A passenger in the US attempting to board a flight to her sister’s bachelorette party was told she was banned from flying with
American Airlinesand forced to rebook an expensive alternative flight due to what appears to be an error on the airline’s part.
How did this happen?
Speaking on TikTok, Erin Wright, 24, shared that when she went to check in for a June flight from New Mexico to New Orleans, she could not do so on the mobile app. Upon arriving at the airport an hour and a half before her flight, she again encountered an error at the check-in kiosk and sought help at the customer support desk.
Wright noted that the staff were quite helpful in trying to resolve her problem, but they also faced issues with checking her in. At this point, the staff reassured her it might have been an error with her name and birthday when she bought the ticket and called to escalate the issue. According to Wright, the representative returned after around 10 minutes only to inform her:
“Ma’am, I’m really sorry to tell you this, but you’ve actually been banned from flying American Airlines.”
When pressed for further details about what sparked the ban, the agent was only able to confirm that it was an issue of internal security and that she was unable to provide more details except that “The person on the phone told me that you should know why” and to contact customer service.
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Upon reaching the customer service hotline, Wright was again told it was an internal security and confidentiality issue, and they could not share the reason for her ban. She was then informed to contact customer relations, which could only be reached via email, to resolve the situation.
Photo: Albuquerque International Sunport
Now running late on time, Wright was forced to book a same-day round-trip flight on another carrier, which cost her $1000 out of pocket while she waited to hear back. After an 8-hour wait for the next flight, she safely made it to her sister’s Bachelorette and resolved to follow up on her return.
The continuing saga
Twelve days and “many emails” later, Wright finally received an email from customer relations saying that they could not tell her what happened and they needed to reach out to corporate security to get them to contact Wright with more information. When corporate security reached out, they informed her that she had been banned for having sexual relations with a man on a flight while intoxicated.
As a lesbian, Wright was understandably perplexed by this information and responded accordingly to ask for a refund and to be removed from the no-fly list. According to Wright, corporate security answered that she needed to send them an official appeal through email and tell them exactly why she didn’t do it, to which she responded semi-seriously, noting:
“I emailed them a very serious email, but also somewhat funny because in it, I’m like, ‘I don’t really know how to prove that it wasn’t me, except for the fact that I’m literally a lesbian and I can like, get you letters from other people telling you that that’s the truth’.”
After waiting three months for a response, Wright’s mother contacted the American Airlines law department for additional help. Two days later, she received a call saying the carrier had reviewed her case and determined that it most likely was not her. They would take her off the no-fly list until further notice while the airline determined whether it was actually her or someone else.
Wright confirmed the airline did refund her original $400 fare but declined to cover the cost of the second flight and was forced to book due to the error. Happily for Wright, the initial TikTok earned enough money to cover the flight, but she has not ruled out taking legal action against the carrier. Simple Flying has reached out to the airline for further information, but did not receive a response by press time.
