It’s been a crappy few days for Alaska Airlines. It’s currently in the middle of a PR nightmare and it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
The trouble started over the weekend when David Cooley took to Facebook to accuse the airline of ordering him and his partner out of their assigned seats to accommodate a straight couple.
Cooley and his parter were flying from New York to Los Angeles over the weekend. They had purchased two premium class seats next to each other. After settling into their assigned seats, a flight attendant approached.
Related: Gay couple forced to give up seats on Alaska Airlines flight to accommodate straight couple
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Cooley writes:
My companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a [heterosexual] couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together. He was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane.
I have never been so discriminated against while traveling before. I was removed from an Alaska Airlines flight # 1407…
Posted by David Cooley on Sunday, July 29, 2018
As Cooley’s story went viral, a public outcry ensued.
@AlaskaAir just saw that you kicked a gay couple off a flight in preference for a straight couple (David Cooley flight 1407 jfk to lax). Why the hardcore homophobia at Alaska Airlines? #boycottAlaskaAirlines @virginairline
— Matthew Crawford (@BasicLegalmancy) July 29, 2018
This is shameful! I cannot believe that an airline in this day and age would give a straight couple preferential treatment over a gay couple and go so far as to ask them to leave the plane. https://t.co/ZzaDtspMwt
— Stone Cold (@stonecold2050) July 31, 2018
I am a straight person, but I will be spending my travel dollars with airlines that don’t discriminate against LGBT people. Shame on Alaska Airlines. Thank you for letting us know what happened so we can ALL make the right choice.
— murly1054 (@murly1054) July 29, 2018
Yesterday, Alaska Airlines issued a statement saying that it was looking into the matter:
When boarding flight 1407 from JFK to LAX, a couple was mistakenly assigned the same seats as another couple in Premium Class. We reseated one of the guests from Premium Class in the Main Cabin. We are deeply sorry for the situation, and are investigating the details while communicating directly with the guests involved to try and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and our employees value inclusion for our guests and each other.
Today, the airline has issued another statement, this time saying it was committed to making things right with Cooley and then pointing to its participation in various gay Pride events as well as its perfect score in the HRC’s Equality Index as examples of how its not homophobic:
This unfortunate incident was caused by a seating error, compounded by a full flight and a crew seeking an on-time departure and nothing more than that. It’s our policy to keep all families seated together whenever possible; that didn’t happen here and we are deeply sorry for the situation. We’ve reached out to Mr. Cooley to offer our sincere apologies for what happened and we are seeking to make it right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind. All of us at Alaska value inclusion for our guests and each other. Diversity and inclusion are part of the fabric of Alaska Airlines. We are an airline for everyone and reflect these values through our work with dozens of nonprofit LGBTQ organizations, Pride Parades along the West Coast and a perfect score in the HRC’s Equality Index. We’ll keep building on this commitment, with our employee-led LGBTQ business resource group.
What do you think? Do you accept Alaska Airlines explanation and apology? Sounds off in the comments section below…
DCguy
IF they have a “Zero Tolerance” policy for discrimination then why did discrimination take place? In their statement do you notice how they subtly tried to clear the crew of any responsibility.
It was not caused by a “Full Flight” The gay couple purchased premium tickets, they weren’t upgraded. The gay couple was seated first. The ONLY time you can kick somebody out or force a move is if the tickets were conditional “i.e. you can have this seat if nobody else shows up” but those were purchased seats and they were seated first, at that point the contract is enacted and the couple that came in late was the one to be reseated.
It was ONLY homophobia that caused the flight attendant to try to force the one couple to split up or get off the plane, nothing else.
Kangol
Exactly!
DennisBTR
I worked as a flight attendant for a decade. I also worked with the same flight attendant union that represents the Alaska flight attendants.
I suspect what happened is that they double booked the seat. This should never happen, but it does. It would be nice to know how it got double booked because someone had to override the system to make a seat assignment in a seat that was already assigned. So that is the first problem.
