How one airline employee held a passenger accountable for mistreating a companion

With so much crisis, sadness, and inappropriate conduct in the world these days, I search constantly for any sign of goodness and kindness. I found some at the Seattle airport.

I’d almost finished a long trek from Hanoi, Vietnam, back to Boise. It’s usually about a 25-26 hour trek, and I was in the last, foggy, jet-lagged hours, late at night. I’m sure everyone else was tired as well.

Sitting at my Alaska Airlines gate, waiting for the flight to Boise, I heard a “last call” for another flight a few gates over. A woman called for a companion, saying he needed to get to the gate or they’d miss the flight. At last he came, after the gate had closed.

When he arrived, the companion began to curse and scream at the woman loud enough that others could hear. Remarkably, she stayed calm and walked over to a desk near me to ask for help, I assume to find a new flight.

The companion followed her there. He continued railing at her and then said something to the man behind the desk.

“I am not going to deal with you,” the man at the desk said. “That behavior is unacceptable, so you can just leave.”

The curse-and-scream man opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. He walked back to the original gate attendant and waited until she was finished with a customer before stepping up. I don’t know what he said.

In the meantime, the man at the desk near me helped the woman in front of him, and she left. I went over to ask him about his comments.

“I heard you tell that man you’d not serve him. Good for you.”

“Right. I will not help anyone who is abusive to his travel companion.” He shook his head.

“Is that an Alaska policy or a ‘you policy?’”

“It’s me right now, but we’re trying to spread it.”

“Well, good for you. Thanks for doing that.”

He nodded and went back to work, calm and confident in what he’d done.

Step by step, person by person. If that’s what it means to build accountability into our own and others’ behaviors, I’m all for it.

Nancy Napier is a distinguished professor emerita and coach for the executive MBA program in the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University in Idaho. nnapier@boisestate.edu. She is co-author of “The Bridge Generation of Vietnam: Spanning Wartime to Boomtime.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2023 at 4:00 AM.