Imagine paying for first class, only to downgrade yourself to a lower cabin due to bad service. That’s allegedly what happened to a traveler on a recent transatlantic American Airlines flight.

American first class passenger downgrades to business class

Former Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson has taken to social media, to share how she downgraded herself from first class to business class on a transatlantic American flight. Here’s how she described the situation:

I just downgraded myself from first class to business class on my flight to Milan. In a cabin of 6, 5 of the passengers were white middle aged men… then there was me, a 30 something black woman who travels in that cabin often, and a male flight attendant who thought I’d be okay with substandard service and persistent micro-aggression from the moment I sat down. He was… wrong. I don’t suffer fools, and i would sacrifice physical comfort to protect my emotional and mental well being any day.

As you can see, this ultimately boils down to two issues:

• The flight attendant provided her with “substandard service and persistent micro-aggression”
• All the other people in the cabin were “white middle aged men,” which she believes contributed to her getting worse service, as a 30-something black woman

For what it’s worth, she clarified that while her destination was Milan (MXP), this was actually a flight from New York (JFK) to London (LHR), as she took this flight specifically because it has first class (some frequencies feature the 777-300ER, while the Milan route just has the 777-200ER, without first class).

She also clarifies that she’s a Concierge Key member, which is American’s invitation only status. So clearly she’s a pretty loyal flyer.

I can’t say I’m surprised by this level of service

Unfortunately I’m not shocked to hear about this woman’s bad experience with service in American first class, especially as it was out of JFK. To put it politely, I find American’s JFK based flight attendants who primarily fly long haul to… not be among the friendliest.

Is it possible that this person was being treated poorly because she was a younger, black, woman? Absolutely, and perhaps it’s even likely. However, it’s also entirely possible that the flight attendant just didn’t care, and had that level of disdain for everyone.

A few months ago, I shared a story from an OMAAT reader about an experience he had on a transatlantic American flight, also out of JFK:

The greeter at the L2 door could not have been more rude. When we boarded the aircraft, all three of us were together and we told the crew member that. My dad, who is older, was the last of the three of us to board. The crew member asked for his boarding pass (standard practice, I get it) and my dad mentioned he was with my mom and I.

The crew member then said “I didn’t ask who you were with and I don’t care. Boarding pass is what I asked.” My dad, frazzled, then had to get the boarding pass on his phone. The crew member then let out a long sigh and went “can you speed this up?”

I understand that boarding is a tedious process and everyone has bad days; however the flight was nearly empty and the boarding group after us had yet to even be called to board, so there was not anyone behind him. After my dad managed to get the boarding pass up, the crew member simply pointed in the direction my dad was to go.

As you can see, this kind of service is seemingly tolerated. Now, I will say, downgrading is a pretty radical move:

• I imagine business class was full, so this requires someone else agreeing to swap seats; okay, it’s usually not too hard to get someone to accept an upgrade, though
• This must have been a very awkward conversation, if/when she explained why she was downgrading herself
• Ultimately there’s no real expectation of a refund of the fare difference just because you don’t like a flight attendant’s vibe

Anyway, good for her for doing what she felt was best in that situation. The move seems risky, because on an American flight out of JFK, you could just as easily end up in business class with an even less friendly flight attendant. Since this was a redeye flight, I would’ve likely stayed in first class and just elected to go to sleep (or maybe go through the whole service flow, so I can report back on just how bad it was). 😉

Unfortunately her situation is also what happens when you stay on the elite status “hamster wheel.” Was it really worth connecting at Heathrow to fly first class and then connect to an intra-Europe business class flight, rather than flying nonstop? Just to fly first class, which ended up being so bad that she chose to downgrade?

Bottom line

A former editor of Vogue booked American first class from New York to London (connecting to Milan), only to find that that a very rude flight attendant was assigned to her section. She claims to have then downgraded herself to business class, to protect her “emotional and mental well being.”

This traveler theorizes that she may have been treated the way she was because she was the only person in the cabin who wasn’t a middle aged white man. However, having experience with American’s JFK-based flight attendants, I wouldn’t necessarily assume the bad service was so targeted.

What do you make of this American (voluntary) downgrade?