How A Lesbian, Accused Of Having Drunken Sex With A Man On American Airlines, Got Her Lifetime Ban Reversed

An American Airlines passenger was supposed to fly from Albuquerque to New Orleans in June, but wasn’t permitted to travel. They say they’d been added to the airline’s banned customer list for past behavior.

According to the passenger,

  • American Airlines told them they had had drunken sex with a man on a previous flight
  • But that seemed highly unlikely because she’s a lesbian

She says that she couldn’t check in for her flight to join her sister’s bachelorette party. She was told she would have to take it up with customer relations by email – so the issue wouldn’t be resolved prior to check-in. She bought a walkup ticket on another airline for $1,000, and was out the original $471.95 from her American ticket. Eventually, she says, American’s corporate security team revealed the reason for the ban.

Finally, she got her flight privileges back. Here’s how. “She cold-emailed the CEO to resolve it.”

  • She and her alleged co-conspirator were “placed on the permanent Internal Refuse List after multiple eye-witness reports of the passengers being intoxicated and engaging in sexual activity” during a flight earlier in the year.

  • She told the airline that (1) she’s “never been intoxicated on a flight” (2) doesn’t know the guy she supposedly had sex on board with, and uh (3) she’s a lesbian so even though she wouldn’t have sex with a random passenger she met on a plane, she definitely wouldn’t do so with a dude.

  • Finally, she heard from American Airlines corporate security.

    We haven’t figured out what happened, but we feel like you’ve been diligent enough in your communication with us and genuine enough that we’re going to take you off the no-fly list until we do figure out what happened. And if it was you, we’ll put you back on it, but if not, you’re not going to hear from us anymore.

Delta’s CEO has proposed that a ban from one airline should be a ban from all airlines. This is just another example of why that’s a bad idea.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Ed Ban-stian – what a tool

    Surprised AA told her the name of the man on the other side of this accusation

  2. The text and tone of the email from AA again shows their attitude of acting like the customer instead of a vendor. As if it’s a privilege to use their product. This is a sure sign of a business that will repeatedly declare bankruptcy.

  3. Very surprised that AA didn’t take real care in making sure they have the right person. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

  4. Maybe you need to take a camera or smart phone onboard and film only yourself for the whole flight to combat crazy actions by the airline personnel. A frame every few seconds would do. Failure to notify a person that they are on the no fly list when buying a ticket or when checking in should result in a steep fine against the airline. Further, the airline should never gain advantage for such an situation, even if the person is on the list.

  5. No, it’s not a.bad idea, bad behavior on AA doesn’t mean that United needs to have a jerk on the plane.

  6. “The text and tone of the email from AA again shows their attitude of acting like the customer instead of a vendor. As if it’s a privilege to use their product. This is a sure sign of a business that will repeatedly declare bankruptcy.”

    This is where you’re mistaken. It’s capitalism. This isn’t a public service like police and fire and education. You’re free to not do business with AA and they are free to refuse service to customers for any reason they want as long as it isn’t discriminatory, and even that’s an entire conversation.

    If I don’t want to sell cakes to the homos (forgive the term; I am one of them) then that’s my right as a business owner in the USA. But people can also boycott my business and call me horrible. That’s their right.

    There are, in fact, customers that any business is better off showing the curb and not taking their money. They’re too problematic and should be shown the door.

    If you don’t like it, run for office and change the laws.

  7. I wonder what really happened. A nasty FA fabricated a report? Mistaken identity? Report had the wrong seat number on it?

  8. AA did not investigate this enough to warrant putting her on the no fly list,just going off what other passengers said does not sound like AA did there homework on this to begin with, also airlines should program there system to not even allow a person on the list to even purchase the ticket to begin with, they do know why she got on the list by mistake, but they won’t reveal that, that’s why they took her off because they know it was a mistake, they should have compensate her alot more for.there mistake

  9. Ther’s something off about this tale. Especially the non-PR language of the supposed AA reply.
    I call BS on this.

  10. Mike – they’re a common carrier. So while a company, they do offer a service to the public under license from the government.

    They might face some liability for the denied boarding on this, should she pursue it.

  11. Was she even on that flight? If she wasn’t, that would be easier to prove rather than her using her social behavior as proof.

  12. So, is she due IDB compensation? Or if an airline oversells can they just claim you had too much fun on your last flight?

  13. Airline wide ban is weird. Airlines, and flag carrier do represent countries in certain bilaterals (i.e. for instance the Bermuda II back then). Who are they to ban you from a service negociated by the US Government.

  14. “An American Airlines passenger was supposed to fly from Albuquerque to New Orleans in June, but wasn’t permitted to travel. They say they’d been added to the airline’s banned customer list for past behavior.”

    Gary, I expect you to use standard English. Since the passenger was a woman, why do you write “they” and “they’d”? Isn’t “she” standard English? We know that a woman was involved. Why use a plural that doesn’t show gender?

  15. Knowing who the partner is in the tryst has never been a requirement, especially when intoxicated. Second, there may have been a seat swap on the flight which the person involved has assumed the seat of the accused, causing the confusion. Finally, I have seen heavy intoxication over rule ones orientation at times for both sexes enough to know that when that drunk, anything is possible. Ultimately, the reality is that another passenger with the same name is probably the offender and the airline got the wrong one.

  16. Has anyone ever heard of Mistaken Identity? I know that no one with the same name Flys the same airline carrier.

    No one defamed her and not AA’s fault if you have 50 Jane Does with the same name that have flown on your airline.

    She announced it to the world & we truly don’t give a crap. ‍♀️

  17. @Vazir Mukhtar
    They is correctly used in this case. ‘She’ would also be correct. But the previous sentence offers no gender either.

    The comma after June, however, is not required.

  18. Is this for real? The language said to be used by AA doesn’t sound real. Even if the ladyxis a lesbian, people get up to very strange things when they are very drunk. She may be embarrassed that she had a trust with a dude.

  19. @ Mike says:
    October 11, 2024 at 5:25 pm

    As a “homo” I am glad that you have shown yourself as the bigoted a** in a public post!!!!

Comments are closed.