A woman was shocked to learn she was placed on American Airlines’ no-fly list while attempting to travel to New Orleans for her sister’s bachelorette party.
In a TikTok video, Erin Wright admitted that she was put to the test when she showed up at the airport ready to leave and was told she was not allowed to fly for an absurd reason.
She was “permanently banned” from American Airlines for having an inappropriate relationship with a man.
Wright explained that she arrived at the airport and was unable to check in for her flight. She had attempted to do so through her phone and at the self-service kiosk before eventually going to the customer service desk to ask for further assistance.
There, the airline employee informed Wright that she could not check in for her flight because she was effectively banned from the airline.
“The (airline employee) looks nervous and says, ‘Ma’am, I’m really sorry to tell you this, but you have actually been banned from flying on American Airlines,'” Wright recalls. “I was like, ‘What? I never did anything.'”
She asked the employee for an explanation and told Wright that it was an “internal security issue” and that she would need to contact customer service to find out the reason.
Shocked, confused, and overwhelmed, Wright pointed out that this all happened while she was at the airport, which meant she would most likely miss her original flight to New Orleans. Wright realized she needed to email the representative to find out about her ban, and decided to simply rebook her flight since there was no chance she would make it now.
“I quickly booked another round-trip flight to New Orleans for $1,000,” Wright said. “I’ll get this sorted out and they’ll refund me.”
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She spent the next eight hours at the airport, emailing customer service and demanding a refund, which Wright allegedly could not get because she had rebooked her flight when the flight restriction was still in effect.
Wright waited 12 days for a response and essentially missed her sister’s bachelorette party because of the inconvenience. After repeatedly communicating with customer service and various representatives, Wright finally learned that she had been banned from the flight because she had “engaged in sexual relations with a man while under the influence of alcohol during an inflight.”
Wright stressed that the accusation could not be true because she is a lesbian.
She responded by email to the company’s security department, saying that there was no way she could have an inappropriate relationship with a man during a flight and that they must have confused her with someone else.
She begged them to remove her from the no-fly list and refund her the money she had lost by rebooking her flight, as she was not at all to blame for this whole debacle.
“I send them a very serious email, but it’s also a little bit funny because I say, ‘I don’t really know how to prove that I’m not, other than the fact that I am literally a lesbian, and I can get you letters from other people telling you that’s the truth,'” Wright continued.
After sending that first email, three full months passed without a resolution or response from the airline’s corporate security.
Fortunately, Wright’s mother contacted American Airlines’ legal department and eventually received a call from someone at the airline explaining that she had been temporarily removed from the no-fly list until they could figure out that it was either Wright or someone else. It’s completely understandable that Wright was incredibly frustrated with this whole thing, especially considering that she couldn’t figure out how the airline even came up with this accusation.
The no-fly list was originally created for passengers who posed a threat to national security. In recent years, however, airlines have requested that undisciplined passengers be placed on the FBI-monitored list. According to the FBI, to be placed on the no-fly list, there must be “credible information demonstrating that the individual poses a threat to commit an act of terrorism with respect to an aircraft, the homeland, U.S. facilities or interests abroad, or poses a threat to commit or carry out a violent act of terrorism and is operatively capable of doing so.”
Placement on the no-fly list is an extremely serious matter, and in Wright’s case it was completely misplaced and, frankly, undeserved. In Wright’s case, this “credible information” was clearly not credible at all.
There was also a lack of communication and empathy on the part of airline employees who had inconvenienced Wright for the last three months of her life, especially when they realized that she was not the one they had initially suspected.
Viewers encouraged them to look for other options to get compensation for the entire experience, including contacting the Department of Transportation to file a complaint or suing it in small claims court.
Fortunately, thanks to TikTok’s Creator Fund, Wright was able to get back the $1,000 she was not reimbursed by American Airlines when she rebooked her flight. Still, it’s clear that the airline still has a duty to reach out to Wright and offer a sincere apology, as it’s unfair that she was subjected to such an intense and unpleasant ordeal in the first place.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news and lifestyle writer whose work explores current issues and experiences.
