JetBlue Apologizes After Anti-Semitic Flight Attendant Retaliates Against Jewish Passenger

By FrumNews.com

Update: Article Republished at readers request due to the last statement in this article.

Paul Faust, a proud Yid who often flies with JetBlue, ripped into the airline for falsely accusing him of ‘causing a disturbance,’ and the airline threatened to call the police on him.

In a viral video, Paul noted that while flying on a Las Vegas-bound flight, a flight attendant sitting nearby in the jump seat was wearing several pins, including a BLM pin and a “free Palestine” pin. Paul was sitting next to another Jewish passenger who witnessed the encounter.

What bothered Paul most was that when the flight attendant put on an apron for the next drink service, she moved the “free Palestine” pin to her apron, notably not the BLM pin. Paul took that as a sign that it was done deliberately against the Jewish passengers.

Paul spoke with the lead flight attendant and identified himself as a Mosaic elite member. He expressed concern about the moving of the “free Palestine” pin onto the apron. Notably, he asked that it not be dealt with onboard, but that feedback be passed on after the flight, so that other passengers wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.

After touchdown, a JetBlue employee demanded Paul’s boarding pass and ID and then accused him of ‘causing a disturbance,’ which he denied. The employee then called the police, but Paul left the airport rather than wait for them.

By the next morning, his return flight was canceled without warning. When he called JetBlue, the agent read the notes that said he caused an in-flight disturbance and didn’t listen to in-flight crew instructions, which he denied, and didn’t listen to the supervisor instructions after the flight, which he admits to, though he says they never identified themselves as a supervisor.

@JetBlue Horrible way to treat a very loyal customer pic.twitter.com/KhaQFoDCZP

— Paul Faust (@RealCoolGuyPaul) April 29, 2024

After the story went viral, the airline confirmed it was investigating the incident. Additionally, a number of passengers on the flight confirmed Paul’s version of the story to the Daily Mail.

JetBlue told the popular frum deals and travel blog DansDeals that, “they responded 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.”

Full statement via DansDeals:

“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.”

In a separate post, Paul confirmed that the airline apologized to him for the incident but said they don’t make public statements. He also confirmed that they conducted an extensive investigation.

***

FrumNews.com would also like to point out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many reports of anti-Semitism across a number of airlines. Flight crew often abused their positions and removed visibly frum passengers—sometimes for as little as their toddler couldn’t keep their “COVID” mask on before takeoff.

In January 2023, a Satmar Chossid, flying from LaGuardia airport in New York to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was aggressively kicked off his Delta flight by an anti-Semitic stewardess who abused her position.

A partial video of this disturbing incident, only showing half the story, went viral on social media, a popular so-called “frum” news website with zero disregard for sensitivity and basic common sense publicly accused this Chossid (and the Satmar Chassidim defending him) of causing a Chillul Hashem. And allowed the worst types of comments.

Only the next day, when the full story came to light, did they edit their article and whitewash the entire reporting as a “misunderstanding.”

On FrumNews.com—as outlined in our mission statement—we will always give Yidden the benefit of the doubt. And we will never post any Loshon Horah, period.