Alaska Airlines has taken a lot of heat this week over an allegation that it deliberately separated a gay couple onboard a New York to Los Angeles flight so a straight couple could sit together. But I’m ready to give Alaska the benefit of the doubt.
David Cooley and his traveling companion were seated in Alaska’s extra-legroom economy class section prior to boarding. A flight attendant approached Cooley’s companion and told him he had to move back to regular economy class to accommodate another couple. Cooley protested and the pair were given the choice to accept the seating change or leave the aircraft. They left the aircraft and flew Delta home. Shortly thereafter, Cooley posted this account of the incident:
Unsurprisingly, the post went viral and Alaska quickly found itself on the defensive.
Alaska Airlines initially issued the following statement:
When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium class in the main cabin. We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.
Yesterday, Alaska issued an updated statement:
An unfortunate seating mix-up occurred this weekend. Full LGBTQ equality is a value we share. pic.twitter.com/uyaM1dsXmv
— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) July 31, 2018
Alaska Airlines, like other airlines, supported LGBTQ rights long before it became politically fashionable. The carrier has maintained a special website for gay travelers for more than a decade and donated time and money to many LGBTQ non-profit organization.
That gives Alaska Airlines both pathos and ethos to speak on this issue, but what about logos in this particular situation?
What Really Happened?
I agree with the analysis presented by One Mile at a Time on this issue. This was a system glitch. Two passengers were assigned the same seat and Alaska was forced to disappoint one of them. There was no ideal outcome.
The key lingering questions are as follows. First, what is Alaska’s policy for handling situations like this? When the same seat is assigned to two passengers, what factor(s) determine who gets the seat? Fare paid? Status? Time of booking? Second, was that policy followed here?
Let’s put this hypothetical on the table for a moment. Imagine Cooley and his companion received an upgrade at the gate but gate agents soon found that Cooley’s companion was placed in a seat that a couple had paid full price for and reserved for months. Puts a different spin on this incident, doesn’t it?
Alaska issued the follow-up statement above, but I hope that it will eventually inform us why the gate agent chose to seat the second couple together instead of leaving Cooley and his companion, who were already seated, together.
CONCLUSION
Cooley has now accepted Alaska’s apology and is in discussion over the issue.
Thank you to everyone for all the support. @AlaskaAir has reached out, apologized, and we are discussing making things right. I accept Alaska’s apology and appreciate it addressing the situation.
— David Cooley (@DavidCooleyLA) July 31, 2018
And because of that and because of Alaska’s commitment to gay rights over the years, I am ready to give Alaska Airlines the benefit of the doubt. I simply cannot conceive why Alaska would discriminate in this case on the basis of sexual orientation. Other factors must have been at play.
What do you think about this issue?
Stepping into the shoes of an individual FA’s actions with your “I simply cannot conceive why Alaska would discriminate” is a great arm chair analysis. As a “dormant lawyer” I would suspect that you understand that it is not just Alaska Airlines that can as an organization choose to support certain causes or choose to discriminate, but also their employees acting in respondeat superior. Again, their may be more to this story and to dismiss someone’s seemingly consistent and possibly true allegations isn’t consistent with invesitgatig something.
To be clear, I’m not dismissing his allegations. I’m trying to put them into context in light of a greater narrative. As I said, we still need more details. But until those emerge, I’m giving Alaska the benefit of the doubt.
I don’t know why this was news in the first place but what would be interesting is to see what they offering to this person to quiet them on social media.
DaninMCI is was posted by a blogger sadly without the full story being told. There is always a backside to any event like this and I think Matthew is correct and posted responsibly to which I commend him for.
