A Texas woman is seeking action from Southwest Airlines after claiming a gate agent mocked her 5-year-old daughter’s name and even posted a photo of her boarding pass online.
According to ABC7, Traci Redford and her daughter, Abcde—pronounced “ab-city”—were at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California preparing to board a flight home to El Paso, Texas when the Southwest employee allegedly began making fun of the family over the girl’s unique name.
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“The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees,” said Redford. “So I turned around and said, ‘Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I’d appreciate if you’d just stop.'”
The Redfords always pre-board as Abcde suffers from epilepsy.
“While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter,” she told ABC7. “It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines.”
Redford said she filed a formal complaint with the airline to no avail.
“We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement.
“The post is not indicative of the care, respect and civility we expect from all of our employees. We have followed up with the employee involved and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all employees.”
Name shaming? This Texas woman claims a @SouthwestAir agent made fun of her 5-year-old daughter’s name as they were preparing to board their flight at @JohnWayneAir in Orange County.
Her daughter’s name is Abcde (pronounced Ab-city). @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/iHpBPoakYI
— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) November 28, 2018
Redford said she’s using the unpleasant experience to teach her daughter a valuable lesson. “She said ‘Mom, why is she laughing at my name?’ And I said, ‘Not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it’s unfortunate.'”
