a woman with a baby

A mother traveling with her one-year-old toddler claims that she was thrown off a United Airlines flight for “accidentally” using the wrong pronouns for a flight attendant, who refused to accept her apology for misgendering. Meanwhile, United says the incident started over a “discussion” about too many carry-on items onboard.

Woman Thrown Off United Airlines After Carry-On Dispute And “Accidentally Misgendering” Flight Attendant

Jenna Longoria was ticketed to travel on United from San Francisco (SFO) to Austin (AUS) with her 16-month-old child and her mother. Longoria is a Texas resident and a self-proclaimed female hormone expert. But controversy occurred onboard and Longoria found herself booted off the flight, claiming she was kicked off with her mother and child for “accidentally misgendering” a flight attendant.

‘I will tell you what happened now, I got one of the flight attendant’s pronouns wrong and the other flight attendant didn’t like it,’ Longoria explained.

‘I said, “I’m really sorry, I’m not very versed in pronouns,” I was holding my son, he was having a temper tantrum, I had the car seat on my back.

‘I wasn’t really focusing on anything except getting my son’s car seat on the plane and getting him comfortable.’

She posted four videos to her Instagram account (which I have captured below since those “Instagram stories” are set to automatically disappear after a set time):

Of note, the SFO gate agent explains that it was the captain who decided she could not fly and that “there was some more that I heard,” though it is not clear if she heard it directly or from one of the cabin crew onboard.

I asked United Airlines about what happened and was told:

“A party of three traveling out of San Francisco today was not allowed to board following a discussion about having too many carry-on items. The matter was resolved and the customers took a later United flight to finish their trip.”

Isn’t it interesting that Longoria did not mention any issue with carry-on items?

Could it have been an innocent error on the part of Longoria?

Sure it could.

Could a flight attendant have been having a bad day and ejected her even though Longoria was clearly frazzled traveling with her mother and child?

Yes.

But could it also be that Longoria was just plain nasty to the flight attendant who would not allow her to board with extra carry-on items?

And then could it be that Longoria referred to the flight attendant “sir” or “he” or “him” repeatedly despite a visible nametag that said “they/them” and an initial correction?

The answer is yes.

a silver and blue badge with wings

So I’m not making any judgments in this case…yet.

But it does appear there is more to the story here…and for that reason, I would be careful turning on the outrage machine just yet…

What do you think happened onboard?

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