One American Airlines passenger paid for a first-class seat — but he apparently didn’t get a first-class experience.
The passenger detailed his recent travel woes in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Nov. 10, sharing a photo of his legs with the reclining seat in front of him leaned back seemingly further than usual.
” ‘First Class,’ ” the man, who goes by @av_cova, wrote in quote marks, adding, “Dude is in my lap. You continue to be awful, @AmericanAir.”
“I can’t use my tray table, and no chance of getting up. I’m in 3C, so 2C is clearly broken. AA1851,” he wrote in an update minutes later. ”Get it fixed before someone else wastes a fortune on first class and gets f—–.”
PEOPLE reached out to American Airlines for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The man further explained his predicament in a statement to Fox News.
“No matter how I positioned myself, the seat was still against my knees. The gentleman in the seat in front of me was very sympathetic, but he was unable to get the seat to lock forward, as it was inoperable,” he said.
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American Airlines responded to the thread about 30 minutes after the man’s initial post, writing, “Keeping our planes in top-notch shape is always the goal. We’re sorry for this inconvenience and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We’ll get this right over to the Maintenance folks for review. Our apologies again.”
“Maintenance isn’t gonna review the money I wasted…” the man replied.
According to the same Fox News report, the X user — who says he spent $500 on the upgrade so that he could have a more comfortable travel experience — told a flight attendant about the issue.
“He shrugged it off — basically saying, ‘It’s an old airplane; some of these seats are worn out,’ “ he told the outlet.
Several X users voiced their support for @av_cova in the comments, as well as their disappointment with American Airlines.
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“How condescending,” one user wrote in reference to the airline’s claim that it can “only” offer an apology. ”Why bother?”
“Such a thoughtless, self-serving cavalier response makes us wonder where else American Airlines must be cutting corners,” wrote another person
This isn’t the first time this year the airline received a passenger complaint. A woman heading to her sister’s bachelorette weekend was wrongly placed on the company’s “No Fly” list in June due to a case of mistaken identity — an incident that she told PEOPLE cost her both money and stress.
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