Comedian Slams American Airlines After Pilot “Steals” First Class Seat

A comedian is angry after he was recently downgraded on an American Airlines flight from Hawaii to the mainland. While his frustration is justified, does he actually understand what happened?

American downgrades couple from first class on Hawaii flight

OMAAT reader Simon flags how comedian Jim Breuer spent over 31 minutes ranting about a recent experience on American, where he and his wife splurged on first class tickets from Honolulu (HNL) to Phoenix (PHX). You don’t actually need to watch the entire rant, but let me briefly summarize.

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Long story short, a few minutes before boarding in Honolulu, Breuer and his wife were paged at the gate, and were informed that the flight was overbooked in first class, and they’d need to be downgraded. As it turns out, two pilots in uniform ended up in their seats, as the husband and wife were downgraded to seats in row 18. The gate agent offered them $500 each in compensation, but he found that to be insulting when they spent “thousands” on their first class tickets, and turned it down.

Now, the reason you’d want to watch this long video is to realize just how furious Breuer is about what happened:

• He says that the adrenaline of being lied to and being violated meant he basically couldn’t sleep for days, and he became “obsessed”
• He thinks the pilots “stole” their “tickets,” and he describes this as being no different than someone showing up and stealing your wallet
• He claims he has pilot friends at American who confirmed that pilots could never take seats from paying passengers in first class
• He started asking every American employee he could find about whether first class is ever overbooked, and he claims to have basically been told what he wanted to hear

You can watch the video for yourself below, as there’s a lot more drama that’s described. However, I think the above covers the pertinent details.

This is likely a misunderstanding with poor communication

I completely empathize with Breuer’s frustration. How annoying to splurge on a special experience, only to then have it taken away from you, and feel like you’re being lied to, especially without a good explanation, or sufficient compensation.

However, best I can tell, his perception of things isn’t completely correct, and it seems pretty clear to me what really happened. These pilots were presumably deadheading (meaning they were being repositioned for work at the request of the airline), and on flights between Hawaii and the mainland, pilots are entitled to the highest class of service, even if it means bumping a paying passenger. Here’s the relevant part of American’s pilot contract:

Pilots who are scheduled (allocated or rescheduled/reassigned) to deadhead will be provided:

(1) The highest class on board the aircraft, First or Business class, as applicable, on any of the following:
(a) transoceanic International flights
(b) on flights to or from Hawaii and Alaska
(c) and on flights south of the equator
(d) In no circumstances will a pilot assigned to deadhead on any of the flights listed in 19.D.2.a.(1)(a)-(c) above, be required to deadhead in any economy cabin. If a pilot is scheduled to deadhead to base on the last leg of a sequence chooses to deviate from the scheduled deadhead in order to deadhead to the pilot’s residence or designated city, business class accommodations will be provided, if available at the time of booking. If business class is unavailable, such pilot will be booked in economy.

Let me emphasize that this is different than how pilots on flights not covered in the above markets receive economy, and then get priority on the upgrade lists, even above elites. In those situations, no one will be bumped.

I see no signs here that there was any foul play, or that any rules were broken. For that matter, there’s too much transparency in reservations systems nowadays, and a gate agent wouldn’t do this to help their friend, or anything. They were likely literally just following policy.

Now, what’s most frustrating here — and I think this largely sums up the service culture at American — is how this was communicated:

• The gate agent should’ve transparently explained what’s going on — he should be honest in explaining that American needs to reposition a crew, and per their contract, pilots are entitled to first class; that way the passengers don’t feel like they’re being “stolen” from
• The gate agent should’ve proactively offered more alternative flight options in first class, so that they could make a more informed decision as to whether or no they wanted to take the flight in economy
• It would be nice if the gate agent also explained that they’d be entitled to a refund, in addition to whatever compensation is offered
• For that matter, the airline should’ve asked for volunteers in first class to downgrade by offering bigger vouchers, rather than forcing two passengers to downgrade

I think one important thing worth emphasizing is that virtually all US carriers have a similar policy with positive space premium cabin deadheading for pilots in some markets. So this would’ve also happened on Delta or United, though hopefully they would’ve done a better job communicating the situation.

Bottom line

A comedian and his wife were scheduled to fly American first class from Honolulu to Phoenix. Upon arriving at the gate, they found out they had been downgraded to economy. Understandably this is something you don’t want to find out prior to boarding a redeye flight.

However, what made this even worse is the way that the passenger felt like his seat was being stolen from him, and he claims he couldn’t stop thinking about it for days.

While I completely understand the frustration he must’ve felt in this situation, it sounds to me like American was following its pilot contract, which gives deadheading pilots first class on flights between Hawaii and the mainland. Yes, they get that even if it means bumping a paid first class passenger.

The big failure here is that this wasn’t better communicated to the passenger, as I imagine that would’ve made him feel less violated.

What do you make of this American downgrade situation?