A Texas woman traveling with her mother and baby on a United Airlines flight claims she was kicked off a flight for misgendering an attendant, but the Airline has something else to say.
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, Jenna Longoria had to face a devastating situation as she was denied boarding her pre-booked United Airlines flight to Houston at San Francisco International Airport. Longoria was traveling with her mother and 16-month-old baby when the incident occurred, which she explained in a series of now-expired Instagram stories.
Now posted on Live and Let’s Fly’s YouTube account, Longoria can be seen visibly upset and angry over the ordeal that she claims is due to her “misgendering” one of the attendants. In the first video, Lomgoria explains how “the flight attendant has denied access to us because he said that I made a derogatory comment about one of the flight attendants because I didn’t use their right pronoun.”
The woman allegedly mistakenly called a flight attendant “sir,” offending the latter
In talks with The New York Post, the self-proclaimed female health expert again clarified the incident, explaining, “When [the flight attendant], who identifies as a woman, gave me our boarding passes, I said, ‘Thank you, sir.’ That is it. That is it.”
Longoria clarified her stance, saying that her son weighs 25 lbs and she’d been carrying him for about 30 minutes when the incident occurred. She also apologized immediately, which the attendant refused to accept.
“I said, “I’m really sorry, I’m not very versed in pronouns,” I was holding my son, he was having a temper tantrum, and 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.”
The Airline ultimately forbade the three passengers from boarding and the plane took off with their luggage on board. “They took our luggage on the plane, which has my thyroid medication, which I’ll be very sick without. My mother’s medication. They basically said, tough luck. And they won’t tell me exactly what I said,” Longoria explained in another video.
United Airline employee calls it “the Captain’s decision”
Continuing her story, Longoria uploaded a video where she can be seen speaking to an SFO gate agent whom she identified to The Post as Gabriella. The employee dismisses her saying that the captain decided to remove her from the flight, adding that she doesn’t want to comment on what happened as it was the captain who “denied” her entry. “And when the captain denies you, it’s the end of the story.”
Now what remains disputed is the reason why the Captain had decided against Longoria boarding the flight. When she asked the employee the reason, the short response was, “For what came out of your mouth.”
United claims Longoria was kicked off for “having too many carry-on items” instead
When People contacted United Airlines to comment on the matter on Thursday, June 27, the airline said that the incident was instead related to the passengers having too many carry-on bags.
“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.”
However, it is interesting to note that Longoria does not mention anything about a possible disagreement between her and the airline employee regarding her carry-ons. According to United’s regular baggage policy, each traveler is allowed to bring one carry-on bag and one personal item into the cabin according to the airline’s size limitations. However, Longoria did not disclose how many carry-ons her party had with them, according to United.
Longoria calls United’s comment “an absolute lie”
In response to United’s statement, Longoria claimed to The Post that it was “an absolute lie.” (via Audacy) Though she is panicking that she “might not even be able to ever fly United,” Longoria, her son, and her mother got tickets for a flight on a different carrier and made it home later that day.
What actually unfolded in the flight that day is still being debated, but Longoria is not willing to budge from her stance. It’s unknown if the flight attendants on Longoria’s aircraft were wearing name tags with their pronouns, but Business Insider announced in 2023 that United will start letting staff do so.
Netizens have a split opinion on the matter as they believe the truth could be anything from Longoria making the story up to cover for her fight over extra carry-ons to the United spewing lies to defend their employees.