So, it seems almost every week some airline passenger has gotten their feelings hurt while interacting with an airline, and they post their experience on social media.

You know, so everyone can share their outrage.

So it occurred to Shooter that we ought to try and keep all these stories in one place. So we can enhance the experience of being butt hurt along with the insulted, abused, hurt passengers who, as they used to say in the rafting business;
"I PAID MY FUCKING MONEY!!"

So, to get things started, lets all look at the incredibly racist experience Rane Baldwin suffered at the hands of American Airlines recently.

See, Rane and her friend Janet wanted to fly from Kentucky to North Carolina. Rane (who is black) bought the tickets and according to her, upgraded both of them to first class cause, you know, she's a diamond-Platinum-titanium-Zirconia member over at American Airlines.

However, when it came time to check in, Rane was advised that while the airline did indeed have a first class seat for Janet, Rane would be expected to take her seat "in the back of the plane". According to Rane, attempts to get clarification on the switch (cause, you know, she bought the goddam tickets in the first place) were met with embarrassed flight attendants who could not even look our hero in the eye, and mumbled something about an equipment change, but really, Rane could tell, it was because she is black. Sort of.

So anyway, Rane sat in the back of the plane. Actually, she sat in the front of the back of the plane, like in row 3 or 4, cause you know, as it turns out the plane was like, half full and the flight attendants didn't even object when Janet, in a show of solidarity, banished herself to "the back of the plane" to sit with her friend and benefactor Rane. One row out of first class territory, but still, the goddam back of the plane.

And, of course Rane marched off the plane in North Carolina and fired up her social media accounts, you know, so the rest of the social media butterflies could quickly share in her outrage over the fucking racist airline butt hurt she had to endure.

Fucking American racist airline!!




................ oh, the other side of the story? You know, the one from the airline?

It turns out Rane did buy the two tickets, but she didn't upgrade them using miles or anything, rather she got "operational upgrades" when they checked in. On May 1, the date of their flight as booked. For reasons not explained by either the airline or Rane (who forgot to mention this part at all) the flight was canceled, and when things had settled down, Rane and Janet were booked the next day, May 2nd to travel from Kentucky to North Carolina.

note; for those unfamiliar with airline jargon, "operational upgrade" means some of those very expensive and highly coveted first class seats have gone unsold, and the gate agent, as they process the flight, move select coach class vermin into first class.
Free of charge.
Usually, it's done based on how high in the airline's passenger pecking order the coach vermin are, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Anyway, usually, the high mileage and/or people who use that airlines credit card to buy, you know everything, get first crack at those first class seats. Which, according to American Airlines, is exactly what happened to our victim on May 1; she and her traveling companion Janet were granted access to first class, even though they had only bought coach class tickets.​

So, as it turned out, on May 2, when they actually got to board the airplane, somehow Janet, who must be some kind of freeloader, cause, you know, she didn't even buy the fucking ticket, got the first class seat, while our hero Rane, who did pay for the fucking tickets, was shuffled off to coach, cause, you know, there was only one first class seat available.

Which, according to Rane, was done because she's got darker skin than her freeloading friend Janet.

So, take your sides; did the gate agent(s) on May 1 and 2 decide "They ain't gonna be no darkies riding up front on their goddam planes", or was this a simple case of airline software working in mysterious ways to fuck up yet another elite passenger's experience?

Oh. And if anyone comes across another outrageous airline story, this is the place to post it. You know, so we can all enjoy it.

 

In the words of Rodney King, why can't we just stay home.

 

You really are a drama queen aren't you. Completely unnecessary rant.

 

Our flight was uneventful and the stewardesses were very friendly and helpful.

We took a European Carrier though so expected better service than what people are used in the USA ...

 

Unruly man on L.A.-to-Hawaii flight subdued by passengers, flight attendants


Two U.S. fighter jets were summoned Friday to escort a flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii after an unruly man was subdued by passengers and flight attendants, who used a drink cart to block him from the front of the plane.

The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Anil Uskanil, 25, of Turkey, was duct-taped to his seat until the plane landed in Honolulu and federal agents boarded the plane and arrested him, passenger Lee Lorenzen said.

