flipped when asked for an orange juice. This abuse will continue until passengers take action. If I see any FA abuse, (and I have witnessed 2incidents) I offer my name and phone number to the passenger as a witness. With smart phones people need to use them to record such incidents. If you had wtnesses, you could try suing in small claims court for your additional costs...however, your honesty and lack of witnesses would probably make this fail. The truth is, people who abuse their power are often only held to account when we have irrefutable proof. I look forward to the day when a lying FA is secretly filmed abusing a passenger and exposed.

[cortney]

I got tired of reading this half way through but you stated that the flight attendant started this. I kind of think it was you. You had a small back pack. When a flight is full they tell people to put small items under the seat in front of them. ( it bugs me when I fly as a passenger and people don't listen). You instead made a comment to everyone around you which IMO was rude. When the other FA came back and asked if there was going to be a problem, you gave him an attitude IMO. Then you called the other guy a d**k. I would have looked at the bins, no room? Under the seat it goes, it's a small backpack afterall. Are we going to have a problem? No, I'm sorry for my comment. Done end of story.

[mars6423]

the FA was wrong in how they approached you, but your attitude and way you went around it was also wrong and can be perceived as aggressive and offensive

it is pretty rude for you to say to other passengers that they bring too much stuff when it looks like you are trying to put your coat and backpack up there when being one of the last on the flight, there was no need for you to say that it was somewhat uncalled for

“Not if you’ll stop talking to me and go back and do your job.” this is going to raise alarms if you like it or not, that is rude and you later say how the other guy was doing his job, yet the male FA just asked you a question doing his job and you gave him attitude, thats not going to work out well for you

you then call him a ****, im sure the passengers that would have been around you would have enjoyed someone who is being as rude as you have shown

[jimworcs]

There seems to be an assumption that FA's are so fragile, that no one can ever be rude to them, and they must be immediately evicted from the plane. It is ridiculous.....people in customer facing roles face customers who are not happy all the time. It seems FA's nw have power and choose to use it to be spiteful and nasty.

[cortney]

Jim, are you honestly saying that you think the customer was in no case rude? come on! he told the flight attendant to do their job, which they were doing, the other flight attendant went and got another coworker (probably the lead) and he made the remark. he could have put his backpack under the seat without the rude remark, those passengers also paid for their seat, and lets be fair, he was the last one on the plane. i dont know the tones everybody used since i wasnt there. but imo the passenger isn't exactly an innocent victim here

[stonecold_1981]

In any civil society there is a way to protest against rules you don't like. Clearly, the way the OP chose, is not right. While the FAs have too much power now-a-days, doing what the OP did ("Not if you’ll stop talking to me and go back and do your job", calling out the other passengers for bringing "too much stuff on board", etc.) just fed the FA's powers further and gave them the gratification of throwing him out.

After reading the way the OP described his emotions and actions, I would even say that the FA's actions were justified in a way (e.g. "I’m looking at the back of Richard’s head and having violent thoughts of what I’d like to do to this guy").

[jimworcs]

I am not saying the customer was not rude...although the really rude stuff occurred after they had decided to remove them. I don't think the power hungry FA handled it properly and the passenger did not deserve to be evicted from the plane.

[mars6423]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

I am not saying the customer was not rude...although the really rude stuff occurred after they had decided to remove them. I don't think the power hungry FA handled it properly and the passenger did not deserve to be evicted from the plane.

the FA's handled it badly but the passenger made comments that lead up to being kicked off

such as when "richard" came over, richard only asked if there was going to be a problem, and got a response which was aggressive and rude, and your going to be removed if there is an aggressive tone and the passengers nearby probably werent to thrilled with this passengers actions of first being rude to them and then the attitude provided to a question

and thats when this passenger become even more rude by calling the FA a ****