A New Jersey woman claims a group of FAs on American Airlines conspired to ruin her wedding, discreetly opening an overhead bin in-flight and dousing her white wedding gown in red wine.
Yewande Oteh was flying from Philadelphia to Montego Bay, Jamaica in August 2015. Her 31-page lawsuit claims that at check-in an AA agent advised her to carry-on her wedding dress rather than check it.
At the gate, she was assured she would have access to a closet to properly hang her dress.
But once onboard, she was denied the use of the closet and encountered a “rude” and “aggressive” FA named Melanie Masters.
The wedding dress was laid in an open first class overhead bin and the bride to be sat toward the front of the economy class, keeping an eye on the bin during the flight.
The lawsuit alleges that during the flight FAs gathered around the overhead bin storing the wedding dress. Later, Masters allegedly opened the overhead bin with her right hand while holding something in her left hand. This happened a second time and no other passenger allegedly opened up the bin during the flight.
Here’s where the story gets a bit odd. Apparently Oteh and her fiancé forgot to take the wedding dress after the flight but were not allowed back onboard. Montego Bay ground staff had to retrieve it from the aircraft.
Oteh pulled out her dress from the garment bag and found it stained in red wine and therefore ruined. I’m assuming this took place on the jet bridge.
When confronted, Masters reportedly snickered and stated “something must have spilled inside of the wedding bag.”
The lawsuit for $3.5mn, claims Oteh suffered “severe diarrhea, dehydration and depressive symptoms” as she frantically searched for a replacement dress.
American issued a short statement–
We are reviewing the lawsuit.
CONCLUSION
There are a couple things I don’t understand. First, how can you leave your wedding dress onboard if you were watching it the entire flight? Second, does the delay in filing reflect an attempt to work out the situation amicably with AA or a tactic to make fact-finding harder?
Let’s see how this case develops. I’m skeptical a FA would open a garment bag and deliberately ruin a wedding dress, but we’ve seen worse.
Why does there always have to be such a bizarre twist like “Oteh and her fiancé forgot to take the wedding dress after the flight?” At least according to the story, she sat in economy and explicitly “kept an eye” on the dress, and watched all of this unfold…then completely forgot about it when leaving the aircraft? What the heck?
Sounds fishy, doesn’t it?
Read on Gary’s blog that they’re both lawyers and have been married for a year
Why the FA denied her use of closet while the gate agent ensure her the closet will be available? Seems like each employee in AA is trying to throw away responsibilities.
Considering how big their sense of self entitlement is and the fact that most of them never realised that they are working in an industry with high sense of hospitality, I sure hope the worst for AA and its employee….
There is no closet on the aircraft in question. The woman clearly has fabricated this story.
Why you automatically assume the woman fabricated the story if there’s no closet on the aircraft? Is it impossible for the gate agent to lie?
I would believe a customer over a flight attendant any day. The airlines don’t care about providing customer service, they care about slamming as many people in the plane, which requires them to hire authoritarian dictators to keep the rabble under control. It was a power tripping flight attendant looking to ruin someone’s day because she thought she could get away with it.
…and why is this still hanging around from 2015 ? What did they do, forget about the lawsuit as well ?
They got married and presumably went on a honeymoon. They probably sent a demand letter, and tried to work it out with American Airlines. After that didn’t work, they had to research the relevant law, including where they could sue, and what specific causes of action were available in that jurisdiction. In addition, they had to choose a venue. People don’t wake up and sue people, after an event happens, drafting a proper filing takes time and money – doing a slapdash job is a great way to get it thrown out.
“The lawsuit for $3.5mn, claims Oteh suffered “severe diarrhea, dehydration and depressive symptoms” as she frantically searched for a replacement dress”
This is odd, right?
Not odd. It was used as basis for damage. The more, the merrier, as long as the plaintiff can present evidence.