WOMAN ALLEGES SHE WAS THROWN OFF FLIGHT FOR MISGENDERING FLIGHT ATTENDANT BUT AIRLINE HAS A DIFFERENT REASON
“A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items,” United tells PEOPLE
A Texas woman is claiming that she was removed from a United Airlines flight because she misgendered a flight attendant — but the airline has a completely different reason.
In a series of videos posted to her Instagram Stories that have since expired but were posted on Live and Let’s Fly’s YouTube account, Jenna Longoria says she was traveling from San Francisco to Austin with her mother and her 16-month-old son.
“The flight attendant has denied access to us because he said that I made a derogatory comment about one of the flight attendants, because I didn’t use their right pronoun,” she says in the first video. “Now they are forbidding us to get on the plane.”
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She goes on to say that her son weighs 25 lbs. and she’d been carrying him for about 30 minutes when the incident occurred. “They denied us boarding priority,” she says. “And now they’re about to deny us to board the plane.”
In another video, Longoria questions an airline employee, who says it was the captain’s decision to remove her from the flight, adding, “When the captain denies you, it’s end of the story.”
When PEOPLE contacted United for comment on Thursday, June 27, the airline said in a statement that the incident was instead related to the passengers having too many carry-on bags.
“A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items,” the statement read. “The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip.”
United's standard baggage policy states that each passenger may bring one carry-on and one personal item into the cabin, and those items must be within the airline's size restrictions.
Longoria did not disclose how many carry-ons her party had with them.
In a separate video, Longoria doubled down on her claim that she was kicked off the flight due to using the wrong pronouns for the flight attendant.
“I will tell you what happened right now,” she says. “I was speaking to one of the flight attendants and got their pronouns wrong. The other flight attendant didn’t like it. I said, ‘I’m really sorry, “they.”’ I’m not very versed with pronouns.”
Longoria also claims that the airline took her family’s luggage on the flight, including medications she and her mother needed.
“I was holding my son,” she adds. “He was having a temper tantrum. I had the car seat on my back. I wasn’t really focusing on anything except getting my son’s car seat on the flight and getting him comfortable and safe.”
United's website states that passengers can "check one car seat ... per child you're traveling with, for free" at the gate or a ticket counter. Car seats can also be used for young children with their own seat on board, but must meet size requirements dependent on the particular plane and regulations put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration. A car seat will not fit in an overhead bin and there is typically not other storage space for it in the cabin.
Business Insider reported last year that United would begin allowing employees to wear name tags with their pronouns on their uniforms, though it’s unclear whether the flight attendants on Longoria’s flight were doing so.
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2024-06-27T22:52:41Z dg43tfdfdgfd
