Are You Ready For Some Turbulence?
Most of us have experienced at least one horrendous travel day in our lives, plagued by impossible lineups at the airport, delays, cancellations, unfair policies, stress, and frustration. Airlines, with their sneaky hidden fees, tone-deaf marketing, and frequent operational nightmares, are so often the target of our exasperation and the bane of our existence, but it could always be worse. We have the viral videos to prove it. Here are the 20 biggest airline scandals that make us think twice before booking our next plane ticket.
1. American Airlines Flight Attendant Hit A Passenger With A Stroller
In 2017, an American Airlines flight attendant allegedly smacked a passenger with a stroller on a flight from San Francisco to Dallas. The altercation occurred after the flight attendant told the female passenger with a baby that she couldn't bring her stroller into the main cabin. A video capturing the incident went viral, and the employee was put on leave.
2. United Dragged A Doctor Off The Plane
A doctor on a flight from Chicago to Louisville was asked to give up his seat for a United employee, but he refused because he had patients to attend to at his destination. A video that quickly went viral shows the doctor with blood on his face being forcibly dragged off the plane by security.
3. "United Breaks Guitars"
United baggage handlers damaged musician Dave Carroll's guitar and refused to compensate him.
As a result, he wrote a song called "United Breaks Guitars," which went viral. The company eventually compensated him $3,000, but the reputational damage was already done.
4. The "Too Fat To Fly" Incident
Southwest Airlines got in some hot water when they deemed film director Kevin Smith too large to fit safely in his seat despite him purchasing two tickets. He made a highly public Twitter rant that sparked public outrage.
5. Air Canada's Chatbot Tech Fail
Air Canada got embroiled in an embarrassing legal dispute after its AI chatbot gave a customer inaccurate information. The chatbot told a customer they were eligible to receive a retroactive refund for a bereavement fare, but this turned out to be false. The customer took the issue to small claims court and won.
Levart_Photographer on Unsplash
6. Ryanair's Ridiculous Hidden Fees
Ryanair is notoriously cheap, sometimes offering flights for less than $15, but you'd better read the fine print before booking. They charge extra for every little thing and lack transparency in their pricing. A Spanish court even ruled Ryanair's hand luggage fees to be unlawful.
7. Delta Kicked A Family With An Infant Off The Plane
A family with a two-year-old child was kicked off a flight after they refused to give up their child's seat, which they paid for. A viral video of the incident captured security personnel telling the couple that if they refused to get off, they'd be jailed and their children would be put into foster care.
8. United Let Someone On The Wrong Flight
A passenger who intended to fly home from New Jersey to Paris didn't get the memo that her gate had changed because she only spoke French. However, instead of being turned away and directed towards the correct gate as would be expected, she was allowed onto the flight and flown to San Francisco. Upon arrival, she was booked onto the first flight to Paris, but she had an 11-hour layover and a total travel time of 28 hours.
9. Passenger Wasn't Allowed To Board Because Of A Name Discrepancy
In an unreasonable twist of events, a passenger wasn't allowed on his flight because his ticket read Doug, and his passport, Douglas. He and his wife sadly missed out on the $10,000 trip they had been saving for because of those clerical errors.
10. British Airways' Data Breach
A data breach in 2018 saw hackers accessing the personal information of nearly 400,000 British Airways customers, 250,000 of which included credit card numbers, names, and addresses. The company was fined $27 million because of the incident, the cause of which was deemed poor decision-making and a lack of investment in security by the airline.
11. Delta's System-Wide Outages
Delta has been in the headlines time and again for its unfortunate system-wide outages, with one of them lasting five days and forcing them to cancel over 3,500 flights. The repeated system failures led to absolute chaos in the check-in, boarding, and dispatch systems and affected millions of customers.
12. American Airlines Loyalty Program Overhaul
American Airlines made a lot of its customers irate when it changed its AAdvantage loyalty program in 2023, making it harder for frequent flyers to earn "elite" status. People saw the changes as rewarding big spenders more so than loyal customers.
13. Qantas Twitter Campaign Backfire
Australia's national airline created a horrendously timed Twitter campaign asking customers to describe their dream luxury in-flight experience with the hashtag #QantasLuxury for a chance to win a prize. The only problem was, the campaign went out during a highly public dispute with the company's unions, rife with strikes and grounded planes, so the hashtag was hijacked by angry passengers posting sarcastic answers.
14. Southwest Airlines Pilot Rant
A Southwest Airlines pilot went on an angry rant full of obscenities about San Francisco and how much he despises the city while taxiing at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. While it wasn't broadcast on the plane, it was picked up by radio frequency, and the incident was reported to the airline.
15. British Airways' "Dirty Tricks" Scandal
British Airways had a Mean Girls moment in the 90s when they launched a smear campaign on their new rival, Virgin Atlantic. British Airways staff would call Virgin customers, giving them false information, hacking, and spreading negative rumors. A media investigation exposed the company, and it had to pay substantial damages.
16. Ryanair's Standing Room Flight Suggestion
As if Ryanair's reputation wasn't already in the garbage, the company's CEO has made statements about the possibility of offering standing seats for a reduced cost on Ryanair flights. Although no plans have actually been made, the ridiculous suggestion itself was enough to stir up some controversy, suggesting the discount airline has little regard for customer safety.
Portuguese Gravity on Unsplash
17. Rats Found On Air India Flight
In 2015, an Air India flight was forced to turn back mid-flight between London and Mumbai when a rat was spotted on board. What's more, this wasn't the first time an Air India flight was cut short due to a rat: it happened twice in one year.
18. Air Canada Flight Landed In The Wrong Airport
Imagine getting on a plane and being flown to the wrong destination. An Air Canada pilot was clearly having an off day when he did just that, touching down in a completely different city than intended.
19. Boeing Whistleblower Death
The airplane manufacturer, Boeing, has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, its aircraft often being involved in dangerous malfunctions and tragic crashes. Matters were made much worse when two whistleblowers in the company aiming to expose the safety concerns were mysteriously found deceased, the circumstances and timing of the deaths sparking widespread speculation.
20. Alaska Airlines Door Plug Blowout
It wasn't so much Alaska Airlines that was in hot water when a door plug blew out mid-flight, putting everyone on board in grave danger, but rather Boeing, the company that made the aircraft.
The scandal was one of many for Boeing, and it led to the resignation of the company's CEO.
