Consumerist
Talk about crappy service! JetBlue is the number 1 and the number 2 airline! A man from NYC is suing JetBlue "for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California," reports CBS News. We're not going to judge the airline too harshly until more of the story comes out, just in case it turns out to be another upset passenger overstating the situation—but if it's true, it's going to be hard for JetBlue to wipe this story from the public's memory for a while. Especially with all the joke opportunities.
The passenger, Gokhan Mutlu, was traveling on a buddy pass, and says about 90 minutes in to the 5 1/2 hour flight from New York to San Diego the pilot told him to give up his seat to a flight attendant.
When Mutlu expressed reluctance to go sit in the bathroom, the pilot, who was not named in the lawsuit, told him that "he was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board," the lawsuit said.
When the aircraft hit turbulence and passengers were directed to return to their seats, but "the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts," court papers say.
Sometime later, a male flight attendant knocked on the restroom door and told Mutlu he could return to his original seat, court papers say.
We wonder if this is just a new corporate policy to reduce the attractiveness of buddy passes. To be honest, though, traveling in a plane bathroom—no strangers sitting nearby, your own sink, free to stand or sit the entire time, and the opportunity to spend most of the flight in your underwear—doesn't really sound that bad. It'd be like a very short prison term, and who doesn't want to get away from everything now and then?
"Man Says JetBlue Pilot Forced Him To Sit On Toilet" [CBStv.com] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
(Photo: qmnonic)
Comments
Will this be another story to slip between the cracks, or will it go down in the anals of history? We'll probably have to wait for the hole story.
Now, I'd like to see the nay-sayers blame the consumer on this one. :)
@dorianh49: *applauding* Bravo!!
I sent this bad boy in last night. So happy that it got posted.
But...what happened when other passangers needed to use the restroom? Did they make him get up, leave, then go back in and sit there after someone stunk it up?
Sounds like there should be something more to the story - like maybe the flight attendant was not feeling good and needed to sit someplace for a little bit or something.... but no excuse to send a passanger to the bathroom.
Dont flight attendants have their own places to sit on a place?
hopefully we will be privy to more information.
//to obscure?
What could be the reason a pilot would force someone to sit in the toilet for a Flight Attendant? Was she sick? I doubt a pilot would just force someone into the John without a damn good reason. Buddy ticket or not.
They should have played musical chairs for the flight. Good way to pass the 3 hours. . . .
The guy should've just turned the other cheek.
There is nothing they could have said that would have legitimized me sitting in the bathroom on an airplane.
I'm sure there's way more to this story. Maybe he was showing sympathy to the woman who sat on her toilet so long that her skin grew onto the seat.
What would have happened when the seatbelt light came on and he didn't have one?
I can't put my finger on it, but something about this story doesn't smell right.
There are jumpseats for flight crews in various parts of the aircraft, like the galleys. Why not put the extra person there instead of using one of the two crappers available to the coach passengers....
Wait, when does a pilot leave the cockpit midflight?
That's a really hard story to swallow. I would like to hear what the pilot has to say about it. The flight attendants have seats with belts and if the passenger seat was needed for some reason, he could have sat in one of those seats. I don't think we have the whole story.
@AD8BC: He probably had to MacGuyver some ass gaskets.
@SpecialEd:
Are you my long lost twin?
@durkzilla: As I heard it, only employees of Jet Blue are allowed to sit in the jumpseats.
I agree with most, there has to be a part missing from this story. It doesn't add up.
@durkzilla: Read the article.
I do wonder if he just willingly got up when they told him to vacate his seat, though. I would have made them physically forcibly remove me. (Admittedly, that wouldn't be too difficult, though.)
There are jumpseats for flight crews in various parts of the aircraft, like the galleys. Why not put the extra person there instead of using one of the two crappers available to the coach passengers....
Not everyone is allowed to sit in the jumpseat; someone traveling on an employee buddy pass almost certainly wouldn't. The real question is, why didn't they put the flight attendant in a jumpseat?
@missdona: I know people that have been seated on the jumpseats on other airlines...
@missdona: I'm pretty sure having a passenger spend the entire flight in the bathroom without a seatbelt violates some sort of rule as well. At this point we're just arguing over which rule/regulation JetBlue violated by doing this. If it were that important to the pilot that the flight attendant have the passenger's seat I'm sure he could have granted an override of the airline's policy and allowed the passenger a safe seat in the galley rather than inconveniencing the rest of the obviously full airplane.
@durkzilla: @missdona: You have to be qualified to sit in the jumseat.
According to another post on this story elsewhere, the stewardess was supposed to ride on the jumpseat but she said it wasn't comfortable so the pilot bumped this guy to the lav.
@APFPilot: I think we're using the term "jumpseat" improperly - I'm not referring to a seat in the cockpit behind the pilots, I'm referring to a seat in the cabin that usually is stowed or folded up that the flight attendants use during takeoff and landing...
@durkzilla: @APFPilot: Disclaimer- I'm just sayin' what I heard. I have zero knowledge of the rules.
@Chongo:
High five!
Dumpseat.
This story makes no sense whatsoever, and as another person posted in the comments section of this story in the Daily News, the flight in question had about 25 seats open.
Furthermore, it is against FAA regulations to be in any seat without a seatbelt when the fasten seatbelt sign is on, so that would also mean JetBlue violated FAA policy.
Also, if a flight attendant came up to you on a plane and told you to go sit in the bathroom for 2 hours, how many of you would go? Do you think your fellow passengers wouldn't say anything? I find this all very hard to believe.
If the stewardess was the one uncomfortable in the jump seat, she should have been the one to sit in the bathroom. I know you have to be qualified to sit in a jump seat, but is it really any less safe than sitting in the bathroom during turbulance?
