An airline have issued an apology after a member of staff allegedly “made fun of” a five-year-old girl’s name.
A Texan woman has said that Southwest Airline staff were laughing at her daughter’s name when the pair were waiting to board a flight from California to El Paso.
Traci Redford said that the gate agent was making fun of her daughter’s boarding pass and sharing photos of it on social media.
Traci’s daughter’s name is ‘Abcde.’
The mother said the name is pronounced ‘Ab-city.’
“The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees,” she told Abc7.
“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.'”
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
Traci said that she was later shown a photo of Abcde’s boarding pass that had been uploaded to social media by the gate agent.
She reported the image to Southwest Airlines but alleged that nothing happened.
“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 said.
“It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn’t done anything.”
Southwest Airlines issued a statement to Abc7 extending their “sincere apology” to Traci and her family.
“The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees,” they said.
“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.”
