Glenn Beck says that American Airlines singled him out for mistreatment on a recent flight because of his political views. (AP)
Glenn Beck is boycotting American Airlines after he says he was treated rudely on a recent flight because of his political views.
Beck, on his radio show on Tuesday, claimed that an attendant on a flight from New York City to Texas refused to open his drink for him or speak politely even though that courtesy was given to other passengers.
“My flight attendant nearly ‑‑ merely barked the word “breakfast” when he came to me,” he said on his show. “When others were politely asked if they cared for anything to eat and given the choices, I was just barked at. When he delivered a soda, he slammed it down so hard, I hesitated to even open the can for fear that it would spray all over other passengers in the cabin. By the way, the other passengers, nobody else had to open their can. He opened it and poured it for them. Never once did he look me in the eye. Never once did he offer a kind or even a neutral word to me. I had service unlike I have never had ever before in my life, and I have had rude service before. I lived in New York City. I have never had service that was specifically designed to make me feel subhuman. Oh, I had it. He put on quite a show as he fawned over the other passengers proudly and loudly performing his life story about being a former Israeli soldier and how he was so proud of the very liberal cities in America.”
Beck also took to Twitter to tell about his ordeal and wrote, "I hope I am the last person who has to experience this type of treatment on AmericanAir."
Radio talk show host Glenn Beck isn't backing down from his public attack on American Airlines.
On Wednesday Beck continued his barrage against the airline, saying American should fire the flight attendant.
"These big, stodgy airlines that think they can treat people like garbage — they can't," Beck said during a 14-minute segment on Wednesday's show. Beck also said the man loudly told other passengers "how he was so proud of the very liberal cities in America."
Beck suggested that such poor service could explain why American had to seek bankruptcy protection, yet insisted that he wasn't trying to hurt American and wasn't urging fans to boycott the airline. American, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is owned by AMR Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection in November.
Any tension between Beck and the flight attendant apparently went unnoticed by other passengers. Beck said that even his wife, seated directly across the aisle, didn't notice anything unusual.
On Tuesday, American Airlines sent an apology to Beck via Twitter after the conservative talk show host Tweeted about his experiences. "We’re sorry for the experience Mr. Beck had on his trip. We’ve reached out to his office & are actively looking into this."
Later spokesman Matt Miller said the following: "We are sorry for the experience Mr. Beck had on a recent flight. The comfort and satisfaction of our customers are very important priorities to us and we take these matters seriously. We have reached out to Mr. Beck's office and are actively looking into the situation."
On Wednesday Miller said the airline was still trying to figure out what happened on the flight. He declined to say whether the flight attendant would be fired if Beck's account is accurate.
"We take customer complaints seriously, but we owe it to all of our customers and people to follow our prescribed process to get the facts first and then take appropriate action," Miller said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.