- An attorney traveling on his mother’s American Airlines buddy pass is suing the carrier, alleging crew ignored him being elbowed and doused in wine by an intoxicated seatmate, then accused him of being the one causing problems.
- What happened after landing, when a flight attendant allegedly interrogated him over his non-rev status instead of addressing the assault.
- Why the FBI is now involved, and what agents have reviewed as part of a pending federal investigation.
- How American’s internal review allegedly turned the story around, accusing the victim of being intoxicated himself.
- What happened to the passenger accused of the assault, who was never identified or detained.
An American Airlines passenger who was traveling on a deeply discounted standby ticket that was available to him because his mother works as a quality control inspector for the carrier is now suing because flight attendants reported him to corporate security for causing problems and being drunk on a flight.
The actual incident in question dates back to September 2025 when attorney David Cruz was traveling on a non-rev ‘buddy pass’ from Miami (MIA) to Los Angeles (LAX) aboard American Airlines flight AA-2290, which departed Miami International Airport at around 8:15 pm.
Cruz had been lucky enough to score an available seat on the flight and was assigned 17B with an empty seat beside him. During the flight, however, flight attendants moved another passenger into 17A after he had allegedly been involved in an altercation further back.
‘Rather than restrain the passenger, secure him, seat him apart from other passengers, alert the flight deck, prepare an incident report, request law enforcement to meet the aircraft, or take any other measure available to a cabin crew confronted with a disruptive and intoxicated passenger, American’s crew relocated that passenger to seat 17A — immediately beside Plaintiff,” Cruz’s complaint, filed in a Miami district court reads.
Oh yeah! You are an attorney, but you fly D2? Hahaha, you are lying, just tell the truth, where do you work, you work for American, you work for American! You are a D2!
American Airlines flight attendant, per the complaint
“At the time American made that decision, American knew, or in the exercise of the high degree of care owed by a common carrier to its passengers should have known, that the 17A passenger was intoxicated, that he had already been involved in an altercation with another passenger aboard the same flight, and that he presented a foreseeable and continuing risk of harm to any passenger seated beside him.”
Cruz alleges that the passenger who moved into seat 17A elbowed him in the ribs on three seperate occasions, threw a bottle of wine on him, which ended up saturating his clothing and documents, and knocked over a drink that Cruz had bought but hadn’t even yet had a chance of taking a sip from.
The complaint explains that Cruz repeatedly requested assistance from the flight attendants, but none of the crew members intervened or even warned the passenger who had been seated beside him.
At the end of the flight, it wasn’t the alleged unruly passenger who ended up getting in trouble, but rather Cruz, who was berated by a flight attendant who had noticed he was traveling on a buddy pass, with a so-called D2 boarding priority.
“TELL ME THE TRUTH! WHERE DO YOU WORK? YOU ARE A D2, DON’T LIE — YOU ARE LYING TO ME! YOU WORK IN MIAMI, RIGHT? WHERE DO YOU WORK?” the flight attendant allegedly shouted at Cruz.
The flight attendant then added: “YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T CAUSE PROBLEMS BECAUSE YOU CAN LOSE YOUR FLIGHT BENEFITS, YOU ARE A NON-REV. YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?”
According to the lawsuit, this exchange continued at length before Cruz was allowed to leave. Days later, Cruz received a call from American’s corporate security department, during which he was allegedly accused of “passenger misconduct.”
American Airlines opened an internal investigation, during which it transpired that flight attendants had accused Cruz of being intoxicated. Cruz says these allegations are baseless, as he hadn’t drunk anything before boarding the plane, and didn’t get to take a sip from the single drink he bought on board.
That didn’t stop American Airlines questioning his mother about the allegations, however, Cruz is now suing American Airlines for negligence, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.
When it comes to non-rev travel, there are very specific written and unwritten rules that govern how employees and their buddy pass holders are meant to behave on board. One of the unwritten rules is that non-revvers shouldn’t complain – broken seat? Grin and bear it. No food left? Go hungry. Asked to move to accommodate another passenger? Do so willingly without saying a word.
What exactly happened in this situation remains unclear, but it appears that Cruz reaching out for help in response to his seatmate’s behavior appears to have triggered a response from the flight attendants who were more concerned about his non-rev status, rather than the substance of his complaint.
Whatever happened, though, filing a lawsuit is likely to lead to non-privileges being revoked.
A summons has been served on American Airlines, but the carrier has yet to respond. In the meantime, the FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into behavior of Cruz’s seatmate.
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That will be the end of his mother’s buddy passes.
The first rule of buddy passes is “be invisible.”
10-1 this guy’s legal complaint is some mix of sensationalized and omitting details which work against him.
Either way, it takes a special amount of chutzpah to sue your mother’s employer, which allowed you to fly for free (or near it) as a benefit.
Assuming his version to be true, there still doesn’t seem like much of a case for any real amount of monetary damages. A couple elbows to the ribs and a soaking from drink is unpleasant…but it’s going to be tough to assign a high dollar amount of damages to that. And the defamation claim is just laughable. Going out on a limb, I’d say there’s high chances this guy was unable to check his self-important air of “I’m an attorney” at the boarding door in as is required of all non-revs, and when he didn’t get the level of responsiveness that he’d have liked when he reported his issue, and he probably escalated/became confrontational from there. I similarly don’t doubt that AA may have fudged the facts on their end too (e.g. he was drunk, etc.). But it’s clear that the FA’s believed the attorney’s response to the indignities he allegedly suffered was disproportionate to the harm done, and was conduct unbecoming a pass rider.
People who are against any kind of repercussions towards AA are the ones enabling AA to treat people inhumane. No one should have to smile and suck it up when being abused by another person. This guy was abused by the individual relocated to the adjacent seat, the flight attendant, and AA as a whole. I hope they payout in the millions; treat people better.
I believe the guy but unfortunately his mother will also be on the hot seat and probably lose both of their pass privileges (if she doesn’t get fired altogether). Both of them will probably be accused of not “diffusing” the situation themselves – (really the job of the FA). Just another case of some jack-booted FA wielding her authority like a club just to be able to smugly chide or punish someone traveling on a pass.