The factual questions: what happened? is it legal? aren’t very interesting in my opinion.
What happened: Ann Coulter paid extra to reserve an aisle seat with a little extra leg room. For some reason, which may have been confusion (per Delta’s statement) they reassigned her to a window seat in the same row, with the same legroom, while trying to put two people travelling together next to each other. Ann was very upset, and tweeted nasty things about the airline, about airline unions (funny, since only the pilots are unionized) and about the woman who got her seat – including a photo of that woman. Delta later refunded the $30 she’d paid for the reservation, and said they thought her tweets were inappropriate.
Was it legal: Yes
What’s interesting about it to me is the opinion part. (thus, IMHO)
Was Ann in the right be be upset?
Would others be upset in her situation?
How about that airplane policy? When, if ever, should they move passengers around?
Did Ann over-react?
How much does it matter that her tweets don’t just go to her friends, but make the news?
I’d probably be mildly–mildly!–peeved in this situation. If I could figure out a way to turn it into a funny anecdote, I might mention it to my wife when I got off the plane. End story.
Coulter’s response was some deranged entitled elite bullshit.
It’s her right to be upset. In my opinion, the amount that she was upset was far outside what the situation deserved. She wasn’t bumped to steerage or made to sit among chickens in cargo, she received an approximately equivalent seat. Most people would not like getting moved but most people would handle it by grumbling a little, not with a multiple tweet rant including photos of the “offending” passenger who dared take her desired seat. Compounding it is that Coulter was informed at the gate that she her seat assignment was changed and instead decided to sit in her desired seat and throw a hissy fit when asked to move. That’s some kindergarten antics.
As I said in the other thread, her behavior was like that of someone whose order is wrong at McDonalds and starts screaming and making a huge scene. Instead of some “OMG MCDS FREAKOUT!!!” Youtube video, we get Coulter going apeshit on Twitter over a minor inconvenience. Can’t buy class with money, I suppose.
Her reaction may be over the top but she is entitled to be pissed off. I would be also. I haven’t heard a reasonable account of the incident so far, she is supposed to have paid extra to get an aisle seat, and I haven’t heard any legitimate reason for Delta to make her move. If it’s two people wanting to sit together that’s just too bad for them unless they also paid extra for that privilege, and did it before Coulter had paid for her selection. I believe Delta is entirely at fault here and shouldn’t be criticizing the vile cunt for her reaction.
She entitled to be annoyed. I don’t see where she’s entitled to sit in a seat that is not hers after being informed of the change, be causing a scene on the plane and sending out photos of passengers who “stole” her seat.
The person going apeshit at McDonald’s is “entitled to be pissed off” as well. Grown up people can handle being “pissed off” without acting like temper tantrum throwing children.
The legitimate reason from Delta would presumably be that it’s their plane, seat assignments are not binding and the ticket agreement allows them to move people if they feel it’s in their interest.
From what I understand she paid extra for a seat with extra leg room, not for a specific aisle seat, and she got the extra leg room.
There are any number of reasons they might have moved her. It could be because they had higher priority than her. They might have paid more for their seats if they booked at a different time, or have a higher Frequent Flyer status.
Well, she is being a bitch about it. I think photographing and publicizing the person who got her seat is beyond the pale. Although I do think, if you want an aisle seat and pay extra for it, and get moved, you can be pissed. Why didn’t the two people who wanted to change things around take the window and middle seat instead? That’s nuts.
I have traded seats with people, no problem, but I wouldn’t want a middle seat. As I’m generally in first class there is no middle seat. If I got bumped to non-first class I would also be pissed and demand a refund, because if I pay extra for something I want to get it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for her to demand a refund.
Imagine your business model is getting people into and out of seats as fast as possible. Eventually you are going to make a mistake or some adjustment and piss off the wrong twitter user.
That’s just business. If they dragged her off the plane by her hair for refusing to move from the seat she ‘wanted’ she would have more to tweet about.
I’m going to retell one of my favorite travel stories.
Years back, the GF and I are vacationing in Europe. As a seasoned traveler, I ask her to book our seats so we have a window and aisle. That way, there’s a good chance the middle seat won’t be booked. If it is booked, no problem, we’ll switch with the middle seat person. No one wants a middle seat, right?
After boarding and taking our seats, a guy (and a rather large guy) comes up and points to the middle seat, saying that’s his. No problem, I say, we’ll just scoot over and you can have the aisle. He then tells us he purposely books the middle seat. He doesn’t like the window (for whatever reason) and says he’s always getting bumped by the beverage cart when he sits in the aisle. The GF and I look at each other, figuring well, we gambled and lost, but OK we go to make room for him to get to his seat. Finally, he looks at us and says, OK, he’ll take the aisle seat.
After take-off, the beverage service begins. Not only does the cart bump the guy, but the edge of the cart catches on his shirt and rips a huge hole in it. We’re less than an hour into a 9+ hour flight… As you might imagine, hilarity ensues.
Was it two people? I assumed it was three people sitting all in one section rather than one across the aisle. Honestly, there’s like nine different versions of this nonsense story floating around.
Not that I think every potential excuse Delta has is acceptable, but is there some accurate account of the circumstances? Even if the other passengers did book ahead of her and pay extra and she didn’t pay for a specific seat assignment why didn’t Delta explain that to her at the time? Or if they did (and I’m not taking her account at face value either) why didn’t they explain that to the public?
One consistent theme that seems to stand out in all these airline horror stories – whatever version of the actual details you care to believe – is that the airlines have adopted some sort of bad-cop mindset.
Take any opportunity, no matter how frivolous, to jerk your customers around. Just to show that you can, to show everyone who’s boss here. Be on hair-trigger alert to find (and they WILL find) any act of belligerence, even so petty as a customer asking for an explanation of why his seat was moved. Take, even make every opportunity to escalate, from the petty seat-move request, all the way to dragging off the plane in pools of blood and broken teeth and handcuffs. Treat your customers with every petty indignity you can contrive, just to make sure everyone knows who’s the Bull Goose Bully here. And again, never offer an explanation for the most trivial things in the first place.
According Delta’s own site, the seating mix-up was “inadvertent.” Coulter first booked a window seat, then less than 24 hours before she changed it to an aisle. Due to confusion seating other customers, she ended up with a window in an exit row.
According to Delta, Coulter didn’t complain or make it an issue at the time. If this is the case, it appears that Coulter is attempting to make a mountain out of a molehill. She is deliberately making a minor mistake that gave her a seat equivalent to the one she originally booked into a horrible offense by Delta.