“The flight attendants just were really heroic,” Lorenzen said. “By the time we landed and the FBI took him into custody, he was very mellow.”

American Airlines Flight 31 had 181 passengers and six crew members aboard, said airline spokeswoman Katie Cody, who did not provide details on the incident.

 

Trying to get to the front of the plane?
Hope they punched him in the throat.

 

The strangest part is that this guy was allowed on the plane in the first place. Hours before he wigged out on the plane he breached security in the terminal and was cited but not detained and was allowed to go through the motions and we now know how well that little fuck up by authorities worked out ...

 

Our airline gives us a parachute just in case but not even one of those little bags of peanuts or pretzels .

 

I predict that the guy was afraid to fly and took some kind of sedative or an ambien and had a few drinks and it all went south on him. He was probably doing something like Ambien sleepwalking. He didn't sound like he was very alert.

Off with his head.

 

WATCH: Unruly Trump Fan Delays Shanghai Flight to US



A United Airlines flight from Shanghai to Newark, New Jersey was delayed for five hours and eventually rerouted to San Francisco International Airport over the weekend after an unruly, Trump-supporting passenger caused a commotion during take-off.

The unidentified passenger was spotted wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, which was made famous by Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

United says the Trump fan tried to grab another passenger's seat while boarding flight UA87 at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Sunday, refusing to move and causing a ruckus.



As the man became increasingly disruptive, passengers were forced to de-plane while law enforcement sorted things out. The man was eventually kicked off before the flight departed. Fellow passengers, in a mocking nod to the embattled US President, shouted "Lock him up!" as he was escorted back to the boarding gate.

The flight, which is normally over 14 hours long, was scheduled for a 3.45pm takeoff but actually departed at 8.44pm. Following the five hour delay, it was later forced to make an unscheduled stopover in San Francisco to bring a new crew on board. Passengers remained on the plane for less than an hour while the switch happened.

That's has received video from one passenger on the flight, who captured the commotion before and after the Trump supporter was taken off the plane. A fellow passenger can be heard telling the man: "You don't have manners! You are rude!"

More footage obtained by NBC shows shows fellow passengers jeering him on at the gate after he was booted from the flight.

American citizen Jonathan Serbent, another passenger onboard the flight, described the incident to That's:

"I didn't hear everything that happened since I was trying to ignore it, but he was across the plane, about two rows ahead. From what I heard them saying to him and from people later on it sounded like he wanted the seats next to him to be empty, even though he didn't purchase those seats.

"He was being very rude about it and causing a big scene. He was asking that he get all sorts of benefits like access to the [club lounge]. It got to the point where I think because of all the commotion he was causing, he had to be removed from the plane. But, he was being stubborn and wouldn't move, so eventually United had to just clear the plane.

"Everyone got off but him, and then about twenty minutes later he walked out with people escorting him. There was no violence whatsoever and United handled the situation very well. [Some] passengers got annoyed and started yelling. But all in all the situation was handled really well, no one was hurt, and we made it to our destination."

 

Here we go again. A gay couple travelling from Buffalo, NY to Naples, Fl claim that Southwest Airlines wouldn't let them board during family only boarding. The married gay couple were traveling with three children and 83 year old grandma. Southwest employees apparently did not view them as a family and wouldn't let them board with the other families.

 

They don't have these problems in other parts of the world with some "upper scale" airlines but when they do they are dealt with swiftly ... And you pay through the teeth for a flight so it had better be exceptional service.

Props to SwissAir and even though the jump was short, a couple hours(ish) it was comfortable on the charter that flew a day prior to the regularly scheduled commercial flight ... here is "first class" and congrats to my sweety on joining the "mile high" club lol. YES with me lol ...

You should see the executive class on Emirates Airlines ... wow.



You can even snooze if you want ...

 

And the most awesome?

Our pilot is retiring today and this is his last flight, so he frankly doesn't give a shit.
DRINKS ON HIM!

Or maybe, as once happened to Shooter;
The gate agent announced that the OSU Girl's Volleyball team was flying to a meet and had all seats reserved on the flight, but one seat was available if anyone flying out later wanted to get home early.

