American Airlines flight attendant throws two snack bags at a passenger’s head, then dumps water on his head, dripping down onto his cashmere sweater. By way of apology, AA gave him 5,000 bonus miles. [Elliot.org]
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…..was the attendant having a bad day? Somehow I doubt the man will be flying AA anymore.
I’m going to take a wild guess but planes move and perhaps she was holding the drink waiting to hand it to the person when the plane shifted and she spilled on his head. Shame she didn’t say anything or we might know more. If I had to guess she was in a hurry and spilled on the guy. Not that this excuses her lack of an apology…
But are they taking it “seriously”?
Isn’t 5000 bonus miles like the equivalent of $50? From what I recall it takes 25,000 just to buy a ticket.
+1 not blowing a fit after the first snack pack
-1 Waiting a week: It took me several days of thinking through the incident in my head before I realized how angry I was at this treatment and abuse.
I also have doubts about the veracity of this story:
I still said nothing to the flight attendant. She then started firmly patting the top of my head and the side of my face but said nothing to me. I thought the event was over but then she placed several napkins on the top of my head.
I can swear I saw this in a movie somewhere. Anyone else recognize it?
Did this remind anyone of the brilliant NicoDerm flight attendant commercial that used to be on TV?
“The seatbelt sign is ON! GOD!”
“It took me several days of thinking through the incident in my head before I realized how angry I was at this treatment and abuse.”
That guy must have the patience of Job; it took him several days to get angry?
Someone throwing stuff at your face and poring water on your head for no “apparent reason” and YOU and your GIRLFRIEND do nothing about it right there and then? Hmmm…story is a little sketchy IMO.
“dumps water on his head” –
Dick Donato won $500,000 last summer on Big Brother 8 doing this to one of the housemates. Maybe that attendant needs to apply to CBS for this summer’s show!
If this flight attendant was a woman and she had PMS, I don’t think she should have been on the plane.
If instead it was a man, force him into counseling already.
@mercurypdx:
Well, maybe one really needs to weigh the odds of being arrested for being “unruly” when the plane lands. There have been cases like that. It pays to be careful… but really, that is an awful thing to have happen. I would at the least have notified her (calmly) that the matter would be brought up to the airline’s higher-ups…if not the media. Where was the cell phone camera when you need it?
If true, it’s too bad the attendant wasn’t escorted off the plane at the next stop for a cavity search by homeland security, which would have occurred had their positions been reversed, of course.
Hey, 5000 bonus miles beats getting reported to the TSA by some PO’d flight attendant.
@ARPRINCE: Agreed. This seems shady. Can anyone here say that if that happened to you you wouldn’t have caused a scene, if not on the airplane then IMMEDIATELY after landing? And no one else on the plane, including his girlfriend, did or said anything? Just started “wiping it up”? What???
Plus the fact that the airline only offered 5,000 miles sounds like an F.U. prize – if this incident had truly occured as he described they would have known they were in line for a big lawsuit. There are a ridiculous amount of holes in this guy’s story.
@nrwfos: 100% agree that ON the flight would not be a good place, but doesn’t “in the terminal after we landed” make more sense than “After thinking about it for several days”?
@youbastid: I still say this was in a movie. The server proceeds to pour the man’s drink on his head, then puts napkins on it, then pats him on top of the head like “Good boy”, and slaps his face.
@ARPRINCE:
You dont “get angry” or do anything to create a disturbance on a flight….. otherwise you can be charged with disruption of a flight crew’s duties or something like that & be hauled off to jail. It can have serious consequences.
I find the whole incident a bit bizarre. Its technically assault (or is it battery?) & you better BELIEVE if the passenger had did the same thing to a flight attendant they would have made an immediate landing & the guy would have been yanked off that plane in cuffs & immediately jailed.
