THAI 'sorry' passengers forced to vacate seats for crew
19 Oct 2018 at 11:29
The Thai Airways International president has apologised to two passengers forced to give up their first-class seats for two off-duty pilots deadheading from Zurich to Bangkok.
The aircraft's departure was reportedly delayed for about two hours, with the on-duty pilots refusing to take off until first-class seats were made available for their off-duty colleagues.
The national airline posted the apology from president Sumeth Damrongchaitham on its Facebook page late on Thursday night.
He said the matter was severe and affected the airline's image. He had ordered an investigation and would ensure such an incident did not occur again.
"I express sorrow and apologise to all passengers affected by the unprofessional action that caused the delay. And I apologise to the passengers who were directly affected by the seat change. I take responsibility for the incident," Mr Sumeth said.
The incident reportedly involved THAI flight TG971 from Zurich to Bangkok on Oct 11. It was scheduled to depart at 1.30pm but the duty pilots refused to take off unless some first-class passengers agreed to give up their seats to two THAI pilots deadheading to Bangkok.
All first-class passengers initially refused to do so. After about two hours of delay, a couple finally vacated their seats so the flight could depart.
They later filed a complaint, saying the two off-duty pilots should have been given vacant seats in business class, rather than taking all passengers hostage to achieve what they wanted.
The flight was over an hour late arriving at Suvarnabhumi airport.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business...-crew#cxrecs_s
This sort of thing happens occasionally in my experience but usually never makes the news. I've seen operating pilots threaten to set the parking brake and get off unless their colleagues were upgraded to business or first class (which in many cases is contractual for duty deadhead). And, I've seen a paying pax offloaded to accommodate an airline executive's wife riding on a pass.
Indian MP Ravindra Gaikwad famously pummeled a flight attendant with his shoe after being seated in economy class instead of business class. It was an all economy flight
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-slipper.html