Viral American Airlines Boarding Deniel Video, Antisemitism?

On Friday, a Tweet went viral from a passenger who said he couldn’t see any explanation for why he and his family were denied boarding, when another passenger was allowed to board ahead of them, other than because they were visibly Jewish. Flying while Orthodox is no joke. People look at you and treat you differently when you stand out with religious attire. It may be unfair, but it does mean having to go above and beyond to avoid doing anything that could make you a target. We receive almost daily emails of alleged wrong doings by airlines, and we have broken national news stories for some of those. But how to decide which are worthy of investigation? I apply Occam’s Razor, which states that the simplest explanation is the most likely explanation. Sure, that’s not always the case, but it’s a good rule of thumb. When I first saw this video, I speculated that the family’s seats could have already been given away to standby passengers and/or that the passenger that was allowed to board was a standby passenger. And after reaching out to American Airlines, that is exactly what happened. Not only were their seats given away due to being at the gate past 15 minutes before departure, but the passanger they see boarding before them, was in fact a stand by pasanger. Who may have actually received their seats. That being said, the airline handled this ridiculously poorly, which is unsurprising for American. I often find their staff to be among the least friendly and most hostile in the business. Be sure to arrive at your gate more than 15 minutes before departure to avoid your tickets being cancelled. On a connecting flight, that can be difficult, so opt for a longer connection if possible and don’t be surprised if your seats are given away in this situation. United has long been the best at holding flights for connecting passengers when possible via its Connection Saver tool, which I’ve benefited from personally, though American says it has started doing this more often as well. Have you ever lost your seats due to arriving late at the gate?