Minnesota man claims he was asked to leave Southwest Airlines flight over tweet
Minnesota man claims he was asked to leave Southwest Airlines flight over tweet
Feb. 9, 2012: A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 waits to take off at Chicago's Midway Airport as another lands. AP
A Minnesota man says he and his two children were asked to get off a Southwest Airlines flight and were not allowed back on the plane until he deleted an uncomplimentary tweet about a gate agent.
Duff Watson told WCCO-TV that he was flying home to Minneapolis from Denver Sunday. Prior to boarding the plane, Watson said he got into a disagreement with the agent over whether his 6-year-old and 9-year-old would be allowed to board with him. Watson's ticket was marked with the letter "A," which means he gets priority boarding. But Watson said the agent wouldn't let his children board with him, forcing them all to wait.
"In leaving I said, you know, 'Real nice way to treat an A-list. I'll be sure to tweet about it,'" Watson told the station.
Moments later, that's exactly what Watson did. "Something to the effect of, 'Wow, rudest agent in Denver. Kimberly S, gate C39, not happy @SWA,'" he said.
Shortly after the three boarded, Watson says they were told to leave the plane. The agent allegedly told Watson that she felt her safety was threatened by what he had tweeted.
"She said, 'You cant board the plane unless you delete that tweet,'" Watson said.
Southwest Airlines told WCCO that a customer was removed from the flight for a short time, but continued on to Minneapolis. The airline also said that the incident was under review and could not elaborate on any disciplinary action.
Watson said he and his children each received a $50 voucher from the airline, but has vowed to never fly Southwest again.
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Would it have been so hard for him to just delete the Tweet ,and avoid all of the mess.?
Betcha' he placed some more tweets afterwards. And at what point did the gate agent (not the greatest job in the world anyway) think that a complaint by someone that was already on an airplane was putting her in danger? Overreaching on her part. Rude is rude-rude isn't in itself a threat.
The entire thing is just childish. IMO
It's time to put all of them in the sandbox, so they can have a real fight. /s
LOL That about sums it up Kav. I wonder what the children think about all of this.
Agreed, it's all childish, but if I paid for the priority boarding (that's an addiitonal few bucks) and was told I'd have to leave my children to fend for themselves or get out of line, I would likely get out of line, but from a customer service perspective, isn't there a better way to keep this from becoming a problem? If the SWA employee had done something, anything, to proactively resolve the situation, it would not have escalated (devolved?) into the situation this story reports.
Ohhh....now that explanation helps understand what the article leftout.Thanks for the info formerstew.