United Airlines has found itself yet again surrounded by controversy. This time the airlines sent a French woman on about 3,000 mile trip in the opposite direction.
Lucie Bahetoukilae was scheduled to fly from New Jersey to Paris, but instead she was flying towards San Francisco after she was inadvertently allowed to board the wrong flight.
Bahetoukilae, who speaks only French allowed her niece to speak on her behalf said, the airline changed the flight’s gate at the last minute and failed to notify to the travelers via email. Bahetoukilae urges that the airlines did not announce the gate change in French, despite the original flight been bound for Paris.
"If they would have made the announcement in French, she would have moved gates," Bahetoukilae’s niece, Diane Miantsoko said,
Bahetoukilae, gave her ticket to the gate authority, who then scanned it and allowed Bahetoukilae to board.
Inside the plane Bahetoukilae found another passenger seated in her spot. Confused, she showed her ticket to a flight attendant, who instead of noticing the error, simply assisted Bahetoukilae to an empty seat.
She then embarked on a 7.5 hour flight in the mistaken direction. When she arrived in San Francisco, Bahetoukilae then endured an 11-hour layover as the airlines tried to place her on another flight to France. She spent more than 28 hours trying to reach her initial destination.
"With everything going on this country people have to be more careful," said the woman’s niece. "They didn't pay attention. My aunt could have been anyone. She could have been a terrorist and killed people on that flight," she added.
United airlines did take the responsibility for their mishap, and it also issued an apology.
"We deeply apologize to Ms. Bahetoukilae for this unacceptable experience," United said in an emailed statement to Fox News. "When she arrived in San Francisco, we ensured she got on the next flight to Paris and refunded her ticket. Our customer care team has reached out to her directly to ensure we make this right. We are also working with our team in Newark to prevent this from happening again."
Senator Kamala Harris joins on stage podcast
AMandeep
