When a revenue passenger grabbed the last seat on an American Airlines flight via standby, it sent one of the flight attendants into a fit or rage. She claims the flight attendant badgered her onboard, but why? Turns out her last-minute addition to the standby list bumped off the flight attendant’s boyfriend from the flight.
Claim: American Airlines Flight Attendant Rudely Retaliates Against Passenger After She “Took” The Standby Seat That Was Intended For BoyfriendIt’s no secret: flight attendants hate standby…unless it is for them. The loosening of standby rules during the pandemic has resulted in more passengers taking earlier (and occasionally later) flights than originally booked or standing by for a nonstop flight when a connection was originally booked.
While this theoretically means there are more seats on other flights, I hear all the time from flight attendants about how “they’ve taken our benefits” by allowing standby at no cost (it used to cost $75 or more, dissuading many people from attempting to standby for a more convenient flight).At many carriers, flight attendants not only receive space-available travel for themselves, but also for family members and friends. It indeed one of the great benefits of working for an airline and the horror stories of waiting “days” to get onboard a flight can be mitigated with a little ingenuity in checking loads and planning routings. This is a fringe benefit I’d love to have.Sometimes a flight looks “good” (plenty of open seats) but can then fill up at the last minute if there is a flight delay or cancellation somewhere else in the system. A passenger shares on reddit what happened when she darted over to another flight after her flight was cancelled and was able to join the standby list and get on the flight:
“My original flight was cancelled It was a mess. Instead of waiting in line I ran over to the [other aircraft] and asked if they could get me on another flight. Two agents were working on rebooking me. One said no, which fine what I expected. I heard the other agent say to her, “There’s a non-rev” (I have flown non-rev in my previous life so I know what it means).The (very young) FA tried to have it out with me from the get go. She probably should not have mentioned to the other FA that she was pissed her boyfriend missed the flight. She “did not like my attitude” when I told her my small personal item was, in fact, stowed correctly.
“She did not like when she came by to scream at me to put my phone in airplane mode (I’m a rule follower so…it already was) When I asked why she was being so aggressive with me she said she wanted my taken off the flight (didn’t happen.) BAE: sorry I got your boyfriend’s seat.This was ridiculous. I’m lowly Platinum. My husband is now [Concierge Key]. I didn’t wave that around but man….little 22-year-old junior flight crew needs to chill the F out. I am sorry your boyfriend had to take a different flight on your pass. I am always incredibly polite and accommodating when I’m on a plane. Today I wanted to throat punch her.”
A few thoughts on this:
This is one-side of the story – we don’t know if it happened or not, but for purposes of our discussion, we can talk generally about these sorts of situations
Though I tend to trust the Reddit crowd more than the TikTok crowd…
It sounds like this may have been an American Eagle flight based upon the two flight attendants and how young the one was (I’d also like to think mainline flight attendants know the non-rev drill and would not act out so poorly)
American Eagle is a subsidiary of American Airlines that flies on behalf of American Airlines and with American Airlines branding, so yes, an American Eagle flight attendant is also an American Airlines flight attendant for all practical purposes
From the FA perspective, of course it stinks when you think your boyfriend will get on (perhaps he was already seated…) and a revenue customer takes that seat
But that is the premise of the non-rev benefit – it really is on a “space available” basis, even at the last minute
The conduct of the flight attendant onboard appears purely retaliatory and is sickening
This flight attendant should be disciplined by having her pass terminatedA passenger claims a flight attendant on American Airlines responded poorly toward her after she “took” the seat that would have gone to the flight attendant’s boyfriend. If true, American Airlines owes a serious apology to the revenue passenger and the flight attendant should have her pass revoked.