If you are planning on flying US Airways, make sure you are either grumpy, perturbed, unhappy, or uncomfortable- anything but ‘angry’. As reader James learned, ‘angry’ people get grounded on a No-Fly list.

James wanted to see if he could price match a ticket he bought earlier to the current, lower price. When he attempted to call customer service, he was informed that not only couldn’t he match his tickets to the cheaper price, but that by describing himself as angry he would be considered a security issue. James paraphrased:

CS: “Did you say you were going to be angry on the flight?”
James: “I totally did. If I know that the guy sitting next to me spent $150 less for his seats than me, you better believe I’m not going to be happy.”
CS: “Well, if you’re telling me you’re going to be angry I’m going to notify security.”

James escalated his complaint, and the Executive Relations (ER) representitive backed up this claim:

James: “You can’t tell me you’re going to put me on a no-fly list because I said I was going to be grumpy on a flight.”
ER: “But you said you were going to be angry, and that’s one of the words we look out for.”

Sounds like at least one Airline is telling it’s representatives to look for very vague keywords. These could apply to anyone – I’m sure many of us have had an experience at an airport that made us angry, but that doesn’t mean we qualify for a watch-list. As for price matching the tickets, there is always US airways executive customer service.

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