A JetBlue flight attendant turned an act of kindness into a threat of ejection after a business class passenger gifted an eye mask to a weary economy class passenger. This is a really crazy story of flight attendant power tripping.
Crazy JetBlue Flight Attendant Threatens Passenger Over Eye Mask
Tyler Weitzman was traveling on an early morning JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Los Angeles (LAX). He noticed flight attendants distributing amenity kits to Mint (business class) passengers while he was boarding and asked if he could have one.
The flight attendant denied his request, which was totally reasonable considering these kits are for business class passengers. But a passenger seated in business class overhead the exchange and brought back her eye mask to Weitzman, seated in row 10.
But the flight attendant re-appeared shortly after, demanding that Weitzman give back the mask.
@tylerweitzman What??
Flight attendant: “Sir, I need to take that mask please.”
Passenger: “Uh, sorry?”
Flight attendant: “You didn’t buy a Mint seat, so you can’t use the Mint products.”
Passenger: “Do you have snooze kits available for sale?”
Flight attendant: “Those kits are not available for sale. You can buy them online, but you cannot buy them on the airplane. You can’t even buy them online right now.”
Passenger: “Well I think it’s a little ridiculous.”
Flight attendant: “But I don’t have 143 other masks to give everybody else on the airplane a mask. That’s not fair. Why can you get one but they can’t have one?”
Passenger: “You didn’t give me a mask, though. You did your job.”
Flight attendant: “Yes but you got it from the customer sitting in Mint.”
Passenger: “You gave a customer sitting there a Mint product.”
Flight attendant: “Yes, not for you, for him to use.”
Passenger: “It wasn’t a sir that gave it to me.”
Flight attendant: “What’s to keep people from bringing all of their food and blankets back here to their friends? They can’t do that either.”
The flight attendant makes a logical fallacy in her last quip; the classic “parade of horribles” argument. She assumes that if a business class passenger shares her eye mask, nothing will be able to stop other business class passengers from sharing food, drink, and blankets.
But eyes masks are distinguishable from food, drinks, or blankets. Eye masks are given to business class passengers to keep; it becomes their property. Not so with blankets and pillow, which remain the property of JetBlue. And food and drink is also unique because passengers can order as much of it as the want, creating a totally different dynamic than a component of an non-reusable amenity kit.
How JetBlue Responded
Even so, JetBlue chose to defend the conduct of its flight attendant. Addressing the incident, it stated:
“The policy does not specifically mention eye masks that are provided as part of the amenity kit, and after reviewing the customer’s video and speaking to him directly, we understand the frustration he felt. We are sorry we were not able to provide him with an eye mask as requested and that the thoughtful gesture from another customer caused him issues.”
That’s just digging deeper. As One Mile At A Time noted, no party was disadvantaged by a Mint passenger sharing her eye mask with an economy passenger. Instead, “The economy passenger got what he wanted, the Mint passenger felt good about doing a good deed, and this didn’t cost JetBlue a cent, since the masks aren’t recycled. Instead JetBlue ended up with an eye mask in the trash, an unhappy customer, and a TikTok video with over 1.2 million views.”
Yep. That about sums it up.
CONCLUSION
Even if we give the flight attendant the benefit of the doubt that her intentions were noble, we are squarely in the realm of “never let rules overrule common sense.” Sadly, a crazy JetBlue flight attendant won the battle but lost the war…business class passengers should be allowed to share their eye masks with anyone they deem worthy.
Or people can travel with their own eyemasks if that’s important to them.
They can…but that doesn’t really change the outcome of this discussion.
I guess I don’t like the term “crazy” in this instance. I would reserve for the flight attendant who tried to open the cockpit door and who was wearing a helmet. I would call this mask-gate FA power-hungry, especially since they techinically didn’t do anything wrong? And the tic-toc guy annoying? In end, it’s Jetblue’s fault for instilling the fear in the FA for getting in trouble for letting a passenger use a mask? I don’t know these answers…just my couple of cents…
You probably never forgot or lost anything?
The FA abused her position of authority to commit robbery. The masks belonged to the man, having the previous passenger surrendering it voluntarily and out of good will to him.
Matthew should file a class action lawsuit and settle for $1M in legal fees and a 1 cent coupon to members of the class!
This was stupid by the FA.
Now if a first class passenger asked for a drink or some food item and then gave it to an economy passenger I could see an issue but this is different.
And so what happens if you sit in economy and wear a mask you got from a previous flight in Mint?
You’re right on point Matthew. An eye mask is something that a business class passenger is allowed to take home. But the business class passenger is not allowed to take a blanket home. Is the FA going to come to the business class passenger’s home to make sure his family or friends don’t use it? I frequently give away my amenity kits after my flights. Is that not allowed?
I’d like to think the vast majority of people would agree that the FA’s actions were absurd and utterly lacking in common sense. As many others point out, the amenity kit is a gift to keep for the business class passenger. What they do with it is up to them. I fly business class most of the time and would never imagine I couldn’t hand off the kit (which I mostly don’t use and end up throwing out) to someone else who might actually want to use it.
