A mother has claimed she was taken off a United Airlines flight with her distressed 16-month-old son because she used the wrong pronoun for flight attendant.
Jenna Longoria was expecting to fly to Austin from San Francisco with her mother and son on Wednesday when United stopped them from traveling.
She claims she was denied boarding after an “accidental” mix-up when she confronted a United employee, who she says refused to accept her apology.
The panicked mum also claimed the flight took off with her luggage containing her and her mother’s medicines still on board, putting her at risk of becoming ‘very ill’ while she was stranded.
“They say it’s a hate crime I committed and I might not even be able to fly with United again,” she said angrily in a video on Instagram.
Jenna Longoria accused the airline of preventing her and her mother from flying from San Francisco to Houston on Wednesday after she used the wrong pronoun for flight attendant
In the clip, she says she misgendered an employee during boarding.
‘I’ll tell you now what happened. I got one of the flight attendant pronouns wrong and the other flight attendant didn’t like it,” Longoria explained.
“I said, ‘I’m really sorry, I’m not really good with pronouns.’ I was holding my son, he was having a tantrum, I had the car seat on my back.
“I wasn’t focusing on anything other than getting my son’s car seat on the plane and getting him comfortable.”
A United Airlines employee told her that the captain had personally denied her access to the plane
The mother claimed the flight left without her, but with her luggage containing medicines still on board
But there seems to be more going on. Another video shows a United Airlines employee seemingly hinting at more than just a casual confusion about the employee’s pronouns.
In the clip, she is seen talking to a United staffer who tells her it was the captain’s decision to deny her from the flight because of “what came out of your mouth.”
The employee also tells her “there was more I heard” besides the pronoun error.
“They basically said bad luck and they won’t tell me exactly what I said,” Longoria said.
In another clip, the desperate mother is seen pleading with her 20,000 Instagram followers for advice on what her rights are.
“We don’t know how to get back today,” she says. “I don’t know what to do, I really don’t know what to do.”
DailyMail.com has contacted United Airlines for comment.