Shooter beat the other guy to the counter only by using an old lady's whellchair as a vault and leaping over him as he pushed a mother and baby out of the way....

 

Ok so nobody got dragged off the plane, but this is my rant. I was sitting in Tampa Int'll Airport yesterday, waiting for my flight. There was a 3:30 pm, 4:30 pm and mine the 5:30 pm flight. The first two get delayed by an hour, but mine was one time, until bam, I'm delayed now too. I go onto the United Airlines app, and there's an air traffic control delay. I check the board and come to find out that my plane is sitting right there at an adjacent gate. I contact United and they tell me about the air traffic control delay, but I'm like what the fuck doers that mean? There were apparently storms somewhere between Tampa & NY. I'm looking at the radar, but I see nothing on the screen. The plane from NY to Tampa left and arrived on time , so again WTF?! Anyway, I get home two hours late and still have not fucking idea why. Thanks United & air traffic control!

 

28 year old Stephan Kennedy gets kicked off Southwest Airlines flight after refusing to leave the bathroom while drunk. He attempted to board the plane after being kicked off and was then tackled and ziptied to a seat while they waited for the police. I think that I might like to work for an airline. It sounds like fun tackling and tying people up.

 

So UAL is being sued by a 71 year old passenger who was thrown to the floor by a UAL employee. Apparently, the passenger was told by TSA that his boarding pass didn't print correctly and to get a new one from UAL. When he asked the airline for a new pass, words were exchanged and the 71 year old was thrown to the floor by the employee. This happened two years ago, but is now in court for his "pain & suffering" damages.

 

So, it's been a few months since we've seen news reports of the airlines treating it's passengers with less than compassion and respect, what with all the shit about politics flying around.
But.........
It is the holidays, when travel gets even more stressful and we haven't been disappointed. Today we have two reports of passenger mistreatment.

First, we have a report from Yahoo News (not the most accurate with their headlines we've discovered) that a Cancer researcher, Mei Rui, was kicked off a Spirit Airlines flight from Houston to Newark for (GASP!) breastfeeding her child!!
GAWDAMIT!!
But wait. Reading the details reveals that a) the flight was delayed and mom determined that a little breast milk would settle her screaming child. b) Flight attendants did not react to this initially, but did later, telling our victim that her brat needed to be strapped in his seat for take off (raising the question, just how big is this brat, since until the kid is 35 Lbs., mom can hold the brat for take off and landing). Mom's response, according to mom, was that the kid would be strapped in before the doors were closed. c) That mom was kicked off the flight some 20 minutes later, after her screaming kid would not shut the fuck up.
So, what we have learned is that breastfeeding wasn't the reason mom and brat were kicked off the flight; it was either because she failed to comply with flight crew instructions about strapping the kid in it's own seat, or because the brat would not shut the fuck up; both legitimate reasons for kicking mom off the flight, but then that would hardly make the incident newsworthy, now would it? But, toss "breastfeeding" into the headline and we have a winner!

Next we have Valerie Curbelo, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight from Portland to Sacramento who apparently decided she simply could not wait any longer, and had a quick smoke in the bathroom. After she tampered with or disabled the smoke detector.

Now, we all know, fucking with the smoke detector is a FEDERAL OFFENSE punishable by ........ well, a lot of money and even time in the slammer, as we're reminded every time we get on an airplane.
In any case, the crew apparently smelled something fishy about Valerie and her trip to the lavatory, and discovered the damaged smoke detector. When confronted, Curbelo threatened to kill everyone on the flight if they didn't LAND THIS F**CKING PLANE NOW!! and then she committed the ultimate sin when she pushed a flight attendant.
At this point she was restrained and when the flight landed, was arrested with a (gasp) $75,000 bail in place.
Interviewed later, Curbelo had no explanation for her actions or why she felt it so critical that they LAND THIS F**CKING PLANE NOW!!
In any case, Portland news outlets were playing up the fact that Curbelo's problems started with her need for a quick smoke, and the airline's lack of compassion.

Ah, we so love flying during the holidays!