Never assume racism is the root cause of poor airline customer service when a bad agent or a rude passenger may be the far more likely culprit.
Woman Claims American Airlines Gave Hotel Vouchers To White Passengers But Not Her
A video has gone viral in which a “white-skinned Latina” woman (that’s how she identifies herself) was initially denied a hotel room from American Airlines after a tarmac delay led to a missed connection, but a white family on the same flight was given one.
She claims that she was denied a hotel and when she threatened to report American Airlines to the Better Business Bureau and leave negative reviews online, the American Airlines customer service agent assisting her threatened to call the police.
She then witnessed a white family on the same flight receive hotel vouchers.
@santanaknox.author I was trying to keep it together in this video, but when people break you for no reason other than where you come from, you tend to shatter. #americanairlines #aa #americaneagle #americanairlinessucks #discrimination #faa #trending #viral
She concludes, “Even when your skin is white but your last name is not white, they can tell.”
On TikTok, she later shares that her (white) husband approached the counter and received a hotel voucher.
She has been asked questions but fails to answer, including:
- What exactly did she say to the first customer service agent?
- Did she threaten her in any way?
- Did the white family get hotel vouchers from the same agent?
- Did her husband get a voucher from the same agent?
These are key questions that are vital to understanding what happened. Her failure to address them leads me to question the story she has presented.
I can think of a number of explanations more likely than racism to explain everything that happened:
- She threatened the agent, which will never get you what you want
- The agent was a bad apple and rude to everyone in her line, not just the woman
- The white family as well as her husband were helped by a different agent
Rather than simply ignore her, I am presenting this story because the allegation is serious (she names the agent) and because her video has received hundreds of thousands of views, 50K likes, and over 2,500 comments.
Also, she could be right. If her selective recounting of the incident is true, then the case against American Airlines in Charlotte is more than concerning. But there are such gaping holes in her story that I am not all comfortable making any declarative statements until those gaps are clarified.
CONCLUSION
Charges of racism lead to eye rolls when claimed without solid grounding. I am not foreclosing the possibility that the agent simply did not like Latinas, but it seems to me the far more likely explanation is the agent was rude to everyone or rude to this woman not on the basis of her skin color but on the basis of her threats and demands. Nothing justifies poor customer service, but there’s a difference between bad service and racial discrimination or racism.
image: @santanaknox.author / TikTok
I don’t think she had the time to edit her statement and proofread it. The account suggests discriminatory treatment and bias,not a consistent pattern of prejudicial treatment leading to racism.
Seems very odd and not realistic that she would be denied a voucher while others are being given them in clear view. Perhaps she was demanding a specific hotel or something closer and the agent could not provide this? Or perhaps demanding a larger (or two) room (s) because they are a family? The entire thing seems very odd and I suspect distorted a bit as to facts. I can’t imagine given AA’s huge footprint in Latin America and Miami that given the amount of passengers from there they move through their system that any agent would even notice or care about her last name with an exclamation…”no room for you!”
What kind of racist comment is this?!?!!! Anyone who doesn’t believe a white Jussie Smollet is just as racist ad the airline!!!!!!!!! How dare you. (this is sarcasm)
She was probably being an a55, and got treated as such. Treat people like crap, get treated like crap in return. Even if AA’s customer service leaves a mile wide to be desired.
A few weeks after 9/11, I (back then a twenty-something brown male) was flying in the first row economy bulkhead aisle seat (5C) of a Continental flight with an empty middle seat 5B next to me. I had settled in and was reading my magazine (this was back when you carried magazines to entertain yourself on flights!) when I noticed the captain talking to a NJ State Trooper in the forward galley and pointing at me.
The pilot approached me and asked me to move to 19B. I asked if I could simply move to the vacant 5B next to me and was told to “go to the back”. I was not allowed to take my personal effects from the seat pocket. When I tried to sit in the vacant 20C instead, the gate agent who accompanied me to the back told me that I had to sit in 19B. She then told the two passengers in 19A and 19C to “keep an eye on this one”.
I complied and then complained to CO after the flight. They subsequently “investigated” and found that “the actions were taken solely in the interest of security after the 9/11 events as (the captain) wanted to place a Continental employee in closer proximity to the cockpit. You were not forced to move to a middle seat further back in the aircraft, but politely requested to move and willingly obliged. You were asked to leave your personal effects at your original seat to ensure an on-time departure.”
If you believe that load of crap, I have a bridge to sell you. Racism exists, often subconsciously and is often then brownwashed at corporate level.
So yeah, not a comment on this particular situation but just to share an experience that was officially deemed as “not racism” but in my humble opinion, may have indeed had different motivation.