Generally, it is the gate agents, not the flight attendants that decide who gets bumped or moved in the case of overbooking the flight or double booking of a seat. The flight attendant was probably simply following the chain of command.
Complicating this is that maybe the straight couple booked together (one confirmation number) and the gay couple booked sepeartely (two confirmation numbers). So at first glance it might have looked like the gay couple were simply two individuals unknown to each other that happen to be seated next to each other.
However, once it was determined that the two gay guys were traveling together a reassessment of the situation should have been done. Had I been the flight attendant I would have immediately had the gate agent on the aircraft and explained the situation to him/her as well as to the pilot.
Apparently, that was not done and the flight attendant was unconcerned about splitting up the gay couple in favor of the straight couple.
A lot of blame to go around and someone was bound to be upset. Alaska Airlines is generally considered very gay friendly. They need to bend over backwards and fix this and make it right. In addition they need to put in place some better procedures that would prevent double booking a seat and some additional procedures to address splitting up couples regardless if they purchased the tickets separately or together.
djbear
You are correct DCguy in saying the first couple seated in paid for seats ought to be the ones who stay there. It may not be company policy but certainly that flight attendant NEEDS disversity training as well as firing.
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TomG
The problem is that airlines ALWAYS overbook flights, and this should be illegal. If people don’t show up for a flight give it to others on standby.
Mack
Alaskan Airline is only sorry because someone complained. Won’t be one any time soon.
Larry
And how much you want to bet that the hetero couple were somehow a “connected” couple? You can guess their connections.
paljim
Check Mr. Cooley’s Facebook page: some conflicting information regarding this incident has been posted.
Allegedly only one of Mr. Cooley’s party was ticketed in the premium cabin so when the other couple (both allegedly ticket in premium) arrived whichever of them was traveling on a coach ticket was asked to relinquish the premium seat. It’s also alleged that despite Mr. Cooley’s statement that he would never fly Alaska again it’s reported he attempted to board a later Alaska flight to LAX the same day.
GayEGO
Not according to this article which states – “They had purchased two premium class seats next to each other.” So they both had premium seat tickets. Maybe a Trump oops occured on Facebook i.e. “I meant wouldn’t instead of would.”. :>)
paljim
Here’s the original quotation from the article published in Queerty yesterday:
My companion was asked to move from his premium seat to coach, so a [heterosexual] couple could sit together. I explained that we were a couple and wanted to sit together. He was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane. We could not bear the feeling of humiliation for an entire cross-country flight and left the plane.
He doesn’t say anything about his partner being ticketed in premium, only that he was asked to give up his premium seat.
cgh0430
It is very easy for those of us on the sidelines to make judgements — and we don’t know the full story. In Mr. Cooley’s case, getting on a later Alaska Airlines flight would have made sense, given that he had already purchased two seats that, due to someone else’s error, was not able to use. They should have immediately offered him seats on another flight – maybe there wasn’t a later flight available, maybe the gate agents gave him shade and pissed him off — who knows at this point? His emotions were at a high point I’m sure, and justifiably so. Perhaps the Delta flight that he ultimately boarded was the next one available — long story short – don’t make judgement or try to throw shade without knowing the whole story.
paljim
Your comment about knowing the full story is appropriate; we don’t yet know the full story. Like many of these incidents the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.
DCguy
What a shock, a new screename comes in to blame the gay couple with a false claim and no link to back it up.
Wow, you trolls aren’t even TRYING to hide anymore are you?
jameshiggins
I know Alaska’s senior management quite well, know they have had openly gay senior management in the recent past, and do not believe this unfortunate event reflects their values. This is clearly an opportunity for front line employees to learn greater sensitivity to diverse families, and I expect the airline will drive home the need to do just that.
scotshot
Always nice to hear from Alaska Airlines.
Roy Moss
What a load of crap. Hey, if you’re a gay person and you want to do business with a homophobic airline, go ahead but please don’t try and feed the rest of us a crap sandwich and try and convince us that it’s lobster.
