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.”

He stepped in to pay the charge himself, but United initially resisted, trying to “prevent [him] from paying for them.” Eventually the airline’s staff relented and let him cover the charge so that the women could fly.

@united yall are disgustingly racist. These fools single out 2 Black women speaking broken English & start harassing them, threatening to prevent them from boarding bc they can’t afford to pay $400 to check two tiny purses at the gate. Then try to prevent ME from paying for them! pic.twitter.com/uHR16gXUaw

— JT Flowers (@jtflowersx) October 12, 2023

$400. For two purses. I’m never flying @united again. And neither should anybody Black.

— JT Flowers (@jtflowersx) October 12, 2023

My first thought was that these were basic economy passengers with extra cabin baggage restrictions, but that doesn’t make sense – United charges for those required to check bags at the gate, but it’s an extra $25 apiece for those in basic economy. That doesn’t get us to $400 for two bags.

Now, oversized and overweight bags can run $200 to $400 apiece (usually $200). $400 would make sense if these were two bags larger than a standard checked bag, but these were items the passengers were carrying on and that are described as ‘two tiny purses’.

We know that there really was a $400 charge for the two bags. JT Flowers ‘has receipts’ (literally). So what seems to have happened is:

• The women were flying long haul international
  
• They had already checked two or more bags
  
• To most worldwide destinations, United charges $200 apiece for a third checked bag (or more)

It’s likely that they did have ‘small purses’ but perhaps they had more than a personal item (17 x 10 x 9 inches) and a carry on (22 x 14 x 9 inches). Perhaps the personal item was oversized – a restriction that’s rarely enforced by U.S. airlines – but most likely each passenger had ‘3 items’ something JT Flowers says other passengers in the gate area were allowed to board with.

I’ve seen gate agents claim that a passenger with a small rollaboard, a laptop bag, and a plastic bag from a news stand with a bottle of water and candy bar has ‘3 items’ and either has to consolidate down to two bags or check one. That’s not usually the case, but it happens.

Nonetheless, United was likely enforcing its rules as-written, much to the $400 surprise of two women not in a position to pay. While United claims a motto “good leads the way” we now know that’s meant to describe fellow passengers?