Legally speaking, doesn’t ownership of the amenity kit transfer to the passenger upon opening? They are exercising dominion and control over it to the exclusion of all others no?
Therefore, the Mint passenger could have disposed of the property as any other including gifting it to another passenger. After all, they weren’t “sharing” the eye-mask nor expecting it to be returned. I would argue they gave it out of dispassionate and disinterested generosity.
On a practical level this makes little difference when you’re dealing with threats to be removed from the aircraft, but I could see a law student argument for theft here.
If people can pay for economy but still use a business eyemask, why would they pay extra for business class?
This act of kindness actually undermines airline pricing, causes losses to airlines, and will inevitably lead to higher prices.
That FA was protecting all of us.
Sounds absurd? This is how airline logic works.
When I watch the news it’s only passengers on airplanes that act poorly, so it’s obviously the passenger’s fault. They probably had too much alcohol, passengers and alcohol should be banned from all flights.
Seriously though, what if the economy passenger had a mask from a previous flight, are they not allowed to wear it on the next flight? I disagree with Uri, it’s good for business if I see a cool eye mask like that I might want to pay for Business next time so I can get one too!
I find it ironic that the flight attendant was berating the economy class passenger when in fact her ire should’ve been directed to the business class passenger since she is the one that gave away the mask.
FACT
Jetblue has never, in their 21 year history, kept pillows or blankets. The pillows and blamkets are either taken off of the aircraft by the customer or thrown away. Dig a little deeper next time.
FACT: You are wrong.
When was the last time you flew JetBlue in Mint Class?
No. I’m not wrong. It is and always has been jetblue policy. Regardless of seat, Mint or coach, everything left behind (including headsets) gets disposed of. And jetblue doesn’t have business class. Lol
One must wonder what would have happened had the hapless Economy passenger worn an eye mask from another airline… the sky would have swallowed him, the FA Gods would have drummed him off the plane, the world as we know it would have spun off its axis. Or not. Frankly, who cares? A small kindness from one human to another caused an overzealous employee to over-react; pity the FA if that is what she/he gets to hang her/his credibility and professionalism on – a sad, little life.
Just fly United Airlines. Ha ha. I see no reasoning at all for JetBlue actually agreeing with that flight attendant Please give me one reason why she would be right? Mint customer can do whatever they want with their amenity kit. They own it. And Tyler Weitzman never put up a fight about not getting a mask nor did he ask any Mint customer for one. Just fly United Airlines. I have been a flight attendant for 39 years. Still can’t believe this happened. I really do “smell” a lawsuit just for the principle of the matter. It must have been a very embarrassing situation for Mr Weitzman and it was not needed to be addressed in any way. Period
Hello All. I googled the name and it appears there’s a happy ending:
https://www.yourbasin.com/news/jetblue-revisiting-its-policy-in-response-to-video-of-passenger-flight-attendant-arguing-over-eye-mask/
In response to Weitzman’s videos — each of which has garnered well over 1 million views on TikTok — JetBlue has confirmed that the airline will be “revisiting” a policy that prohibits the sharing of certain items (food, alcohol, blankets) between Mint and customers in “standard core seating.”
“We are revisiting our policy to add clarity for our customers and crewmembers, and we have been in touch with the customer to offer our apologies for his experience.”
Weitzman later confirmed to Business Insider that JetBlue did indeed reach out and offer him a return trip in their premium Mint-class cabin, where he would be entitled to an eye mask with his Snooze Kit. Weitzman, however, may not need the mask: According to Business Insider, yet another Mint passenger on Weitzman’s initial flight gave him their personal, non-Mint eye mask after hearing the commotion.
Jet Blue should fire this flight attendant or publicly own the policy she is espousing as their own policy position.
I think the airlines and their employees (whose salaries are paid through our ticket dollars) have forgotten that, in the absence of flight or passenger safety concerns, the customer ALWAYS comes first. If you examine the video you can see that this passenger obviously has a vision disability, he initially asked for reasonable accommodation at the time he was seated and was refused. That more than likely would have been the end of the situation except for the fact that another passenger decided to give this man her eye mask. There are three constitutional violations here: 1). Federal law requires both public and private enterprises to provide “reasonable accommodation” for any disability upon request. 2). The woman who owned the mask had a right under the Freedom of Association Clause to personally accommodate this man’s need should she so choose to. 3). The removal of this freely given eye mask (private property) amounts to a regulatory taking and could be prosecuted as a theft as well.
Jet Blue should publicly denounce this shameful episode and discipline the petty, callous actions of their employee.
been a pilot for 20 years,, most of the issues we have onboard ARE flight attendant instigated or provoked.
Flight attendants are really getting nasty! Turning a blind eye to a one-off would have been the appropriate response. Instead she made a mountain out of a molehill.