MacAdvisor
The terms and conditions of service for airline carriers give the carrier almost unlimited rights to not seat someone, however, once a passenger is seated, there are severe restrictions on unseating them. The airline likely lacked the right to remove the two passengers.
paljim
I’ve worked for two airlines, including a stint as customer service operations manager for a major US airline at O’Hare international Airport. I’m not aware of any such ‘restrictions’, it’s the individual carrier’s policy or protocol which determines how to handle such situations. Yes, it looks bad when a passenger who is already seated is asked to relinquish their seat. In this case, the two passengers in question (by Mr. Cooley’s own account) weren’t removed involuntarily from the aircraft. It was their choice to deplane when advised one of them could not be accommodated in the premium cabin but could fly in the coach cabin of the same aircraft.
MacAdvisor
Damn, I just KNEW someone would demand the specifics. I looked this all up over the United/Dr. Doa fiasco and wasn’t sure where my notes were. Found them a part.
OK, the document that covers this is the Contract of Carriage. Every airline has one, and so Alaska does, too. Rule 11 covers the transporting passengers. It give a “non-exhaustive” list of reasons a passenger may be removed. None apply to the situation here. The language does state, “Alaska may, in its sole discretion, refuse to transport, or may remove (a passenger) from an aircraft at any point.” However, as a contract, it must be performed in good faith. First, clearly Alaska can’t remove a passenger at any point. They can’t do it mid-flight, for example. Thus, the courts have held (and I can’t find my notes on this) the list may be “non-exhaustive,” but it does provide examples of the kinds of things a passenger may be removed for. Examples are an obnoxious body order, a prisoner being transported, being disorderly. Second, the passengers in this case didn’t do anything comparable to the list the airline wanted to removed them for. They were in their assigned seats and behaved in an orderly fashion. That would simply not meet the contract standard that would permit the airline to exercise their power to removed a seated passenger.
As to the offer to change seats to one that were separate and not comparable, that is not really a choice. Had the airline offered to other seats of equal rank on the same flight, that would have been one thing, but that was not the case here. They were not even offered the same level of service on a later flight.
Alaska is in violation of the Contract of Carriage by not having a valid, comparable reason under Rule 12.
MacAdvisor
In violation of Rule 11, not 12. Sorry.
DCguy
@paljim
How interesting, on one post you’re claiming that the gay couple didn’t have two premium tickets which is a lie, and now on this post you’re claiming that the terms Airlines must abide by really don’t exist.
We get it, you anti-LGBT trolls will always come in to blame the LGBT victims and defend discrimination.
RobertoinLA
An sincere apology involved more than just words. How about disciplining the employee(s) so it doesn’t happen again, monetary compensation to David Cooley and his companion for inconvenience, embarrassment and emotional stress. And donation to a gay right organization of David Cooley’s choice?? I’m
Traveler69
I am a travel agency owner. I will not be selling Alaska Airlines tickets or any related travel on this airline in the future. I have instructed all of my employees of this change in our policy. We do not do business with companies that discriminates against anyone. We have zero tolerance on discrimination in our office and with whom we work.
MacAdvisor
Zero tolerance does not mean you must impose a complete blackout. It simply means there must be SOME sanction for every violation. School bans knives, kid bring a dull 1″ blade on a key fob to school, the kid gets fob taken away, and the fob is returned at the end of the day with a warning not to bring it back. That is zero tolerance. Expelling the kid is not zero tolerance, but simply an over-reaction.
May I suggest you would serve your customers better if you simply told any customer who might want to fly Alaska about the issue and provide alternatives. For some, Alaska may be the only realistic choice and all you would be doing with your policy is making trouble for your customer.
Heywood Jablowme
Ugh — I wish we could have a ban on the idiotic term “zero tolerance”!
To borrow a line from the fictional Holden Caulfield, “it’s phony and it makes me want to puke.”
