IT’S certainly annoying when airlines make you fork out for extras like checked luggage and earphones.
But one passenger’s frustration reached a whole new level on a recent flight after he was told he’d have to pay $16 for a blanket.
A Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas had to divert to Los Angeles after a passenger got into a dispute with a flight attendant over the cost, the Associated Press reported.
The airline confirmed flight HA7 from Las Vegas was about an hour into its trip on Wednesday, local time, when the plane turned and stopped at Los Angeles airport (LAX).
There was a dispute between a 66-year-old male passenger and the flight crew about the cost of a blanket, said Rob Pedregon of the Los Angeles Airport Police.
After being informed a blanket cost $12 ($A16) the passenger “made a statement that he wanted to take somebody behind the woodshed over this, which prompted the flight crew to contact the captain who then in turn diverted the aircraft to LAX”.
Los Angeles Airport Police and the FBI met the aircraft at the gate once it landed in Los Angeles. The passenger was not arrested.
Officials said the passenger did not make a credible or direct threat and no crime was committed.
“(The crew) took offence to the statement that he made. Maybe they felt uncomfortable with it, which is well within their rights to divert the plane and refuse service,” Pedregon said.
Passengers on the flight had mixed reactions to the delay. Bianca Moors said she understood that the crew was just trying to stay safe.
“They’re doing it to protect the passengers as well as the crew, because I think this is a very expensive stop for Hawaiian (Airlines),” she said.
Dallas resident Claudia Rodriguez said she wished the crew had been more communicative about the diversion and delay.
“The thing we were most upset about was when we got off the plane, when they deplaned us after sitting for an hour, we talked to one of the staff and we asked them what we would do next, and we were not given a lot of information,” she said.
“They told us to go ahead and seek other options, so we went ahead and bought another ticket for my husband and I and we’re not going to get a refund on that one. We ended up losing $600 ($A799).”
The flight departed Los Angeles a few hours later.