Comments

1

It’s always a “full flight”.

2

I'm willing to give Alaska the benefit of the doubt... for now.

Until this report, Alaska has had a sterling reputation in the LGBT community. They have been generous donors to numerous LGBT charities in the Seattle area. They honestly seem like a more LGBT-friendly airline than most of the others. So it seems more likely that this is a fuckup on the part of a flight attendant than a discriminatory policy by the Airline.

The airline needs to make this right, but our first impulse should not be to needlessly sue our allies.

3

I want more info. We're only hearing one guy's side of the story (here, and everywhere else). Why was only one half of the all-male couple asked to move? Did he pay for Premium, or did he get a lucky upgrade, which was revoked when a rudely late but still legitimate Premium paying passenger couple arrived at the gate? Alaska seem to have handled the "overbooking" situation badly, but it doesn't have to be bigotry. Sometimes customer service just sucks, whoever you are.

4

I simply cannot believe that that an Alaska Airlines employee recognized these two tickets as a gay couple, intentionally double-booked it, and then a different Alaska employee decided to prefer to straight couple. The amount of steps for this to be a product of discrimination are quite high. Whereas the alternative, non-discriminatory explanation is straightforward and needs almost no explanation.

Of course, the boycott has already started, so Mission Accomplished.

5

"The airline says they inadvertantely (sic) double booked the seat and apologized for the error."

Bullshit. All airlines INTENTIONALLY overbook all their flights, a totally dishonorable practice.

7

Well,reverse the situation. Would you split a straight couple up so a gay couple could sit together? Nope, they wouldn’t; they’d go look elsewhere or get more creative. This didn’t happen here...

8

This story is bullshit.

I have airline clients. I worked on and off with airlines for twenty years.

All flights are "overbooked." Thats the normal practice of every airline. They don't kick ticketed paying passengers with a seat assignment out of a seat. At that point it's first ass in seat. They can maybe bump you for flight crew if they HAVE to get where your going or if your a business class upgrade and an elite-class frequent flier shows up. But you get compensated for that kind of hassle.

Somebody is lying. Unless this gay couple was flying standby or otherwise did not have a seat assignment the airline is lying. And once again an airline have another needless law suit they will have to settle.

If the other straight couple didn't get to the gate on time that's their problem. No flight attendant that isn't a pile of shit just up and kicks a paying customer out of a seat. They ASK if you want to take another flight. You can say no. And if you have half a brain you negotiate for a hotel, cash and/or credit for yet another ticket.

9

No room in the cockpit for them?

10

I would love to know exactly which seats they were in and whether they were purchased in advance or as a day-of-flight complimentary upgrade. Much of the reporting has assumed that one of them was asked to move from first class to coach, but the story really only makes sense when you realize the change was from one of Alaska's newly-created "Premium Economy" to a regular seat further back in the plane.

14

from CNBC:

"Alaska Airlines has established policy over the years in support of its LGBT customers. The airline has its own dedicated LGBT page for gay travel and runs promotional offers with a range of discounts to destinations to coincide with Pride celebrations.
"The airline also received a perfect score on the 2018 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which measures corporate policies and practices pertinent to LGBTQ employees."

Sometimes Perfect just isn't good enough...

15

thank you @9 and @11. you are the reason i read the comments!

16

Any update on Aaron Salazar, the Portland student beaten on Amtrak?
It has been two months, is he out of the hospital?
Any arrests?

17

Nice, let's encourage suing of a famously LGBTQ airline. That'll show the world.

But you really can never be too "woke".

18

What I want to know is - WTF is up with the straight couple needing to shift people around so they can sit together? Can they not go for a few hours of being separated?

It definitely feels like we're only getting a quarter of the story here.

19

@16 I believe the evidence was that he jumped off the train himself.

@18 Perhaps for the exact same reason the gay couple wanted to sit together? Perhaps the straight couple, like the gay couple, felt it would be "humiliating" to sit in coach?

The only question I really want to know is who had, by airline policy, priority for those seats?


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