Passenger violates airline booking rules

[SKY HIGH]

http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/kids-don%e2%80%99t-try-this-shortcut-to-an-airline-upgrade-at-home/#comments

He put a “hold” on two business class seats, in an effort to secure a better seat on an American Airlines flight to Paris — something that’s against the rules — and he got caught.


So the lesson here, of course, is: Don’t break the rules. But did American react too harshly by demanding he pay $22,000 or 100,000 miles?

I think so.

 

[eolesen]

Been debated pretty well over on Flyertalk. Consensus was that this wasn't the first time the guy did it. Just the first time he got caught.

Travel agencies have lost their ability to book on AA for doing stuff like this. He's lucky it was only 100K miles, and that he got to keep the other 700K miles. You don't need customers like that.

 

[737823]

What an idiot. If you want to fly F/J pay for it. No one is too cool for Y. I'm in no way defending this man's actions but I wonder what AA would do if a non-rev held fully refundable tickets to protect themselves on a flight. NRSAs seem to be a fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents. Could AA discipline an employee for engaging in practices like this?

Josh

 

[IORFA]

YES, and they have.

 

[boston]

What an idiot. If you want to fly F/J pay for it. No one is too cool for Y. I'm in no way defending this man's actions but I wonder what AA would do if a non-rev held fully refundable tickets to protect themselves on a flight. NRSAs seem to be a fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents. Could AA discipline an employee for engaging in practices like this?

Josh

Yes they do repremand employee's. But the topic here is what that person did, and I don't see how this is revilant to employees, that's AA's business, not the publics.

 

[jersey777]

Bravo to American Airlines for doing the right thing. We need loyal customers...each and every one of them....but we don't need those that cost us money through their own selfishness. This guy STOLE those seats. Seats are a product to be sold. How do you think Target would react if a customer stole a TV set but he was a good customer and did all his shopping there? They would probably ban him from the store and maybe even press charges.

 

[Hopeful]

What an idiot. If you want to fly F/J pay for it. No one is too cool for Y. I'm in no way defending this man's actions but I wonder what AA would do if a non-rev held fully refundable tickets to protect themselves on a flight. NRSAs seem to be a fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents. Could AA discipline an employee for engaging in practices like this?

Josh

What's funny here is your bringing up what consequences an employee would face for travel privilege abuse.
I can tell you this.....A premium passenger gets treated far better than an employee. Many an employee has been fired for abusing his/her travel privileges.
Non-Rev travels is probably the only worthwhile benefit left.
And as for your describing NRSAs as a "fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents,"", what an elitist attitude. I suppose only big shot premium travelers like yourself are entitled to benefits while the rest of the dregs of society are expected to stand on the sidelines waiting for the upper crust to drop some crumbs.

There is no one with more of a sense of entitlement than a premium passenger. Expecting and even demanding more than they are entitled to while themselves monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents.

Give me a break with your condescending attitude.

 

[Imjustsayin]

I'm always amazed at how quickly these blogs turn personal. Amazed and amused, actually.

 

[The Goose]

What's funny here is your bringing up what consequences an employee would face for travel privilege abuse.
I can tell you this.....A premium passenger gets treated far better than an employee. Many an employee has been fired for abusing his/her travel privileges.
Non-Rev travels is probably the only worthwhile benefit left.
And as for your describing NRSAs as a "fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents,"", what an elitist attitude. I suppose only big shot premium travelers like yourself are entitled to benefits while the rest of the dregs of society are expected to stand on the sidelines waiting for the upper crust to drop some crumbs.

There is no one with more of a sense of entitlement than a premium passenger. Expecting and even demanding more than they are entitled to while themselves monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents.

Give me a break with your condescending attitude.

Put the self-serving twit on "ignore" - I did. If we "Ignored" more of these non-employees and didn't respond to their attempts to spread office lies, they'd go away.

 

[Mach85ER]

I'm always amazed at how quickly these blogs turn personal. Amazed and amused, actually.

Keyboard courage is an amazing thing isn't it?

The internet would be a much more civil place if posters would think, "would I say this to this person in a parking lot ?" before hitting "enter"

 

[PHL]

While I don't condone the offender's actions, he didn't exactly "steal" a seat. It's more like he went to Target, bought up all of one specific product, only to return them a few days later after there was no demand for it. Target, of course, doesn't prohibit one from returning merchandise. AA specifically has policies against holding multiple seats for this kind of purpose, and this is where the offender was in violation.

I also wouldn't condone behavior of booking multiple seats under fake names just to keep them out of inventory, but I am prone to believe it happens.

 

[Ralph]

Topic title edited to reflect actual topic.

 

[737823]

What's funny here is your bringing up what consequences an employee would face for travel privilege abuse.
I can tell you this.....A premium passenger gets treated far better than an employee. Many an employee has been fired for abusing his/her travel privileges.
Non-Rev travels is probably the only worthwhile benefit left.
And as for your describing NRSAs as a "fairly self entitled bunch monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents,"", what an elitist attitude. I suppose only big shot premium travelers like yourself are entitled to benefits while the rest of the dregs of society are expected to stand on the sidelines waiting for the upper crust to drop some crumbs.

There is no one with more of a sense of entitlement than a premium passenger. Expecting and even demanding more than they are entitled to while themselves monopolizing the time of FAs and gate agents.

Give me a break with your condescending attitude.

Okay, but lets not forget the word customer in premium customer. As others have said, it appears this man has a history of violating AAdvantage Terms and Conditions and abusing his privileges so I say good riddance. Besides, I don't think this customer should be labeled as premium since after all he's flying on an upgraded ticket. Sure its premium in the sense that he ultimately intended to be seated in business class, but the fare paid was economy. If he was truly premium (from a business standpoint) he would have purchased a business class fare. Much like I have clients that are invaluable, I'm sure AA has its share of invaluable undesirable customers that they could do without. His patronage must not be valuable to AA or else they would have been willing to work something out with him. By reserving the seats he didn't intend to purchase he prevented another passenger who was willing to pay for them-depriving AA of the revenue.

I do apologize for my tone and NRSA remarks, but it is a bit frustrating to see the behavior of many non-revs and revenue passengers too. As a premium customer (Executive Platinum, Lifetime Gold, Admirals Club, Concierge Keys) its frustrating. I've been on flights where non-revs have disturbed my sleep in 3-class First class flying to Tokyo by rummaging though bags and talking loudly to flight attendants while passengers meal trays go uncollected, glasses empty, etc. I fully respect it's a perk for airline employees but I think greater sensitivity and discrete behavior choices is necessary.

Josh

 

[eolesen]

I've been on flights where non-revs have disturbed my sleep in 3-class First class flying to Tokyo by rummaging though bags and talking loudly to flight attendants while passengers meal trays go uncollected, glasses empty, etc. I fully respect it's a perk for airline employees but I think greater sensitivity and discrete behavior choices is necessary.

Having been on both sides of the standby list, I think you're way off base. Most employees I've seen in a premium cabin tend to stand out because they're *not* the ones waking everyone up or monopolizing the FA's time... Sure, it happens, but I've seen far more of a sense of entitlement coming from a newly minted EXP or PLT than I have employees.

Back to the topic.... it's a lot different from buying up all the stock of an item at Target. If I buy 20 copies of "Elmo Does Dallas", they can re-sell them the next day, or relegate them to an overstock bin.

Doing that with airline seats close into departure doesn't work nearly as well.