Vetteched
You might as well close your doors. Who are you, 1millionmoms? Get over it
Bryguyf69
I don’t know Cooley and I don’t know Alaskan airlines but based on what little I know, I will give Alaskan Airlines the benefit of the doubt. At worst, ithis is a case of implicit, not explicit, homophobia that is limited to a few staffers. By implicit, I mean that at this stage in history, we are simply more inclined to automatically assume a male and female as a couple then two males. Indeed, when I go out with a female friend around my age, we are often erroneously labeled a couple — by both gays and heterosexuals. Conversely, if two males are out, people usually automatically assume they’re just friends. It’s not homophobia but heterocentrism.
As others have pointed out, the straight couple likely booked their flight together with a single confirmation number while the gay couple did not. That would be especially likely if the straight couple was married and the gay couple is not. Similarly, my girlfriend and I often book things together while my gay couple friends do not. When I did graduate research, one of my areas for focused on the differences between straight couples, gay couples and lesbian couples. Whether married or not, straight couples more often identified and registered themselves as a single entity than gay ones, regardless of how many years they’ve been together. Gay men, especially, tend to retain their individuality. There are many reasons for this, but that’s a discussion for another day.
If there was a single booking number for the straight couple, of course, they’d be believed before another couple who had separate bookings — regardless of orientation and gender. After all, any two people can claim to be a couple. And that’s where this gets troubling…
As someone above pointed out, Cooley had conflicting posts on Facebook. And as you can see in the Queerty article, Cooley has apparently removed some of his posts. Most interesting for me, however, is that he referred to the other man as “companion.” That seems more like a friend, aka “traveling companion,” than romantic partner. Indeed, I haven’t heard gays refer to their romantic partner as “companion” for over a decade (remember the movie, “Longtime Companion”?). I also did grad research on the changing terms gays used for their romantic partners (from “lover” to “life partner” to “significant other”). The preferred terms these days are: boyfriend, husband, partner and less often, significant other.
I hate to be cynical, but it may be that Cooley was traveling with a friend, and to prevent from being separated, he misrepresented themselves as romantic partners. That said, as someone who is unmarried but in an 8 year relationship, I’m not necessarily in favor of prioritizing married couples over unmarried ones. Indeed, I don’t even know if the straight couple was married.
In summary, given Alaskan Airlines excellent LGBT record and some issues with Cooley (most notably, the use of “companion”), I’ll give the airline the benefit of the doubt. But only in terms of homophobia. I’m still bashing them for the booking error and for mishandling the situation. Because it was their error, they should have made every effort to displace others who had no claims of being a couple before displacing Cooley. Or they should have found a way to seat Cooley and his companion elsewhere, with financial compensations, regardless of whether they’re lovers or just travel companions. It sounds like the staff just dismissed any connection between the two, which is unacceptable.
paljim
It sounds to me like all sorts of assumptions are being made here, hopefully one day we’ll hear the facts although in this forum the facts will likely never be reported if they make Mr. Cooley’s story any less compelling.
I think it’s unfair to automatically ascribe discriminatory or homophobic behavior to the Alaska Airlines employees involved.
I think some here have begun to suffer from ‘homophobia-phobia’. It was a difficult customer-service problem with no way to resolve to the satisfaction of all parties.
Heywood Jablowme
“Companion” makes me chuckle because it’s a local supermarket chain’s generic brand name for its CAT LITTER.
Good research and analysis, thank you!
jay604
Having read the first article about how the Gay couple were treated left me feeling angry. Air Alaska’s apology will not repair the hurt and humiliation that they have inflicted on the couple. I for one, will never book a flight with Air Alaska and I will encourage my friends and family to do the same.
walterhpdx
For those that want a first hand account as to what ACTUALLY happened, take it from someone who was on the flight. Click here: https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/1024073122830602240
And then once in the thread, scroll down to user @geoffroth – because he was on the flight and has a lot to say about what actually went down.
Or you can continue to bitch and moan about a boycott that’s not just. Your call.