I think the same should have been done to the flight attendant. These people have too much power IMO. You simply dont treat a passenger like that no matter how bad a day you’ve had. Problem is if this indeed happened…. you’d feel helpless to do anything about it… especially in mid flight. The flight attendant should be punished if not brought up on some sort of legal charges.
Its a two way street… passengers dont have the right to treat a flight attendant like this & would have never gotten away with it, but it seems the flight attendant did.
Agree with most of the posts here. This story is “way too sketchy”. The way the guy tells it, he did nothing–not even make eye contact and yet he was physically assualted with snack bag and water????
Dude, if that happened to me you are damn sure I would have reacted. RIGHT THEN. Not a week later.
Obviously, AA knew this is BS as well. 5,000 miles is a joke.
If it was Canada and he complained, when he got off the plane there would be a bunch of RCMP waiting to TASER him to death.
Chain of events:
Passenger was hiding a bomb under his wig.
Air Attendant damaged the bomb.
He was glad she didn’t find it.
7 days later, got yelled at by Mr Bin Laden.
The passenger is now angry.
5000 meager miles later, he’s glad to still be alive.
@Aussie-Evil: Okay, what the hell was that all about? If a woman does something rude, we automatically blame it on PMS now?
Because, you know, it couldn’t be because she’s just a rude person, or anything. It must be her wacky female problems.
Agreeing with everyone that this is a little sketchy. Maybe I overreact but if suddenly water was poured on me, even if it was accidental, I would probably yelp or jump or something.
This is assault and battery. The flight attendant can be on the hook as well as AA depending on the circumstances. I would expect several thousand dollars out of this, not several thousand sky miles.
Yeah, this story seems strange to me, as if some crucial details are purposely being left out. Even as is, it doesn’t even make me feel very sympathetic to the “victim”. It’s just strange to see that he hardly reacted at all to the situation. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t often have people pouring water on my head. And if someone did, I’d sure as hell say something quickly, like.. “What are you doing??”
So maybe 5000 miles was even generous on AA’s part.
I suspect he left out the part where he said “hey babe, gimme a bit o’ that!”
“I would at the least have notified her (calmly) that the matter would be brought up to the airline’s higher-ups…if not the media.”
Oh yeah, I’m sure he’s scarred for life. Alert the press! *eyeroll*
Seriously, this story sucks. A second hand account of a story with absolutely no background? Lame Comsumerist, lame.
whats the other side of this story? flight attendants dont behave like this without being provoked. what triggered her behavior?
im sure he’s leaving out the “friendly ass pat” or rudeness part of his story.
not the worst I’ve seen…my dad was on a United flight where a flight-attendant and a woman got into a massive yelling fight because the woman asked if she could leave her tray table down for a minute longer in order to finish her snack. The flight attendant could have remained calm during the argument but instead she decided it would be more appropriate to yell, harass, and make threats. Eventually, the flight attendant called the captain and the woman was arrested upon arrival…all for just asking for a minute longer of tray-table-time.
At least the guy didn’t get tazed.
without giving more context, i mean, sometimes you wonder if these people are real assholes and perhaps sometimes you’d applaud them if they poured water on some total jerk. i’m not saying this is the case here, but you never know.
BS. You just sat there, and then waited a week? Please.
Well, if he had yelled at her or attacked her in flight he could be arrested. Let’s not forget these fas have a little more power after 9/11. They even have the ability to have a passenger arrested and I don’t think all of them have the intelligence to handle this type of power. I think he handled it correctly. I have met some strange AA fas and pilots so this doesn’t surprise me. There are good and bad employees. I would have waited until I got off the plane and then did something about it to avoid being arrested. AA seems to be getting a lot of bad press lately: Passengers dying in-flight due to empty oxygen tanks and the FA denying her oxygen, defunct defibrillator, then another passenger wakes to a passenger masturbating over her and she has sperm in her hair, and then AA is grounding flights for faulty wiring inspection. There is too much to ignore. AA needs to clean its act up fast or close its gates.