I thought that first class seat was mine until it was snatched away by a FAM (Chris McGinnis)
Here’s an interesting reader report about losing a first class seat to an air marshall. Has this ever happened to you?
Chris, I am an avid reader of your site. Have you ever done a story about the Federal Air Marshal service and their inclination to travel first class? It came to my attention recently because my wife and I had award tickets from LAX to London with seats that were confirmed and assigned in first class. In double checking the details before the flight my wife’s assigned seat suddenly became unassigned and the first cabin was full. In calling American Airlines and eventually talking to the supervisor it became clear that American had nothing to do with it and there was in fact nothing they could do. Further research showed that the only explanation was that a federal air marshal decided they wanted that seat. American did what they could to accommodate us but obviously we lost our first class seats.
I am a course 100 percent in favor of security and would be very happy to have an air marshal on that flight. However the 777 American is using only had two rows in first class and plenty of empty seats in business class very close to the pilot. If there was a legitimate national security reason that my wife lost her seat then that’s just something we would accept.
However in doing more research and it seems that the Federal Air Marshal service has been accused of being a bunch of cowboys that just like to travel first class whenever they feel like it and they consider it to be a perk to take a confirmed seat whenever the whim strikes. I can understand there may be occasions when a situation arises and they did not have the opportunity to reserve a seat ahead of time. However there are stories on the internet about air marshals demanding first-class seats on flights where it was not clear they were performing a professional service.
Any rate in all my years of flying this is the first time I have run across it but in looking at the Internet it is a problem that strikes apparently on a frequent basis. I’m sure the airlines also do not like having customers who have first-class tickets either through awards or payment to be displaced at the last minute.
I thought it may be of interest to your readers although of course I would not want to be identified. Thanks
L.R.
Hi L.R: Yes, you are not alone in the frustration of losing a first class seat assignment due to the presence of an federal air marshal or FAM. Since FAMs always work in teams, when there is one air marshal on board in first, there’s another one onboard somewhere else… in either coach, business or first class. While it always seems unfair to experience the joy of an upgrade, only to have it yanked away from you at the last minute, FAMs do ride in first class so they can guard cockpit doors.
The same thing happened to me recently on a Virgin America flight to San Francisco. I used my Elevate points for a last minute upgrade to first class (over the phone) and was assigned seat 2A. But when I got to the airport and printed out my boarding pass, I had been reassigned to economy class…and not even Main Cabin Select! When I protested to airline staff, I got a sheepish “there’s not anything we can do about this” look. I was not a happy camper, but I guess it’s the price we pay for better security. The key is to get your money or points back if downgraded and the airlines don’t always make that easy.
There was a move afoot about five years ago where airlines petitioned the government to end the practice of allowing air marshals in first class, but that sorta died without a final ruling…unless I missed something.
Readers, what are your thoughts and experienced with federal air marshals? Ever been bumped by one? Please leave your comments below.
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Brainless. You still think its security theater. So sad.
Idiot
You don’t get compensation. The air marshals travel, depending on the flight, one in each cabin. It can’t be an exact science or everyone would know but in general they are spread across the plane evenly, one in each cabin. American was not able to do anything about this. By not choosing to fly AA again, you only shoot yourself in the foot as DL and UA and others must comply the same way. Also, the marshals rotate through the cabins as they are stuck flying constantly in those cramped seats.
I upgraded my wife and I’s tickets to first class as a wedding present. Flying from Miami to Los Angeles, I had a reservation for 4A and 4B. The day before my flight, I was moved to 5F. The flight attendant told the man in 4B “welcome back, and in your usual seat.” We were very upset to be separated. After 5 long phone calls with supervisors and 5 emails to complaint team, American Airlines refused to make a bad experience better. I was denied multiple times my request for a refund on the cost of the first class upgrade. The value of my upgrades was 30,000 points plus $150. On my third email I was granted 2,500 points, which won’t be useful if I never fly American Airlines again.
Has anyone had a better experience recieving compensation from on another airline?
