A passenger grouses about his girlfriend being downgraded to economy class and her first class seat being re-assigned to a pilot on American Airlines. But there are many circumstances in which this makes perfect sense.
Woman Bumped Out Of First Class On American Airlines. Pilot Takes Seat.
The incident took place on an Embraer E-170 regional jets operated by one of AA’s wholly-owned subsidiaries. Apparently, a couple were upgraded at the gate, but one was downgraded when it was discovered that her seat was broken.
But rather than leave the seat open, a pilot took it. What gives? Per the boyfriend:
You all are terrible. You (gate agent) upgraded my girlfriend and I to first class. You kick her out because broken seat move her to the back. Then pilot sits in said broken seat.
You all are terrible. You (gate agent) upgraded my girlfriend and I to first class. You kick her out because broken seat move her to the back. Then pilot sits in said broken seat. pic.twitter.com/F1I69By3az
— Jake Williams (@jwilliams0787) November 8, 2023
I can think of at least two explanations for why could occur.
First, passengers cannot sit in broken seats…but airline employees or certain non-rev travelers can (they are listed as “Additional Crew Members”). That’s for safety reasons and sometimes context dependent. A seat that is broken the recline position is a different issue than a seatback monitor that does not work.
Second, View From The Wing notes something that we may expect to see quite a bit more in the future: pilots sitting at the top of the upgrade list will bump revenue passengers vying for an upgrade. That was unlikely the case here since the new contract only goes into effect on December 2, 2023 and this was not even a mainline AA pilot, but expect to see a lot more uniformed pilots in first class (as we do now on United Airlines).
Under the new contract, deadheading pilots will have priority over passengers for upgrades. So imagine a situation in which you are upgraded at the gate but the pilot finds his seat is broken. It could well happen that you are downgraded so that the pilot can have a functioning seat, then another pilot takes the broken seat.
Finally, we might see more of this going forward as pilots become leery of deadheading pilots in the flight deck after the recent Alaska Airlines incident. In this case, the pilot in this case could have been assigned to a cockpit jumpseat, but moved to the first class seat once it unexpectedly opened so as to diminish (real or perceived) risk inside the flight deck.
CONCLUSION
A couple were separated after one was downgraded back to economy class after being upgraded to first class. An off-duty pilot ended up occupying the seat. While the passengers claim foul play, there are many valid reasons this may have occurred.
We’ll be hearing quite a few more charges of upgrade shenanigans, but it is not clear there were any shenanigans here. As always, communication goes a long way and often a bit of an explanation can often pacify angry. It is also not clear if that occurred here or if the passenger simply decided to vent anyway.
Matthew, please be clearer about the distinction between pilots who are deadheading and who are commuting. Deadheading pilots are traveling under the airline’s control and for the airline’s requirements, either being sent to work a trip or return to base from a trip. As I understand it, deadheading pilots are booked in positive space, would not be assigned a jumpseat, and are entitled to first class under the new labor agreements. I don’t think they bump confirmed passengers but they may be ahead of elite passengers for upgrades.
All other travel is voluntary by the pilots and under their travel privileges. For such travel they are entitled to use jumpseats and are only cleared for other seats at the gate, after confirmed passengers are accommodated.
The Alaska pilot was traveling on his travel privileges. He was not deadheading.
I doubt that pilots are going to want to give up their ability to travel under their privileges in jump seats, since this is a way to get onto a full flight.
Are you sure about the pilot being listed as an ACM and that they’re able to occupy broken seats? He was an other air line pilot so I’m not sure he could be listed as an ACM anyway. For the inevitable “it was a free upgrade” comments: Yes, it was and free upgrades are part of the benefits you are entitled to (if available) in exchange for your business. It’s absolutely in the airline’s best interest to continue that arrangement rather than give the seat to a nonrev….something that the airline gets nothing from. We all know gate agents play shenanigans with these. Even though this guy was in uniform, its not too hard to pick out nonrevs. The are almost never quite, wear their ids with all kinds of flair/crap attached. Their 17 bags that they drag are all adorned with either union, strike or some stupid saying like: “Flight attendants are to save your ass not kiss it”….or some other equally disrespectful or self-cheapening moniker.
In the case, there was nothing wrong with the seat. The gate agent thought they could get away with displacing a revenue passenger to hook their “comrade” up. Funny thing that gate agents don’t seem to understand is that their pay will continue to be stagnant for infinity to pay for these new earth shattering pilot pay packages. The pilots aren’t your friends…..your family is starving because of them.
It’s AA so I automatically side with the passenger. Fuck AA.
I agree here. AA is the absolute worst. They don’t care about the customers in any way. Customers are an inconvenience to them and they go out of their way to show it. There’s literally no AA horror story that I wouldn’t believe based on their past performance.
I’m with you on it being critical that the situation be clearly explained beforehand. The way this looks, the passenger got f***ed and a clear explanation is the absolute minimum owed by both courtesy and customer service.
It’s not at all clear who this pilot works for based on the photos. He could easily be a corporate pilot or ACMI pilot traveling under his own name. Most of those guys have fairly high status on at least one carrier, if not multiple carriers. It’s entirely possible he was on a full revenue ticket and simply had higher status than the person who wasn’t given the upgrade.
AA still should have done a better job explaining if that’s the case though.
What does the pilot union contract require? That is a legal standard which must be accepted.
And then there’s this: Why didn’t the male passenger accept the downgrade and let his GF sit in first class? It’s a simple downgrade for a flight, not a life-changing event unless the GF is that demanding.
Is there anything wrong placing the pilot in economy?
The comment about less deadheading pilot in the cockpit following the AS incident is amateur sleuthing.
I know a number of pilots and more than one have said no more non-revs in cockpit.
That statement makes no sense and you are using terms I don’t think you understand. In the United States a non rev is never allowed in the cockpit of any airline operating under FAR 121. Junpseaters, also known as ACM and XCM, depending on their status and agreement between certificate holders and blessed by the FAA are.
A non-rev jumpseating. How about that? Sheesh.
Justified. If you want to fly in first class then pay for first class.
So the non-company pilot paid?
I don’t know if Matt observed this, but it makes sense that it’s ok to give a pilot a “broken” seat as compared to a “revenue” passenger (who technically was upgraded and didn’t “pay” for that seat) because if the broken seat causes someone to get coffee spilled on their arm, they’ll sue the airline for a zillion dollars.
What a jerk. He stays in first and his GF is sent back to economy. Certainly they could have switched seats allowing GF to stay in First. She should hit the door running and not look back.
Why didn’t he give his GF his first class seat? Agree with Tee Jay, Then again, maybe she is a raging feminist who doesn’t want a man to switch seats for her, in which case he should hit the door running and not look back.
This article is the biggest bunch of uninformed nonsense I’ve read in a long time. Just dumb. The writer has no idea what they are talking about.
My pronouns are we/us. Thank you very much.