Every Available Seat

If you've flown anywhere in recent years you'll know that the relative affordability of airline travel these days has made flying more of a convenience than the luxury that it once was. But with rising fuel costs and increasing expenses, airlines are always looking for ways to cut costs and ensure that most airlines are flying full rather than losing ticket revenue on empty seats on a plane. How do they do that? Well one way is by overbooking a plane so that there are more passengers than seats. Usually what happens then is that passengers bumped from one flight are given accomodation on the next available flight and passengers on that next flight are then offered a bump. It's like an endless circle of life but it helps keep the revenue flowing.

What doesn't help bring in revenue is when a passenger flies for free. This was the case with passenger Gokhan Mutlu on a recent flight from California to New York. Mutlu was flying on the JetBlue flight using a "Buddy Pass" which the airline issues to employees for use as an employee incentive. Usually what it means is that the person using the ticket gets placed in an available seat for free, but usually after all other paying passengers are boarded. It can mean not getting a seat on a particular flight but hey, with prices on the rise, a free ticket is still a free ticket. However, Mutlu ended up with an experience that most of us would rather avoid. About three and a half hours into the five hour flight, Mutlu (who had been given the last available seat on the plane) was requested to relinquish he seat to the flight attendant as the jump seat in the cockpit on which she had been sitting was declared 'uncomfortable'.

Mutlu was asked to give up his seat and the pilot came back to ask if he wouldn't mind 'hanging out' in the toilet so that the flight attendant could use the seat. For anyone who has traveled on airlines, you'll know that the toilet is probably the most clausterphobic environment imaginable. I can't imagine being in a place more unhygenic and cramped either. Nonetheless, when Mutlu showed reluctance and requested to be seated in the jump seat in the cockpit, permission was refused as a passenger in the cockpit could be considered dangerous. So, even when there was turbulence during the time he was in the toilet, Mutlu was made to sit on the throne of the aircraft and hold on for dear life. Shortly before landing he was told he could go back to his seat and the flight attendant took her seat in the cockpit again.

Mutlu did the obvious and has sued the airline for $2 million. Now here's the potential rub, one could argue that since he was flying for free, he was subject to losing his seat but the logic in most people argues that despite that fact, he was subject to losing his seat on the ground and not in the air. Also, most pilots and flight crews frown on having people in the toilets when there is turbulence as it could mean the difference between a passenger being safe or being thrown about the cabin like a rag doll. Some argue that Mutlu is being excessive in suing for such a high amount but it isn't like he wasn't put in any danger. I think Mutlu has the right to sue the airline for endangering him. I agree that the captain had the discretion to keep him from the cockpit but the flight attendant should have known that because Mutlu was not an employee of JetBlue, it wasn't the same as asking a fellow flight attendant to give up the seat. Had it been another attendant, they could have taken the seat in the cockpit but that wasn't the case.

It will be interesting to see how this case plays out since many are curious to see who courts would side with. I would think that they would side with Mutlu since he is the agrieved party but still, since he was flying on a free ticket meant for employees he should have expected some inconvenience. Yet I argue that if he was treated like an employee and subjected to losing his seat in mid-flight then he should have been permitted to sit in the cockpit jump seat as he had requested. I can already hear arguements about how it could have led to a potential hijacking situation but the odds of such a series of events occuring leading to a hijacking only happen in Tom Clancy novels or in TV shows.