What happens if you’ve purchased a ticket, you’re about to board your flight, and the airline demands $400 that you don’t have? Two women traveling United Airlines had to find out. And they were only able to fly, along with all of their belongings, thanks to the kindness of a stranger traveling on the same flight that day who pulled out her own credit card.
The Oregon-based musician, singer, and Rhodes scholar JT Flowers shared what he witnessed at the boarding gate. Two passengers, that he noted were “black women speaking broken English,” were told that they could not board because “they can’t afford to pay $400 to check two tiny purses at the gate.”