Mom Outraged After Airline Worker Laughed At Her Five-Year-Old Daughter's Unusual Name
A UK mom was outraged after she claimed that an airline staff mocked her daughter's name while the entire family was boarding the plane.
The mother, Traci Redford's daughter has quite an uncommon name. Her name is Abcde but it's pronounced Ab-city.
Abcde is five and has epilepsy. Earlier this month, Traci and her family were boarding their flight home after a holiday in Orange County, California, and that's when the incident occurred.
The staff's comments left Abcde "distraught".
"She said, 'Mum, why is she laughing at my name,'" Traci tells ABC. "And I said not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it's unfortunate."
The mom adds that the check-in agent laughed at Abcd's name as well as they arrived at John Wayne Airport.
"The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees," she explained. "So I turned around and said, 'Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I'd appreciate it if you'd just stop’."
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Name shaming?
The distraught mom also claims that the same worker shared a copy of her daughter's boarding pass on Facebook.
"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 claimed. "It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines."
She added that it took two weeks for the airline to finally issue an apology:
"We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online.
"The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees.
"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 emphasise our expectations for all Employees," the company said in a statement.
