American Airlines employee appears to hit woman with baby stroller, challenges passenger to 'hit me'

[danimagoo]

@DinkumThinkum

I will just conclude entitled woman expects to store all her oversized personal belongings because it’s her own goddamned personal plane, loses her shit when she cannot. Since we don’t have any video, and we’ve all seen plenty of that.

@Grahamers20021

In what sense does the employee “appear to hit” this lady? Perhaps “appears to have hit” would be more accurate for your headline, but then you wouldn’t get so many clicks, would you? Man, BoingBoing has really gone down hill since the sell out!

@Michael_Spike_Vincen

You look at her with two kids and a REALLY over stuffed bag on her back, you know she wanted to store her stroller no matter what because she didn’t want to have to go pick it up after the plane landed. This really does seem more of a case of a woman who doesn’t want to be inconvenienced with having to go to the luggage pick up area.

There are an awful lot of people in here making a lot of assumptions about this woman and what happened. And they seem to be mostly assuming that she’s a selfish person who tried to store an oversized stroller in an overhead bin when there are no reports from witnesses that that’s what happened. Maybe it did, but after all the incidents lately, why would you assume that? Yes, the video only shows the events after the initial incident. But why would you just assume the woman is at fault? Other passengers are clearly shown taking her side.

[cepheus42]

Couple of quick thoughts:

• We are really a pissed off nation these days.

• Corporations are REALLY angry and willing to flex their muscles and treat their customers like poo

• Then again, overworked, underpaid employees are part of the problem. All their profits go to plump up exec compensation and investor portfolios, not build a healthier, happier work force willing to put customers first

• When you board a plane, turn your phone on and video everything until everyone is seated and the plane is moving

• Fuck that, I’ll just take the bus. Or walk, I hear walking is good for you.

[danimagoo]

@cepheus42

Then again, overworked, underpaid employees are part of the problem. All their profits go to plump up exec compensation and investor portfolios, not build a healthier, happier work force willing to put customers first

This needs a million likes.

[DinkumThinkum]

In the absence of evidence of “the incident” we are free to create our own narrative, as indeed the author of this post on BB has done. I am simply creating the narrative I find most enjoyable and one that conveniently fits with my experiences of entitled passengers on airplanes.

[danimagoo]

@DinkumThinkum

as indeed the author of this post on BB has done

I reread the posting. The BB author is just reporting what a witness on the plane reported to Reddit. The BB author isn’t assuming anything. The headline writer certainly wrote a headline that is … attention grabbing. But, well, that’s what headlines are supposed to do. Perhaps “American Airlines employee allegedly hits woman with baby stroller” would have been more objective, but that’s semantics.

[Avery_Thorn]

So… there was an altercation. No one got beaten up and dragged off the plane. They were upgraded and flew on the same day. The airline has issued an appology, has stated that they have suspended the employee during an investigation, and will take appropriate actions.

Crap happens. It sounds like the system at American handled it a lot better than at United; just saying…

[ElQuesero]

Reporting says the family was taking this flight as part of an international trip. I wonder if a language barrier was in play here.

Can’t tell from the video, as the mom is in tears and the kids are pre-verbal.

EDIT: never mind. The update from Jalopnik explains the sequence of events better. To wit:

Morgan said she talked to the woman about the incident. The woman said a female flight attendant told her she could look for space to store the stroller because it folds up very small, but if there was no available space, she would need to check it at the gate.

“She was looking for space when the male attendant tried to take it away from her… and she said she told him the other attendant had told her it was okay to look,” she said.

According to the American Airlines website, small strollers can be checked at the gate but there is no policy about strollers in the overhead bin.

[anon61833566]

this is nothing like the united event at all. This wasn’t some corporate policy issue that mistreated a customer. This was an associate/customer confrontation. American responded very well to the incident. And it shows they aren’t as tone deaf as United.

My only question is the airplane captain stands there and just watches. Shouldn’t he have gotten more involved? Isn’t he ultimately in charge? Perhaps he reported his account of the events to American and that’s why they handled it as well as they did.

[Carbonman]

I don’t have kids, but I would expect a woman with 2 small children would need to use a stroller to help get her children and herself safely to the aircraft. It’s perfectly reasonable for her to wheel one child and walk the other onto the aircraft. I would hope the airline staff would then help her stow her possessions safely. If they had to put the stroller in out of cabin storage for her, so be it.
I guess customer service only comes in 1st class anymore.

[Papasan]

Was a time a person with a baby got some respect & courtesy.

[Auld_Lang_Syne]

Much better response from American than from United. But still problematic.
From their statement:

@xeni

American released a statement 20 minutes after the flight landed at DFW:

“… After electing to take another flight, we are taking special care of her and her family and upgrading them to first class for the remainder of their international trip. …"

Which implies that she chose to leave this flight. Surain Adyanthaya appears to have had a different impression:

Note the “in-voluntary”.

[anon67050589]

I’m feeling really sorry for what your mother must have gone through (is still going through?).

It takes a special kind of person to see one adult juggling two tiny human beings and immediately figure out how to find fault with her instead of wasting time feeling any empathy.

[anon61221983]

But… corporations are people too! What about THEIR feelings, HUH! /s

[L_Mariachi]

@Avery_Thorn

there was an altercation. No one got beaten up and dragged off the plane.

You set a pretty low bar for courteous customer service there.

[Enkita]

@anon61221983

But… corporations are people too! What about THEIR feelings, HUH! /s

Very sensitive little people too. Won’t anyone think of the tantrum-throwing children (in the C suite)?

[lumbercartel]

@Michael_Spike_Vincen

You look at her with two kids and a REALLY over stuffed bag on her back, you know she wanted to store her stroller no matter what because she didn’t want to have to go pick it up after the plane landed. This really does seem more of a case of a woman who doesn’t want to be inconvenienced with having to go to the luggage pick up area.

That’s quite an inference given the data available. Having personally had to manage twins while travelling, I may have a somewhat different view of the stroller and “overstuffed bag.” In particular, an international flight with two toddlers involves a LOT of supplies: diapers, cleaning supplies, food, spare clothing, etc. Never mind any of the personal items that adults also take for granted when travelling.

At a guess, the stroller was needed for transporting one of them while she carried the other and the bag.

Personal judgments in this case say more about the judge than the person being indicted.

[kermujin]

Totally. I wrestled with a damn stroller for a few years, including flying a few times with one. And its squirmy, unsleepy contents.
They’re indispensable (especially when one doesn’t drive a car), but man, they ain’t sneaky, and if a gate agent missed saying something about it, it’s on them.
I love how people assume that everyone flies all the time and knows exactly how everything is done.

Edited because the infernal device hates grammar and the operator hadn’t had enough coffee to pay attention.

[MaiqTheLiar]

A.A. are really, really great at loosing luggage too.
If you’ve, uh… got some crap you don’t want.

[knoxblox]

I’m anticipating future days, where passengers and staff have to face off gladiator-style to see who merits getting on the plane.

[anon55609254]

@Konservenknilch

WTH is going on with your airlines over there?

I suspect that the increasing racist and fascist leanings in this country have enabled angry and hate-filled authority figures to take their power to the next level. We’re seeing this in cops and customs officials. I suspect that in the last years (decades?) this kind of person is increasing drawn to positions of authority, because it fits their lust for power.

It’s disgusting, and I weep for our country. I feel powerless to do anything about it.