Alec Baldwin is making light of his tiff with American Airlines, through a spoof on SNL.
Baldwin played a pilot, Captain Steve Rogers, and spoke on the incident, even issuing an apology.
Baldwin’s character said it was important Rogers be there, “n behalf of everyone at American Airlines, issue an apology to Mr. Alec Baldwin,” he said.
“Mr. Baldwin is an American treasure, and I am ashamed at the way he was treated. What harm would it do to let him keep playing his game, not any game mind you, a word game for smart people,” he explained.
The hilarious spoof stemmed from an incident that took place earlier this month when the actor was kicked off an American Airlines flight in California for playing Words With Friends, a popular scrabble game, before the plane departed.
“Electronic devices must be turned off for taxi, take-off and landing. FA will let you know when it is safe to use approved device,” American Airlines tweeted to one Twitter user.
He was swiftly booted from the flight, and didn’t keep the incident under wraps, immediately taking to Twitter to complain.
“Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt,” he tweeted.
His rep, Matthew Hiltzik, later released a statement regarding the incident, “Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing Words with Friends while parked the gate.”
The rep said that Baldwin “loves WWF so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it, but he has already boarded another AA flight.”
“Last flight w American. Where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950′s find jobs as flight attendants,” Baldwin later tweeted.
American Airlines took to Facebook to explain what happened, “Since an extremely vocal customer has publicly identified himself as being removed from an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Dec. 6, we have elected to provide the actual facts of the matter as well as the FAA regulations which American, and all airlines, must enforce.”
“The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane’s lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked. They immediately contacted the cabin crew to check on the situation. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding,” American Airlines stated.
Following the incident, Baldwin released an “apology to my fellow travelers” but went on a rant about flight attendants in the process.
“Most of the flight attendants I have ever encountered still have some remnant of the old idea of service. Add to that the notion that in this day and age, many people have a lot of important work to do, by phone, and would like to do so till the last possible minute. But there are many now who walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience. The lesson I’ve learned is to keep my phone off when the 1950′s gym teacher is on duty. That was my fault there, even though this trip was quite a bit different from so many others. But it is sad, I think, that you’ve got to fly overseas today in order to bring back what has been thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of common sense, style, and service,” he stated.
Check it out.
