amyk's Blog

Tuesday , July 08, 2008

A holiday weekend flight from Miami to New York never got off the ground after the crew arrived more than an hour late and angry passengers intimidated them so much that they refused to work.

American Airlines Flight 1908 was scheduled to leave Sunday evening from Miami en route to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. But the flight crew arrived an hour and 15 minutes late, prompting impatient and irate passengers to boo — and worse, MyFOX New York reported.

One witness said some people used "harsh language" with the gate attendants and were "really kind of like being a mob about it. It was scary."

When a few of the crewmembers refused to work because of the "hostile environment," American tried to find replacements — but to no avail, according to MyFOX New York. The airline had to put everyone up in a hotel and fly them out Monday afternoon.

Adding insult to injury? Flight 1908's passengers flew into LaGuardia, but their bags arrived at JFK.

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My first question... why was the crew late?  In some cases.. by law the FAA requires the crew get a certain amount of rest in between flights, if that's the case.. they couldn't help the situation.  

If they were late out of carelessness or disregard for the passengers.. that's a completely different story! 

What would you do.. would you boo the crew?  Is this customer service at it's worst.. or customers out of control?