MacAdvisor
I am sorry, but I don’t see any first-hand account in your reference. I see the Alaska response to a twitter by someone not on the plane and a bunch of people who don’t claim to have seen anything first hand, let alone confirmed to be actual witnesses, commenting.
PinkoOfTheGange
Have a financial interest in ALK?
That looks like pot stirring while dishing fake tea. I would never believe, even the worse, FA would say any thing like that to a passenger.
PinkoOfTheGange
Why is there so much animosity towards Cooley?
Yesterday he gets virtually called a chicken hawk and today a high maintenance, word used around the kennel, on wheels.
Tombear
I smell a law suit, justifiably so.
Me2
It seems to me that the flight attendant mishandled the situation and should be re-trained. Because in my experience, the airline would give a brief explanation, ask you to move, and offer some sort of compensation. Savvy passengers may even be able to negotiate a good deal for themselves. So, I definitely understand why this couple is upset, but a boycott is a bit dramatic and is not necessary. They should be given a full refund, a travel voucher, and a sincere apology.
tham
I don’t really understand.
I mean, in the past, most airliners would offer incentives to either sit in coach or such to the couple who moved.
The “coach or get out” to one couple is beyond bs. To pick which couple to stay and then give the other couple a choice of bad or worse…is just awful.
surreal33
Call a lawyer…
Vetteched
God. I really wish that people would stop using their sexuality as a scape goat to be pissed off for crummy customer service. No wonder we cant gain actual traction towards equality. Good job fellas
DCguy
Oh look ,ANOTHER screename trying to blame the LGBT victim. What a surprise.
These trolls also very often try that line that pointing out or complaining about bigotry will cause all civil rights advancement to disappear.
How interesting, because we didn’t get movement on civil rights recently until groups started complaining.
Again, you anti-LGBT trolls aren’t even TRYING to hide anymore are you?
Vetteched
Oh yes please tell me more about how my out since 11 self is an “anti-lgbt troll”. This guy clearly had a bad customer service and used it as an excuse to scream intolerance. “Vetteched” is for veterinary technician, you douche canoe. Im sure that you have probably been charged extra for lemon and sugar at a restaurant and screamed bigotry. Get over yourself! The definition of discrimination gets blurred when you “let me speak to your manager” types are constantly discounting ACTUAL discrimination. Dear god.
Vetteched
Also! He looks like the male equivalent of that “let me speak to your manager” meme lady. We are all aware that gay men can be total assholes just like everyone elae right? I mean…..I can be an asshole. I have also jumped straight into the conclusion pool the moment I get mistreated. But I take a fucking step back and remember what that actually looks like. When we classify things like this as discriminatory we are discounting actual discriminatory incidences. Shame on them. To that point, shame on a lot of you for getting on this ridiculous bandwagon. I would say “unbelievable!” but at this point, I can’t anymore.
TomG
The problem is that airlines ALWAYS overbook flights, and this should be illegal. If people don’t show up for a flight give it to others on standby.
Aires the Ram
I read the story, read all these threads, read the twitter feed, and my personal conclusion is that there are too many holes in this story to blame anybody. Sounds more like an unfortunate incident that can often happen when one travels. It’s not fun, but it happens. Additionally, just because a business (in this case Alaska Air) has an EEO policy of non-discrimination that includes sexual orientation, doesn’t mean for a hot minute that there are not homophobic people at all levels of the organization. Perhaps the true and COMPLETE facts about this will see the light of day in the near future. Or not.
DCguy
Oh look, ANOTHER screename that regularly comes on here to defend anti-LGBT bigots keeps trying to push the narrative that there are holes in the story…..AFTER ALASKA AIRLINES HAS ALREADY CONFIRMED THE STORY.
Seriously, you trolls aren’t even trying anymore.
Aires the Ram
Honey, did you forget to take your meds today?
MaxTaste
Considering why Alaska Airlines flight 261 crashed, I won’t fly Alaska to this day.