The incident occurred while she was traveling to attend her sister’s bachelorette party. She tried checking in for the flight via phone, but she wasn’t allowed to. Seeing that she would be late to the event if she kept arguing, she decided to go to the airport to complete the process in person, only to be informed by an employee of the decision by the airline to veto her. “The gate agent was like, ‘I’m really sorry, but it’s an issue of internal security. I can’t tell you, but the person on the phone told me that you should know why,’” she explained. Wright then reached out to customer service for answers, but they also refused to disclose the reason, instead directing her to a customer relations email address.
A 24-year-old lesbian was banned from ever boarding American Airlines after the provider mistakenly accused her of “having sex with a man” on a plane
Share icon Image credits: erin_wright “I’m really frustrated and have to spend an additional eight hours in the airport waiting for my other flight,” she said. With no other choice left, she spent an extra $1,000 for an emergency flight with a different airline, on top of the $400 she’d already paid for her original ticket. Almost half a month after she initially contacted American Airlines customer service, Wright was finally informed of the reason that led to her ban via an email from corporate security. The provider apparently mistook her for another woman who had been caught having sexual relations with a man on a flight while intoxicated. Share icon Image credits: erin_wright
After the embarrassing incident, Erin took to TikTok to share her experience. The clip has garnered nearly 300,000 likes and 13,000 comments at the time of writing, with many users empathizing with her and sharing their own bad experiences with the airline. “This is the third horror story about American Airlines on my front page. My son and mom were stuck on the tarmac for three hours to ultimately deplane. I will never fly with them!” Others wondered why the provider allowed Wright to buy the ticket even though she was banned. “So why doesn’t American Airlines notify the passenger if you get banned so that you don’t find out the day of your flight?” “Everything else aside, how did they let you book if they banned you?”
The success of Erin Wright’s viral video made her earn over $1,000 in revenue, helping her cover some of the expenses from her embarrassing experience
Share icon Image credits: erin_wright
Following the success of her first video, Erin uploaded an update about her situation last Sunday (August 11). “So, in June, I was accidentally put on the American Airlines no-fly list because they said I had sex with a man on an airplane even though I’m a lesbian,” she recounted. “Because of this, I couldn’t board my flight to my sister’s bachelorette party and ended up having to book up a $1000 roundtrip flight from New Mexico to New Orleans at the last minute.” She also confirmed that American Airlines didn’t compensate her for their flight or the extra ticket she had to buy, which led her to make the video in hopes the community would make it go viral. “That’s why I made a video and asked people to blow it up so that I could try to recoup the costs of my tickets, and they did!” “I made almost the exact amount of money that I’d lost so American Airlines doesn’t even have to try to make it right.” Share icon Image credits: erin_wright Wright also stated that American Airlines has yet to reach out to her to fix things on their end but that she’s still hoping they will. Because of this, she also revealed that she’s considering taking legal action. “I’m looking into a lot of things people recommended, like filing a complaint to the Department of Transportation or suing them in court.” She ended her update by thanking her viewers and fans, showing that her original clip had made $1,008 thanks to almost a million views that the video had generated. “I’m just really grateful for everyone helping blow the video up. It took a lot of stress off my shoulders financially.”
Despite being happy about the success of her clip, Erin’s fans remain adamant that American Airlines needs to pay for what they put her through
Share icon Image credits: erin_wright Viewers congratulated Wright for making her money back but insisted that the story wouldn’t be over until American Airlines refunded the tickets themselves for their mistake. “Making it right by sacrificing their reputation. I love this for you. They should still pay you back for the last minute ticket too,” argued one viewer. “The fact that they still haven’t offered you a flight credit at the very least makes my blood boil,” said another. “American Airlines needs to step up! I won’t fly with them until they make it right with you, please keep us looped in,” urged one fan. “Don’t settle babe! I know it’s a lot of work but if you can, keep fighting it,” wrote another. “So are we not gonna sue them? I mean $1008.70 is OK but they did you dirty. A lawyer needs to be talked to,” one viewer recommended.
“Refund is well deserved!” wrote one fan, as others chimed in to urge Wright to pursue legal action against American Airlines
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