Did Alaska Airlines Discriminate Against A Gay Couple?

In the FWIW mode... 1) I cannot see for the life of me how this was anti-gay discrimination. Whether the seats were somehow double-booked, or there was an equipment change, is irrelevant -- the point is that a) double-booking is something that airlines try to prevent ("try" being the operative word), but let's face it, $#|+ happens, and b) equipment changes happen, period.¹. Anyone and everyone who flies/has flown, say 20x in his/her life will have run into the problem. Again, nothing intentional or deliberate: fecal material occurs. 2) It is a sad fact of Life in America today (indeed, the entire world) that people quickly cry "Foul!" -- it's become a knee-jerk reaction -- whether it's deserved or not. And clearly, sometimes it IS deserved, but not always. People do scream at black people barbecuing in a public park; people do yell at someone with brown skin to "go back to their own country; you don't belong here!" when in fact they were born in Des Moines; and people do discriminate against others whose partner is of the same gender as they are. Yes, it happens. But not every single action is a discriminatory one; not every interaction is a result of someone's bias. Yet people still quickly scream foul, even when there's no justification for it. 3) Nothing in the above story and/or surrounding tweets, Facebook posts, etc. seem to me to be discriminatory. That said, while my more cynical self agrees with @Tom Kay, that it's free publicity for The Abbey (not that that place needs it: it's been there forever and quite successful), I also cannot deny that Mr. Cooley *felt* he and his partner were discriminated against -- albeit his reaction seems to have been wholly overblown. 4) I was Elevate Gold on VX for several years, and am now MVP Gold with AS. In my own personal experience in dealing with AS, their customer service via their call centers has been amazing (even better than VX); the people at the check-in counter have been great, even when they're too few in number and people in the lines are stressing out; the gate agents have been really good; but that the FA's have been -- well, not "poor" exactly, but certainly disappointing. So, could the whole interaction have been handled better? Of course. What situation couldn't have been? But nothing about this incident leads me to believe that discrimination was the "force" behind what occurred. _______________ ¹ Twice, since the AS/VX merger, I've received email notifications from AS that my seat has been changed, period. No explanation given. Each time, I called AS to find out why, as the change appeared to take me OUT of Main Cabin Select/Premium Economy (both flights were on VX metal) and into "regular" Economy seats. Both times, I was WRONG -- I was still in PE: the first time, it was an equipment change from an A320 to an A321; the second time, the A320 will be (haven't taken that flight yet) one of the "reconfigured" Virgin America planes to add a row to F (12 seats, rather than 8), and the other rows were renumbered -- I was still in PE, but the row number indicated (as per the existing seating chart) that I wasn't. A quick phone call resolved each potential-but-not-really problem, and AS customer service was GREAT!

I have been a flight attendant for a MAJOR international airline and an elite member of Continental, USAirways, back in the day. ​Our rule of thumb, back "in the day" was that seat occupancy was 9/10th of the law. In 2008, my husband and I booked full "Y" tickets on CO from TPA to SAN and upgraded using miles... to get married. Our return reservation was booked on a separete PNR in FULL F class. CO had an equipment change from TPA to IAH. I would that both of us were downgraded to middle seats in economy. I fought it at the gate and won. We didnt sit together, despite all the "straight" people offering up their seats. But it was "our" usual Newark crew who celebrated our nuptionals with the entire F cabin being champagned to death ! It was NOT gay discrimination, it was an equipment change. It happens. And when you have spent nearly $4,000.00 on domestic tickets and are an Elite member, you have some arguing rights. Did AS descriminate ? I dont think so. Did they gate agent make a bad choice ? YES. Not everything is about who your boyfriend is.​

All the apologists overlook an important factor. They were already seated. The airline made a decision that the straight couple deserved the seats already occupied by the gay couple. Why didn't the other couple get offered the alternatives from which the gay couple was forced to choose. Spin it for the airline all you want, but this doesn't pass the smell test of just a simple oversight.

@Jordan - You can have your opinions. This is mine. First I am against the use of the N-word. But I am also offended by describing a race with POC. My ancestors are not rainbow colored people. I do agree making racist joke is not a joke. But I also think there should not be a double standard. Nobody should ever use the N-word regardless of your race. I find it very disturbing that musicians are using these words. Friends are calling each other using that word. Just because both of us endure racism means we can use it among ourselves? It is a bad word that should never be used. Now we all know that is impossible, that is why I focus more on context. So when a white person sings along a Kanye West, I don't think it's fair to call racist but I think that person is not properly educated in what is acceptable is today's double standard society. Same benchmark I use on Papa John, dumb move yes, racist no. And I believe the more society is pushing soon even the phase "n-word" that we use to describe the word might be considered racist. Don't accuse someone be being a racist if you don't even know the full story you are just fueling the issue even further.

It is the FA, with the approval of the corporate culture, deciding that it’s more important for a straight couple to sit together than a gay couple. You and many of your commenters don’t have a problem with anti-gay bigotry so you gloss over it and think the gay couple should “just get over it,” and “we should wait for the whole story.” As if gay people are automatically liars. Disguising your prejudice as fair-mindedness is the most corrosive kind of bigotry. I’m sure you would also have enabled Harvey Weinsteinby telling his assault victims the same things.