Rush at Chick-fil-A costs New York politician his flight with American Airlines – and the chance to run the airport
A New York politician asked, “Don’t you know who I am?” when he was denied boarding on an American Airlines flight. But the gate agent didn’t know and didn’t care.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy was on his way to the Democratic National Convention but missed his flight when he left the gate area to get a Chick-fil-A sandwich. When he returned, the boarding doors of his flight were closed.
He “dropped his name several times,” but “the person from American Airlines didn’t care or didn’t know who he was.” He said “he was a county executive and was going to meet with President (and Vice President Kamala) Harris, and he was in charge of the airport.”
The employee simply said, “You shouldn’t have gone out and gotten something to eat. You would have caught your flight.”
McCoy and the employee accompanying him booked another flight to Chicago with a different airline, although it is unclear whether it was a United flight to O’Hare or a Southwest flight to Midway Airport. His spokesman does not deny the incident (“I cannot say what did or did not happen at the airport”).
In his role as county executive, McCoy appoints three of the airport authority’s seven board members. He has removed the long-time airport director and rumors say he is interested in the job himself. But while that gives him influence over the facility,
- The board of Albany Airport does not have the same influence over an airline as, say, the Port Authority of New York New Jersey. For example, former United CEO Jeff Smisek was caught up in a bribery scandal during the Bridgegate scandal for offering the board’s chairman a convenient flight in exchange for favorable actions on its agenda that would benefit the airline at its Newark hub.
- A particular gate agent will not be aligned with the political interests of his airline, even if the district manager had the same influence as the now convicted felon David Samson once did.
In light of the scandal, McCoy says he is ruling out the job at the airport.
