An American Airlines customer received a rude awakening when he attempted to board his plane and learned he was barred from all future flights for previously refusing to wear a mask on board.
The would-be passenger said he had to catch a flight from Dallas to Los Angeles for a speaking engagement. Because this is 2020, he filmed his exchange with airport employees at the check-in desk. The video was uploaded to the r/PublicFreakout subreddit on Wednesday night, where it has since received 62,000 upvotes.
“So I’m here at American Airlines, where my ticket still shows active in the app,” says the man, who is wearing a Trump/Pence mask pushed below his nose. “It wouldn’t let me check in, so I called American Airlines, and they said that I’d have to check in at the gate. So here I am at the gate for American Airlines, and the guy behind the counter that you just heard says that my ticket was voided.”
Several employees check the computer in an attempt to get to the bottom of the customer’s conundrum, as his departure time looms. Finally, a senior agent figures out the problem, and she knows the man filming won’t be happy with it.
“So, we have a situation,” she says, prefacing her explanation by saying she is not a manager, only an agent. “The deal is that you are not able to go on an American Airlines flight. You had some issues before, it seems like it.”
“Well, the one time I didn’t have a mask for medical reasons,” the man says.
The agent can already tell where this is going.
“Listen to me,” she says as the man stammers about receiving a “medical exemption” to not wear a mask. “I want to call a manager for you, but you’re gonna be explained the same reason why you are not able to travel with American.”
“That’s BS. That’s totally ridiculous,” the customer says.
“OK, I understand,” the agent replies. “We cannot do anything about it.”
The agent explains that the security department was in charge of blacklisting the man from all future American Airlines flights. The department is not linked to the rest of the company, hence why the man didn’t receive a notification and the airport staff can’t help him.
Many commenters, however, found it unlikely that nobody had told the man he would no longer be allowed to fly with the airline.
“Seems like he knew it was coming and played coy for the boys,” one user wrote.
“He made an argument I’ve seen so many times now as a business owner who’s had a disagreement with a customer then proceeded to deny them service,” another commented. “He acts like his ignorance of the cancellation is American Airlines’ problem. He argues that he wasn’t informed properly, like that’s even a thing. Like what’s his plan? He’s gonna go in front of a judge and argue that because he wasn’t properly notified he just magically gets to fly on the plane?”
Other redditors were simply pleased to find that in the year of anti-maskers and Karens, people can still publicly embarrass themselves and face punishment for disregarding rules.
As the top Reddit comment reads: “Welcome to your destination, the consequences of your actions.”
