A comedian has alleged that former Ohio governor John Kasich poached her first class seat and refused to get up after being involuntarily downgraded on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Comedian Julie Klausner claims that Kasich was downgraded after Alaska needed a first class seat for a deadheading pilot on a New York (JFK) to San Francisco (SFO) flight last week. This is not the time/place to discuss whether a pilot should be in first class: it’s a union-negotiated contractual guarantee. Usually, the lowest status passenger or the one who paid the lowest is fare is downgraded in a situation like this.
Klausner claims that Kasich drew the short straw and was moved from first class to premium class, Alaska’s extra-legroom economy section. But the former Ohio Governor refused the downgrade, planting himself down in another person’s first class seat…which happened to be Klauesner’s.
Rather than fight, Klausner chose to take a later flight and shame Kasich on Twitter…
Omg this is insane. Kasich was asked to move to premium from first class & took my seat instead. I volunteered to take a later flight instead of fighting. @alaskaairlines, your employees are the BEST, sweetest people. And thanks, airport employees, for working without pay today. https://t.co/vmnBEIds0S
— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) January 16, 2019
— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) January 16, 2019
Klausner also added that Kasich was a jerk in the lounge (like this guy), conducting a loud conversation on his mobile phone in which he boasted about his new CNN gig.
There are two sides to every story, of course. But Kasich’s spokesman Chris Schrimpf offered only this explanation–
There was confusion about seating, the airline had given a pilot the Governor’s seat and then chaos ensued. He’s sorry someone lost a seat.
When asked to elaborate, he declined.
Alaska Airlines also refused to address the specifics of Kasich’s behavior onboard, instead stating:
We’re very appreciative to Ms. Klausner for helping diffuse an awkward situation by voluntarily giving up her seat. We made sure to take care of her on another flight.
CONCLUSION
I eagerly await Kasich himself to go on the record about this. The emerging narrative does not place him in a good light. I am surprised that Alaska Airlines would let anyone, even a former governor, just poach someone else’s seat. Perhaps there was confusion if a gate agent attempted to solicit a volunteer to downgrade onboard. In any case, let’s see how this story plays out. I hope the bumped passenger was nicely compensated for her delay.
What is your preliminary assessment of this incident?
image: https://www.johnkasich.com/ // H/T: View from the Wing
@ Matthew — This story sounds fake. I am skeptical, but if true, it may end his bid for the White House.
Any proof that it’s fake. Verifiable quotes from kadichs spokesperson, the offended party and the airlines. I bet you are a Russian operative.
Unfortunately I would very much doubt this is fake. He is an absolute pompous and arrogant Jackass and the citizens in Ohio are in better hands. And before anyone accuses me of a political motive I am NOT a Democrat.
Totally consistent with other stories I’ve heard about this guy.
The proper way to handle this offense is for the purser to explain to the selfish pax the airline will issue a bill for the stolen seat and reparation costs relating to rebooking others.
Or call the cops and have them drag the offending pax out of the plane… We’ve seen that for far less!
This incident gives rise to a number of questions.
When in the boarding process did the need for the downgrade become apparent?
Given that the displaced customer found her seat occupied why didn’t the FA’s direct Kasich to get up and take his assigned seat? I find it hard to believe that they were aware he was in the wrong seat and just ignored it.
If the downgrade happened prior to boarding starting why wasn’t this all worked out then? Why did they send him down knowing that he was refusing the downgrade?
Why did Kasich seat in a seat that wasn’t assigned to him? Did he think it was empty? When Klausner found him there did she ask him to move? Or did someone tell her that First was now oversold thanks to the DH and she at that point just offered to take the later flight?
This whole story just seems off. Since when do airlines allow people to just take seats not assigned to them and call it a day? Especially here in the US. I very seriously doubt we are getting the whole story on this one.
If you doubt this, you don’t know John Kasich. I have worked with political leaders for 25 years. He is by far the most arrogant and pompous person I have ever met. It’s just an example of why this guy should never be president. BTW I am a straight party voter that lives in Columbus, OH
Given everything else I’ve seen and heard about Kasich, this story surprises me only in that he was so brazen about being a jerk. With any luck, we won’t be hearing from him again.
The incident was over 10 days ago and on Twitter back then – why so long to bubble up in the news
Looks like she later tweeted that Kasich recently ended his governor term and this was one of his first non private flights since
Doesn’t excuse the behavior.
Look at her tweets…
She also tweeted that she told FA to be careful about escalating this guy (didn’t know it was Kasich at the time) because of the temper he was displaying and volunteered to take a later flight to ‘help out’ Alaska.
So Alaska didn’t have the need to follow through on its procedure to get him out of that seat – she quickly volunteered to resolve it. In other words by helping she enabled the behavior.
Based on her tweets I it appears he was irate upon boarding, and boarded right ahead of her, so he took her seat before she could sit down. And she quickly offered to take a later flight to resolve it before Alaska could get into a confrontation with him onboard.
Alaska Airlines should know the difference between diffuse and defuse…
Typical arsehole demorats!
Um, newsflash. He’s a Republican. Always has been. And a pretty conservative one at that.
Why was a deadheading pilot given a First class seat? Most DH, commuting pilots are grateful to get an economy seat these days, let alone one with extra legroom which was clearly available. Based on the information in this article, the FAs/Gate Agents mishandled this; the DH pilot should have been given the econ+/comfort seat.
Deadheading is used in two very different contexts, which can make things pretty confusing. Sometimes, it’s used to mean a pilot commuting because they live out-of-base. This is NOT guaranteed F by any major airline that I know of, and is entirely different from deadheading during a trip (e.g. a trip SEA-LAX, SFO-HNL-SEA) or something like that, in which case the pilots are entitled to F seating if the trip is over 5 hours (even displacing revenue F), and entitled to best-available seating (e.g. clearing before upgrades) otherwise.
ML is correct. A commuting pilot is a non revenue pax and gets accommodated on a space available basis. They (with very rare exception) will not displace a revenue customer and most definitely not displace a customer in a premium cabin.
A deadhead is a different story. A pilot deadheading has been assigned by the company to ride on the flight as a passenger. They are officially on duty and they are getting paid to be there. In many cases union contracts require that pilots be seated in First especially on longer flights. Normally this is scheduled well in advance and doesn’t result in a paying customer being bumped. But sometimes especially when the planned schedule has been disrupted it doesn’t get done in advance.
Hopefully the former OH governor never has to fly JamboJet. I suppose that would be unbefitting for such an important government leader.
I worked on Capitol Hill for years when Kasich was an Ohio Congressman. His reputation among those in the know is – policy wonk, doesn’t care much about superficial appearances, very gruff, doesn’t suffer fools well, and overall kind of a jerk in the microcosm. I actually think he’s a good guy, and would be a good President, but, having worked alongside his staffers for year (albeit 20+ years ago) this doesn’t necessarily surprise me.
It sounds like the Pilot is the one who poached a passenger’s seat and just left the governor and a random passenger to fight it out. The pilot could have sat in the open seat in premium and avoided all of this kerfuffle, but was probably making a political statement.