While it’s hard to say that one party is completely at fault here, this definitely isn’t a good look for the airline, and it feels like this level of escalation only happens in the United States (thanks to PYOK for flagging this).
United employee reportedly rude to hearing impaired passenger
A Reddit user shares a roughly 2min40sec video of something that happened on a recent United Airlines flight. There’s not much context here, though the interaction as filmed provides a lot of the key details.
The man was traveling with his hearing impaired wife in first class. In the gate area, an off-duty flight attendant who was traveling as a passenger on the flight reportedly had an interaction with the man’s wife, whereby the flight attendant was rude to her, clearly not realizing she was hearing impaired.
Once onboard the plane, the off-duty employee was seated behind the couple (in Economy Plus), so the man reportedly confronted her, and demanded an apology. That then escalated, and the decision was made that the man should be removed from the aircraft for his interaction with the flight attendant.
The gate agent can be seen trying to explain to the man that he’s being removed, claiming it’s due to using foul language, though the man claims he didn’t use any foul language. As he explains:
“She was rude to her. So when we got on the plane, I tried explaining to her that my wife cannot hear properly. So instead of saying ‘I’m sorry,’ which has happened before many times with her condition, she just began to get ruder and snapping back at me. So what you’re talking about is removing somebody who is hearing impaired from a flight because one of your employees who’s not even on your crew right now was rude.”
“I want everybody to understand what’s going on. There’s a woman on this plane who was completely rude to my wife because of her hearing disability. She didn’t hear her. So instead, she was rude about it. So I let her know, and instead of apologizing, she continued to get rude.”
My take on this frustrating United incident
We don’t know what the onboard interaction between the man and the flight attendant was like, so it’s hard to say definitively where exactly the blame falls. However, two things stand out about this interaction.
First of all, I believe the basis of what this man says. I can only imagine how frustrating it is when people are rude to your hearing impaired spouse, thinking they’re just willfully not responding. I imagine this happens frequently, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to educate people about that, and to be a little more considerate.
Second of all, this level of escalation for airline passengers is something you’ll only find in the United States. People should be removed from flights if they pose a risk to the safety of the flight, and not because someone’s ego might be bruised.
There’s nothing about this man’s response to the gate agent that makes me believe he was a risk to the flight. I’d say his response is quite measured, given his level of frustration. Even if this guy did cuss, is that really a reason to remove him from a flight? Do we really think he posed a risk to the safety of the flight? Or is this just a case of pride and power for the employee?
I can’t help but wonder how the outcome would’ve differed if neither party were an employee. Something tells me that the man wouldn’t have been kicked off. If that’s the case, that’s kind of sad, because it kind of shows the culture of many US airlines — off-duty employees are held in higher regard than paying customers.
Bottom line
A video on Reddit shows a United gate agent attempting to remove a man from a flight for reportedly using foul language toward an off-duty flight attendant. The man was traveling with his hearing impaired wife, and the off-duty flight attendant made a rude comment in the gate area, presumably because she thought the wife just wasn’t listening, rather than considering she might be hearing impaired.
When he saw the woman sitting nearby onboard, he confronted her about it, and that’s when things escalated. She claims he used foul language, while he claims that he didn’t. Regardless, there’s nothing about this man’s demeanor that suggests to me he posed any risk to the flight.
Confronting someone onboard a flight isn’t a best practice, no doubt, and it’s not something I’d do (the outcome here is exactly the reason why). However, no matter how you slice it, removing a passenger from a flight over an interaction involving a hearing impaired spouse isn’t exactly a great look, and doesn’t reflect United’s “Good Leads The Way” motto.