He was just too pretty to be left in plain site of the rest of the plane.
My wife works for JetBlue so here are some company policies:
Any JetBlue employee can ride in the Jump Seat.
All JetBlue planes currently have 4 jump seats but only fly with three flight attendants (i.e. always an open seat if a different JetBlue employee were to be flying and needed a seat.)
If this were true then why give up your seat if flying on a buddy pass? Easy answer, if you were flying on MY buddy pass and make ANY kind of a scene then *I* would lose all flight benefits.
That being said, there is no way in HELL that JetBlue would seat some poor schmuck in the bathroom. Worst case IF the plane was full that flight attendant MUST have had a seat somewhere and he could use it. Otherwise, if the plane was full and this was a non-working flight attendant going home she would be in line to BUMP the buddy pass person. Buddy passes are the LAST person to get on the flight. They can be bumped for any reason at all since they are flying standby.
@INTPLibrarian: OK, so according to the article, the flight was 100% full and the unnamed pilot made the statement that the seats for the flight crew could only be used by an employee.
So, the pilot violates the FAA rule that states that passenger seats must have seatbelts INSTEAD of violating corporate policy to only let employees use the special flight crew seats?
I want to be this guy's lawyer if this is true.
In other news, I once spent 4 hours in an airplane bathroom on a 14-hour intercontinental flight.
...because I drank 4 mini bottles of wine. Ugh, that was a special kind of hell.
@coan_net: Sounds like there should be something more to the story - like maybe the flight attendant was not feeling good and needed to sit someplace for a little bit or something.... but no excuse to send a passanger to the bathroom. Dont flight attendants have their own places to sit on a place?
Click on the link at the end of this article to see the original CBS article. The pilot made him give up his seat because the "JUMP SEAT" the stewardess was assigned to was "TOO UNCOMFORTABLE" for her. He was not allowed to sit in the jumpseat since only JetBlue Employees are allowed to use them. I Guess Jetblue Employees aren't allowed to sit in the Bathrooms!
@MissPeacock: I submitted this one as well! What a story!
Bet the leg room was nice.
/not mine
@THINK_before_posting: If you read the linked article it seems pretty clear what happened. The flight attendant decided to let Mutlu have the last empty seat on the plane and use the jumpseat, only to change her mind midflight. But rather than violate company policy and let him have the jumpseat they made him hang out in the bathroom. So your "No way in HELL" seems be the case.
@INTPLibrarian: But you know what? If you had refused to leave your seat when asked to, they could have had the feds come and get you at the gate. Because clearly you are a terrorist. The flight crew can do whatever they want when in the air and everyone else just has to bend over and take it or face retribution on the ground.
I would love to see the lawsuit documents. I smell a crazy self-represented plaintiff.
If someone else comes forward to corroborate this, then fine, but until I see corroboration or that this guy is represented by a lawyer who (one hopes) did an adequate investigation, this just doesn't add up.
to obscure?
@Chongo: Nope.
That's a really hard story to swallow.
@SpecialEd: EW!
The Reuters report sounds like it's a more accurate telling of this story:
[www.reuters.com]
Basically, the guy was flying on a Buddy Pass - free (except for taxes) - and therefore, had the lowest possible standby ranking to get on a flight via standby. He understood this when he decided to fly Buddy Pass. BUT, the flight was sold out. A stewardess, feeling sorry for the guy, said that he could have her seat and she would take the jump seat so that he could get on that flight.
At some point, that arrangement no longer worked. We don't know why - perhaps she wasn't feeling well, perhaps she was pregnant and couldn't actually sit on the jump seat comfortably. Who knows? Either way, she needed to sit in a real seat afterall, and, given her priority in the seating order, she had every right to bump this guy from his seat.
According to reports, she did not force him into the bathroom, nor did the pilot. They forced him to give up his seat, which was their right. He was asked to stand. He only sat in the toilet while the plane was fighting turbulence.
If you fly free, you shouldn't expect to be catered to. He could have waited until the next flight, but he demanded to be on that one, and the attendants did him a favor by even letting him on the plane to begin with.
Maybe the pilot was wrong and this story was true, but what makes him entitled to $2 million?
When airlines are airlines stugglging, any judgment will be passed on to the rest of us in higher ticket prices.
4 airlines have already folded the last few weeks.
@durkzilla: You still have to be qualified to sit in those jumpseats. At some airlines the only qualification is to be an employee, at others (like southwest) you have to attend a training class.
I...don't believe this story. At all. Literally. None of it makes sense.
I was once on a long flight from L.A. to NYC and there was a woman travelling alone who was quite old and from a Middle Eastern country. She spoke no English and about halfway through the flight shat her pants (or bhurka). She was definitely not all there mentally either. Because she shat, it smelled awful so two flight attendants half helped and half forced her to the bathroom. Since the bathroom can't hold more than one person, they had to leave the door open and other flight attendants had to stand in the galley holding up blankets so we wouldn't peek inside. (Like anyone would want.) She was in the crapper for the entire flight home and they actually have seat belt like restraints they brought out to "buckle" the woman onto the crapper. Who knew? On that day, those flight attendants earned every bit of their paycheck. What was funniest though was when we got off the plane, her entire extended family of about 30 people were waiting for her with signs, flowers, and all dressed up. Little did they know Grandma had just shat up an entire airplane.
chongo: you beat me to it. Nicely played!
@dorianh49: I think you meant "annals" instead of "anals" - but then, again, maybe you're right the first time.
I'm not clear on "buddy pass" - is it buy a ticket at full price, get one for a friend free or is it something to do with the travel industry?
Um... this isn't the entire story. Even Yahoo! managed to get more of the story than you did, Consumerist. Please state all the facts next time.