An interesting update has been made regarding the racist call an American Airlines customer claimed to have received from the airline.
Call from American Airlines employee
Two videos were posted to social media. It claimed they were calls from two American Airlines employees. Here's what the customers have to say:
Given the racism involved, I have to mention that the customer was an Asian man. He was supposed to fly with American Airlines on August 18, 2021 from New York to Orange County. He was booked on AA676 and was scheduled to depart at 4:30PM.
According to the American Airlines check-in cutoff guidelines, he checked in on time at the airport kiosks. The picture he posted on twitter suggests that he checked into the airport kiosks at 3:45PM. This is exactly 45 minutes before his departure.
He claimed he was denied boarding and that his seat was given away. In reality, the problem was that he couldn't check in at the kiosk at the exact 45-minute mark. By the time he was able to get assistance from an agent, it was 45 minutes before he was able to depart.
JetBlue saved him two days later after unsuccessful standby attempts, one cancelled flight, and two more failed attempt to rescue him.
He has been trying to get a reply since he got home. However, the airline stopped responding. It is my understanding that they have now reached out.
At 12:44 PM PT on August 21, 2021 he received a phone call from two strangers claiming to be American Airlines employees
I'm not certain if the passenger was denied entry or if his seats were taken away. It was obvious that he cut it close. This is not the only part of the story.
What is more important is the post of a phone call from American Airlines employees that was posted to social media. The audio is not suitable for children or work, so please listen carefully.
One of the callers says, among other things:
You idiot, stupid f*cking porc, you moron
C*nt stupid rice-eating c*nt
It's no wonder you were named after a d*ck. I would just call your d*ckhead (his lastname is Wang).
The whole thing is so horrifying that I don't think I have to stop. It is so terrible that I will not embed the audio. However, you can listen the first part here and the second here. Please use your discretion.
What actually happened?
It suffices to say, if true, this would be the most horrifying act of racism I've ever seen an airline employee do. Since I have never heard of anyone being so blatantly racist toward a customer on a recorded phone line, this made me immediately skeptical. Never. Any line of business.
A few things stood out immediately when I listened to the call:
Calls are recorded so that airline employees almost never make these calls out of line.
It is strange that there are always two people on the phone, something that doesn't happen very often.
Although the caller ID does show American Airlines number, it could be easily modified and I'm not certain if outbound calls from American Airlines show that number.
Although there are some agents who speak with a British accent in call centers, I find it suspicious that the two accents of one agent and the other make me question their authenticity.
American Airlines spokesperson stated that they are investigating the incident to find out the truth behind the calls. According to what I have heard, the number that was used to call the man wasn't listed in the reservation. Everything pointed to this being a prank phone call.
This brings us to a comment from a reader who observes that the voice in this video sounds very similar to the JetBlue prank called posted to YouTube a few weeks ago.
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These are similar circumstances. The guy claims to be from Corporate and was calling about a tweet someone had posted in regard to an airline.
This seems to have been done by someone from The Macron Show. It doesn't seem like he is legitimate and I wont link to it because he doesnt deserve any traffic. His actions are appalling, even if he did do it. While it is one thing to play a prank, it's quite another to engage in a racist tirade that's really hate speech.
We still don't know how the guy obtained the number of the passengers. Evidently, he was alerted to this via Twitter just like he was with JetBlue's prank. He might have been able to find the number of the man on Google. This was not the number that American Airlines had on file, so I don't think it can be pinned on American Airlines.
It was horrible to see this person suffer such racism. This should not be the way that anyone should be treated. These latest findings suggest that it is time for the customer not to retweet every negative tweet about American Airlines. Hundreds of such Tweets have been posted within the last few days, accusing the airline with everything, from losing luggage to giving coronavirus to causing the disease. American is not a great airline. However, it does not appear that the airline was responsible for this racist phone call.
Bottom line
One person shared a racist, racial phone call they received from an unknown number. It was made to look like American Airlines. This audio is absolutely disgusting.
American Airlines has received a lot of criticism for this and has been accused of being racist. All signs point to this being a prank from someone pretending to be from JetBlue corporate.
While it is one thing to make a prank call with good intentions, this is a bit too much. If this is the audio of the person I believe it is, he should be reprimanded. Although I am not sure if this is feasible, American should pursue legal action against him, considering that he claimed to have been from the airline.
What do you think of this situation? Are you sure that the two prank calls came from the same person or are they different?
(Tip of my hat to @jae6478