A few years ago, I was on a night flight in a two-cabin aircraft, Business First … there was a young-ish man who began to catch my attention. While everyone else (but me) slept, he stayed up, reading … the flight attendants did bring him coffee and water and, occasionally, I could hear them chatting softly. I WONDERED who he was; now, I think I know. So, before we get all worked up about air marshals taking front-of-aircraft seating, think about their jobs … I give the guy lots of credit.
Gotta love the obligatory and meaningless
“thank you for your service”
There is not a single shred of fact or evidence in this entire article that indicates L.R was bumped by a FAM. Chris, I hope you’re not converting this blog into a gossip tabloid.
I travel extensively and have the luxury of doing so in First Class thanks to our corporate policy. That said, I have been bumped out of First Class at the last minute on at least a dozen occasions, and never with an explanation from the flight crew (Probably because I don’t push the issue to0 hard when it happens).
Having friends in the industry, I decided to inquire about the policy. Although Federal Air Marshal seating is one of the reasons why one gets bumped, its the exception rather than the rule. According to my friends, people get bumped for a variety of reasons, to include celebrities, Politicians, Airline or corporate executives and, most of all, last minute Elite status passengers or passengers with a higher frequent flyer status who request an upgrade.
One thing that struck me is I was told that flight attendants, when pushed hard for an explanation by the bumped passenger, more often than not use the Air Marshal excuse regardless of whether or not its true. Their rational for this is that passengers often get upset at being told they were bumped because they had a lower status, but don’t get upset when told its for security reasons (Air Marshals). Its their way of avoiding a potential customer service issue..
Bottom line is airlines will do whatever is necessary to hold on to their most loyal individual and corporate customers, and bumping someone else out of First Class is one way of doing so..
Bumping occurs from more things than air marshals. I recall reading that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, had an arrangement with Air France where he could travel first-class on any Air France flight at any time. He could just show up at the airport without a ticket and walk onto the plane, bumping whoever he needed to back to business class or coach. I bet other airlines have similar arrangements with very high-ranking personages. (Now that’s a privilege that I would enjoy very much.)
Sky marshals do important work. I once had a friend who got a job as a sky marshal right after all the plane hijackings got really bad and Nixon starting putting armed agents on planes. My friend flew around the world 83 times in first class. He liked it at first, but he got really tired of it pretty soon and I seem to recall he had some medical issues connected to all that flying.
But the airlines could do a better job of smoothing passengers’ ruffled feathers. I once was on a business-class flight from Paris to Washington Dulles and the flight was abruptly canceled. The agent who rebooked me simply assigned me a coach seat on the next day’s flight, and I had to fight pretty hard to get him to find a business-class seat for me. (I had paid for the seat, it wasn’t an upgrade.) The airline’s whole attitude was “Well, as long as we get you a seat, you should be happy.” Um, no…
Row 2 aisle is the preferred row for FAMs as it has better visibility vs. the bulkhead. FAMs are assigned randomly and late to prevent anyone tracking which flights they are on. They may be the only part of the TSA that is effective. As someone who has flown over 3M miles, FAMs are more than welcome to take “my” seat (it has happened) and thank you for your service.
Just another example of security theater.
I’m all for security as well, but these flights are scheduled over a year in advance. Unless there’s an equipment change, the FAMs should know their schedules and have their seats picked out well ahead of time so they don’t have to bump passengers. I suppose that the FAMs could argue that intelligence caused specific security concerns and that’s why they didn’t book the flight ahead of time. If that’s the case, I agree with Tom — passengers who do get moved should have the opportunity to book on another flight or get compensated somehow, with the air marshals picking up the bill.
My understanding from dealing with this is that the airline can’t even tell you why they took the seat, for obvious reasons. This has only happened to me though when I have upgraded, never on paid F.
I’m ok with this as long as the passenger gets ALL the miles/points back, i..e not just the difference between first and business. Also, LAX-LON does have more than one flight a day (AA/BA). The airline should just rebook the pax onto the next flight in F and send the bill to FAM.