JetBlue Apologizes; Bans Political Pins on Crew-members

By COLlive reporter

Jet Blue airlines has apologized and changed a longstanding policy after an incident on one of their flights went viral on social media this week.

The disturbing incident was shared by a Jewish passenger on a Jet Blue flight, who was accused of ‘causing a disturbance’ after he objected to a flight attendant’s Palestine flag pin.

Paul Faust, 54, shared on video that on a flight to Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday, he felt uncomfortable by the pin worn by the flight attendant, but he opted to remain quiet about it. He said that when the crew member put on an apron for serving drinks and moved the Palestine pin on top so it still showed, he took it as a deliberate provocation, especially since she was wearing several other pins, including a Black Lives Matter pin, which she did not move over her apron, he said.

The Parkland, Florida-based telecoms entrepreneur said that he quietly made a complaint about the pin to a supervisor on the plane.

“I said: ‘I don’t want there to be an issue. Maybe speak with her after we leave the plane. Just talk about how it was maybe a little insensitive, it made me feel a little uncomfortable,’” he relates.

But when the plane landed, he said, a uniformed official approached him and demanded to see his ID, claiming he caused a disturbance on the plane. The official then called the police. Faust left quickly, but found out later that the airline had canceled his return flight.

When he called customer service, he said he was shocked by what they told him.

“They read me the notes. It said ‘Mr. Faust caused a disturbance on the flight, did not listen to flight crew instructions’ – not true, there was no instruction I was given – ‘didn’t listen to the supervisor at the gate… And Mr. Faust said everyone should go to Gaza so they can be killed.’

“That was not true at all,” he said.

Faust, who is Jewish, is accusing the airline of ‘blatant antisemitism’ over the incident.

Multiple passengers on the flight confirmed Mr. Faust’s version of the story to the Daily Mail.

JetBlue later reached out to Mr. Faust for his version of the story and said it would be investigated, Dan’s Deals website reported.

In a statement to Dan’s Deals, JetBlue said that due to this incident, they have now changed their previous policy, which allowed crewmembers to wear one unoffensive personal pin of their choice. Crewmembers can now only wear pins approved or issued by JetBlue. The airline notes that they have apologized to Mr. Faust and hope to serve him again in the future. They also note that after further review of the incident, they will take action against any employees that violated JetBlue policies.

Full statement below:

“As New York’s Hometown Airline, we are proud of our long history welcoming customers of different backgrounds and faiths from around the world. JetBlue does not tolerate discriminatory conduct, and we are committed to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all our customers and crewmembers. We are taking this matter very seriously and conducting a full investigation into our crewmembers’ actions. We will take appropriate action once our investigation is complete as a result of non-compliance with any JetBlue policies.

At JetBlue, our #1 value is safety, and it guides every decision JetBlue makes. Our crewmembers should be focused on the safety of our flights and delivering a great customer experience. We have changed our uniform policy to make clear that on board the aircraft is not the right place for crewmembers to advocate positions on certain issues or political topics. Going forward crewmembers will only be permitted to wear pins approved or issued by JetBlue.

We had previously identified that our pin policy, which had dated back many years and allowed crewmembers to wear one unoffensive personal pin of their choice, needed to be updated to reflect the current environment. In light of this incident, we urgently expedited this change.

We have reached out to listen to Mr. Faust and offer our apologies for the breakdown in our policies during his flight. We hope with these actions we can welcome him back onto a JetBlue flight in the future.”