I’m not saying this to diminish the issue you were forced to endure, but they was a completely different (albeit still wrong) circumstance that, as you stated, was right after a horrific attack. Tensions, understandably, were higher. Again, not diminishing your experience, I’m just saying these two things aren’t remotely equal. Also, as she put it, she is a “white” Latina. She is trying to make something about race that clearly doesn’t fit.
@Brandon – I actually accept and understand why my incident happened. I don’t accept the ridiculous coverup and gaslighting from Continental (to their credit, the matter was later resolved amicably when escalated). My point was that it is very easy to sit back and reach conclusions holistically. Racism is real and people sometimes perceive it when it may not have been intended. That doesn’t make it any less real to the person that find themselves the “victim”.
So, I fully believe your story, and I am incredibly sorry that happened to you. Nor do I try to diminish that there is bias in the world. I do absolutely fully agree and recognize that fact. However, I don’t believe her due a multitude of reasons. Mainly, in this time, that there isn’t a lot do wiggle room in what you can’t or can’t be offered by the airline regardless of race. United canceled my flight in 2019 and the earliest rebooking was Monday from a Friday flight and they gave me nothing. Not even really so much as an “I’m sorry”. They threw it off on weather (it had been bad, but that night it was just cloudy). I just say this to say that I have to hard time believing her story due to the fact I have been in similar circumstances with the same outcome. Also, she looks about as ethnic as I do, or less so. I have a small amount of native ancestry.
Again, though, I am truly sorry for your incident. Regardless of the circumstances, it shouldn’t have happened.
I appreciate the story, and thanks for sharing. I only want to add that racism exists in the country against whites as well. A friend of mine whose wife worked in HR at a major university back in 1988 said that they quietly avoided hiring white males immediately unless they could find a minority to fill the position first. They didn’t inform the candidates of this during the process but instead made excuses such as “we’re still going through the paperwork and will keep you notified.” In one case, they strung along a guy for 2 months until he had to go accept an offer somewhere else.
That’s really horrible Sean. How sad that this happened to you and how so many grossly reacted to 911 in the worst and ugliest way.
As a fellow brother, I completely understand and relate to this.
I probably commented this somewhere about how I got bumped off a flight some 10 years back despite being in FC due to a “random” selection to accommodate a dead-heading pilot. The “random” coincidence was that I was the only black man in first class. I tried reasoning against it because it was an important meeting with a client for my firm, but GA called the cops saying I was being aggressive, hostile, and “violent” even though I was calm and didn’t raise my voice and asked for a reason why I was pulled off. The cops immediately took the GA side and I was first apprehended and cuffed. After telling my story and my story checking out, the cops apologized but I missed my flight. Again, the airline kept claiming it was my fault and I didn’t feel like pursuing it at the time because I was working 70-80 hours/week and my employers at the time decided to give me a month of paid leave to get that off of my chest.
It’s definitely a problem in our society today for those of color but some folks try to act like this doesn’t happen in today’s society smh.
That is really bad. You’ve been through a lot.
I’m so sorry this happened to you but I still believe the woman in this story is full of sh*t.
Sincerely,
A brown guy in America
Americans love to default to the race card.
Additionally, American Airlines has a huge Latin American footprint.
Simply because she didn’t get something doesn’t mean it’s racist. It’s just a method to blackmail a company.
So does this mean her husband has a less ethnic sounding last name?
Apparently, though her surname on TT is Knox.
Time to tell my Spanish friends that their names are not white. Every day is a school day!
I thawt only fairey geff did these. Ok, no more pageviews or comments for you.
Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
Was she a nonrev?
I’d guess BE. Nor do we know the story about the other couple. (airline status, class, etc.)
Also, some GA’s are just pricks. I had/have one at SAT that put me in a middle seat in standby and gave a couple of teens exit row seats. I have a hard time believing they are/were higher status than me.
What’s a white last name? I have many friends in South America, Spain, Lebanon and other places that are white and have last names that are Spanish, Portuguese, Lebanese etc. Eastern Europeans are white, do they have white last names? Good grief.
Lol she is whiter than me.
You know what doesn’t discriminate? Paying with a credit card that comes with travel delay coverage.
The fact that she has a white husband means she’s likely not bigoted against white people and has experience with white people in a personal setting, rather than just TV and stereotypes, so I’m more inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, that she’s not assuming something, versus someone who only sees white people through a negative lens.
She’s gotta decide – either she’s white or she’s not. Latinos, hispanics…historically, they were just called WHITES. You don’t get to play both sides. She is white as chalk ffs!
People like this subscribe to the left wing grievance politics and victim complex.