There seems to be a rash of bloggers posting one sided stories or without collaboration or containing heresy which is disturbing. The world is full of half truths in the media today why here? We are traveling and should be happy for it.
the media is totally overreacting to this and I am a gay man. it has nothing to do with him being gay. I fly alaska 75 times a year and when there is a computer error assigning 2 seats to the same person they will go by elite status first then class of fare then by which has connections. to say this is discrimination is ludicrous. they should probably have asked for a volunteer but at worst this is poor customer service but it is not homophobia nor is it discrimination at all. the author from NBC should be ashamed for the misleading headline
Damage done already by the gay passenger, David Cooley. The news media is not reporting on Cooley’s tweet about apology accepted. How would he like it if his The Abbey Food and Bar, an establishment in Los Angeles received bad press but the apology or subsequent measures are not reported.
I will never fly, I mean, eat or drink at The Abbey Food and Bar, EVER!!!! They discriminate against fat people, or is it Congolese underage transgender women who are wearing black on a Tuesday and have a bank account at Wells Fargo (but not those wearing white and have a Bank of America account).
i think if it was truly a technical glitch that created the problem, then it is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t problem. Anything other than that might be discrimination.
Why did they delegate a seating foul up to a flight attendant? Isn’t that the purview of the gate agents? The flight attendant, on the other hand could have “requested” the seating change….not issued it with a threat. Threats create instant heat.
Matthew is completely correct here. There is zero reason to immediately assume bias here, and it’s a bit sad that discrimination was yelled out before actually discovering the facts. Alaska has a wonderful record on gay rights, so automatically assuming the worst speaks more ill of those making assumptions than the airline itself. Obviously, discrimination does exist, but sometimes things just go wrong.
The most upsetting piece of this to me was seeing the knee-jerk damning comments people were making based on reading one side of a story. People were vowing never to fly Alaska again, calling for a boycott, and making truly horrible comments. What a sad state we’ve become. I appreciate Matthew’s and Lucky’s reasoned analysis.
I also agree with derek above that the media was quick to pounce on the original post but not on the later tweet. This is the first time I’ve seen it. But his boycott strikes me the same as the anti-Alaska crowd did yesterday.
I completely agree with Matthew. Was blatant discrimination possible? Yes. Likely? No. I am guessing the passengers got a free upgrade because otherwise you know the passengers would have been saying that he paid full price for that seat, but the passengers didn’t say that. Upgrades are great when they work out, but their rarely available on a full flight which they said it was, even paid upgrades are not available when flights are full. Sounds like an unfortunate mistake made into something more. The passenger seems to have taken the flight attendants words out of context when she said there is another couple wanting to sit together, he took it as her saying their not a couple. I wonder if the flight attendant was clear in the reasoning as to the change ie an honest seating mistake, the other couple paid more. If she was, then the passenger conveniently ignored that. If she didn’t, then yes I’d feel discriminated too, but not automatically play the gay card.
I have been bumped out of my premium seat before and recently coming back from Maui my wife was bumped by a single person. Alaska Airlines has no way of determining your sexuality. And if your last names are not the same, you would appear to the gate attendant looking at the data base or the computer searching the data base as being single. In my example, our last names are the same and it didn’t make a difference. There is a high ratio of flight attendants that are gay, and if that is the case chances are they wouldn’t discrimate on someone of their own sexuality. And they weren’t thrown off the plan, the option was if the partner decided they didn’t want to move, then the option was to leave the plane. Both chose to leave. Non issue.
The fact that they went to the media first rather than try to work it out with Alaska first, also bothers me….a lot. If they were thrown off the plane or brutalized United airlines style, then absolutely tell the world. But they were not any of that and never gave Alaska a chance. Even when I know with certainty I was wronged i try to fix it between the business and i first. It feels like at best they misunderstood the situation or at worst had an agenda. You will notice in Alaskas response they don’t even defend themselves at all, despite that they likely have a defence of the other couple possibly having paid for better seats because the complainants never said they paid for the upgrade, instead they sincerely apologize and refund the two people. The fact that the employee is not dismissed or being disciplined by this pro gay airline, further makes me feel like Alaska tried to make the customer happy despite the airline not likely being in the wrong. Everyone records these things nowadays. So unless they can produce that or some other actual evidence, then i feel Alaska is likely innocent here.