“Not the Crying Baby” — First Class Passenger Gets Booted to Economy for Weird Reason

A tech sales rep documented how he was booted from his business class seat, which was a reward for raking in a ton of business for Cisco, on a trip to Hawaii.

To celebrate his success, he decided to bring his mother with him on the holiday, but shortly into the flight, he learned that he was being booted from the seat.

Jameel Rehman (@jameeljrehman) was flexing his new digs when he learned the news and managed to capture the apologetic nature of staff and crew, along with the look on his face the moment he crossed the threshold of business class upon entering economy: seeing the expression change upon tasting a bit of the sweet life of airline travel when sitting among the peasants is one of the highlights of the clip, along with the graciousness he displayed upon hearing he wouldn't be allowed to sit in his chair, which apparently had engineering issues.

"Kicked out of business class my first time," he writes in a text overlay of a viral TikTok delineating his experience, which begins with him recording himself giving a toast to his mom as they embarked on a "fancy a-- trip to Hawaii," something that Jameel says he was able to accomplish after winning an award for being Cisco's top 1% sales associate.

He extends his glass to reach his mother's, "Cheers," he says before writing, "Here we are enjoying business class for the first time together."

The two of them enjoy capacious seats, Jameel's mother joins him in a smile, one that he shares when the camera cuts back to his face. The video cuts to him enjoying more of "full flex mode" which shows him extending his legs straight before him as he reclines back during his flight.

It didn't take long before bad news hit, however. After another snippet of him toasting to the camera complete with several eyebrow raises and smiles, the camera cuts to Jameel wearing an oversized sweater and speaking directly into the lens that his baller commute time came to an abrupt end.

"So I've just been informed that I have to leave this seat in business class because it's been misengineered. So now, I get to enjoy it for just a brief second, got to my champagne which was lovely, but now I have to go back to economy class. Still get all the perks of being in a first class except for the seat, and uh, the space of course."

Jameel packs up his items as he continues to explain the situation, "But what do you do? I mean jeez at least I got to enjoy it for just a brief second but the staff are very apologetic, can't really knock 'em. What can you do? I'm still here, I'm still enjoying it, and uh, yeah, I'll get 'em next time," he says as he packs up his personal effects and then holds up a cup of champagne. "Let me just polish this off," he says before taking a gulp of the booze.

He's still recording himself as a flight attendant approaches him and says, "Mr Rehman I just we're really gonna have the pleasure of you tonight in our cabin, so we'll look after you very well and Harry said that they'll look after you from here as well with anything that you need."

"Can I help you with your gear with your gear to take you down and move you down?"

Jameel tells the attendant that he should be "all right" as he only has his backpack and really only needs a second or so to get himself adjusted. After the attendant leaves Jameel looks to the camera and says, "See you there you go. Apologetic, very helpful, s--- happens."

Jameel does say that he gets to keep the pajamas given to him on the flight, and he seems appreciative of the "perk" that's been afforded to him as a result of his business class ticket.

However, the difference between the two cabins are readily apparent from the second Jameel enters economy: a baby can be heard crying as he walks back there. After he gets into his seat he says into the camera, still recording: "How the mighty have fallen."

There is a plus side, however: he does have the entire row to himself. "What do you do?" he asks before the video ultimately cuts out.

Commenters who saw his video applauded Jameel for not throwing a temper tantrum about the situation: "More importantly, look how positive and controlled you were with the situation you were exposed to. Great retention, Cisco Systems!"

Another remarked, "You’re a class act lad . Congrats on your achievements and sharing em with mum."

Someone else seemed confused by the reasoning for the airline asking him to leave his first class seat: "What the hell does misengineered mean?"

Someone else just thought that his work accomplishments were the real victory, not the business class seat: "Absolute genuine class act! Congrats on the top 1% at Cisco, that IS huge!" which Jameel appears to agree with: "Thank you bro! That’s the real win"

Another commenter wanted to know how the airline was planning on refunding the lack of a business class seat or if they were planning on doing so at all: "you handled that like such a gentleman, so beautifully done but you do have the right to be compensated regardless of how gracious you were."

According to Jameel, however, they did commit to making financial amends: "Company got paid back and I got a $500 voucher," he wrote.

And while there were others who remarked that the seat was the real star of the show when it comes to business class, Jameel agreed with that assessment, but wrote that he was "asleep for most of the trip."

So, the company was ultimately refunded for the flight and he got himself a $500 voucher in the process. Not to mention an entire row all to himself. So all in all, not a bad trade. Plus, on his flight back he did have a business class seat that was right next to his mother, which he documented here.

What do you think? Would you be livid? Or do you think that the airline did a good job in making up for the misengineered seat?