Southwest Airlines apologises for mocking girl's name
- Published
The airline issued a "sincere apology" to the girl and her family
Southwest Airlines has apologised after a member of its staff mocked a five-year-old girl's name.
Traci Redford and her daughter, Abcde (pronounced ab-si-dee), were en route home to El Paso, Texas, from California's John Wayne Airport when the incident occurred.
A gate agent allegedly began laughing and took a photo of the child's boarding pass and posted it online.
Airline spokesperson Chris Mainz offered the family a "sincere apology".
In a statement to Buzzfeed News, external, Mr Mainz said the employee's social media post "is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility" the airline expects.
"We take great pride in extending our Southwest hospitality to all of our customers," the statement reads.
Ms Redford told broadcaster ABC7, external that the airline "hadn't done anything" for two weeks after she had filed a formal complaint.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Ms Redford said the gate agent "started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees", and her daughter had asked her why they were mocking her.
"She said: 'Mom, why is she laughing at my name?' And I said not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it's unfortunate," Ms Redford said.
Vocativ, a news and data website, published a piece in 2014 saying there were at that time 328 children in the US named "Abcde", external, according to the Social Security Administration.
You may also be interested in:
- Published12 June 2018
- Published12 April 2017
- Published6 June 2018
- Published19 September 2018
