United Passenger Says Seatmate Pleasured Himself In First Class—She Got 50,000 Miles

A woman bought first class on a United Airlines redeye from San Diego to Newark so she could recline and sleep. She says the man beside her watched porn and masturbated instead. She wound up with 50,000 miles. He wound up banned pending an investigation. Who knew there was a MileagePlus compensation category for this? Unfortunately, there’s enough precedent for airlines to assemble a standard chart. The woman noticed movement beneath his blanket shortly after takeoff. His reclined seat blocked her way out of the window seat. She climbed past him to tell the crew, but says they didn’t offer to move her until she returned and expressly asked, prompted by flight attendant friends she was texting who told her to make the request. She switched seats with another passenger. She figured the concern would be taken seriously, but no police met the aircraft – so she contacted the FBI herself after the fact. An airline supervisor acknowledged mishandling her case and offered $1,000 in travel credit or 50,000 miles. She chose miles. Bleeding The Lizard Is A Compensable Offense At face value, $1,000 versus 50,000 miles makes the choice a two cent per mile tradeoff. Whether the miles were the better choice depends on how she’d use them and of course the credit isn’t as valuable as cash. Last month I covered a different woman who said United’s crew sent her back to sit beside a man she’d reported for masturbating, on a Rochester–Newark flight. She received a $100 credit. In 2023, American offered a woman 5,000 miles after she reported a man fondling himself on an Orlando–Dallas flight. These aren’t published benefits, but perhaps they should be. Airline customer service has managed to make sexual misconduct another situation where you have to compare currencies. JetBlue even managed to bring elite status into it. In March, a crew reported a passenger in Mint seat 5C for choking the chicken, gave him a written warning, and asked whether police or security would meet the aircraft? Their message noted he was Mosaic 4, the airline’s top status tier. The man’s worst moment came with recognition of his loyalty. United has been talking about training for this for years. I wrote in February 2020 about training flight attendants to stop onboard porn viewing. United also pointed then to strengthened sexual harassment training dating to 2018. Stop Spanking The Monkey On Commercial Flights The recent American Airlines woman was on a September 11 Baltimore – Miami flight when crew reported a woman removing her clothes and touching herself in row 9, and requested law enforcement assistance. She put her pants back for the rest of the flight, went to sleep, and said she’d been drinking during a delay and didn’t remember what happened. Then there was the American passenger who says a flight attendant responded to her complaint with “men just do stuff like that.” She was moved from premium economy to coach on the flight to Milan. The alleged offender got to keep his seat. Sometimes passengers just bring their own terrible viewing choices. I’ve covered porn in American first class and United business class. There was even a report of a man watching what appeared to be porn of his wife, while she sat beside him. The lavatory isn’t a screening room, either. I once relayed a flight attendant’s account of a passenger who stayed inside so long the crew worried about a medical emergency. After repeatedly knocking, he emerged with an iPad. For the version involving a second person, there was Cara Delevingne describing sex at her seat — and complaining to a flight attendant that another passenger was watching. She wanted the crew to enforce her privacy out in public. The Little Room At The Front Of The Plane Where Pilots Sit Has Its Name For A Reason Southwest captain Michael Haak admitted stripping and viewing pornography on a laptop in the cockpit during an August 2020 Philadelphia – Orlando flight while his female first officer continued working. He pleaded guilty to a federal offense and received a year of probation and a $5,000 fine. The pilots union sought sanctions against the first officer.Air Canada once warned pilots to stop leaving pornography in the cockpit. And in 2015 I shared a purported Etihad maintenance log complaining about poor cockpit internet causing challenging accessing Facebook, Tinder, and porn sites. The origin story of the mile high club credits autopilot inventor Lawrence Sperry in 1916. He and his companion accidentally disengaged the autopilot, crashed into Long Island’s Great South Bay, and were rescued naked by duck hunters. Topics on this page