A mom has claimed she was booted off a United Airlines flight with her distressed 16-month-old son over using the wrong pronoun for a flight attendant.
Jenna Longoria was expecting to fly to Austin from San Francisco on Wednesday with her mom and son when United stopped them from traveling.
She alleges she was denied boarding after an ‘accidental’ mix-up when addressing a United staff member, who she says refused to accept her apology.
The frantic mom also alleged the flight had taken off with her luggage containing her and her mom’s medication still on board, leaving at risk of becoming ‘very sick’ while stranded.
‘They’re saying it’s a hate crime that I did and that I might not even be able to ever fly United again,’ she fumed in a clip posted on Instagram.
Jenna Longoria accused the airline of preventing her and her mom from flying from San Francisco to Houston on Wednesday after she used the wrong pronoun for a flight attendant
In the clip, she says while boarding the flight she mis-gendered an employee.
‘I will tell you what happened now, I got one of the flight attendant’s pronouns wrong and the other flight attendant didn’t like it,’ Longoria explained.
‘I said, “I’m really sorry, I’m not very versed in pronouns,” I was holding my son, 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 plane and getting him comfortable.’
A United Airlines staff member told her the captain personally barred her from entering the plane
The mom claimed the flight had taken off without her but with her luggage containing medication still on board
But there appears to be more to the story, with another video showing a United Airlines staffer appearing to reference more than just accidental confusion about the employee’s pronouns.
In the clip, she can be seen talking to a United staff member who informs her it was the captain’s decision to deny her from the flight for ‘what came out of your mouth’.
The employee also tells her ‘there was some more that I heard’, beyond the pronoun error.
‘They basically said tough luck and they won’t tell me exactly what I said,’ Longoria said.
In another clip, the desperate mom is seen pleading with her 20,000 Instagram followers for advice on what her rights are.
‘We don’t know how we’re going to get back today,’ she says. ‘I don’t know what to do, I really don’t know what to do.’
A United spokesperson has since confirmed the family was rebooked to another flight.
‘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 spokesperson said.
‘The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip.’