A Minneapolis man was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight after he used social media to complain about a boarding agent.
“I was left very upset, very embarrassed, very humiliated,” said Duff Watson.
Watson said he tried to board a Southwest Airlines flight with his kids. He’s an A-List passenger, which means he gets priority boarding. But a gate agent wouldn’t let his six and 9-year-old kids board with him; which meant they would all have to wait to board later.
“In leaving I said, real nice way to treat an A-List, I’ll be sure to tweet about it,” Watson said.
And he did.
“Something to the effect of wow, rudest agent in Denver. Kimberly S, gate C39, not happy, @swa,” Watson said about the tweet that he claims he was told to delete.
Soon after getting to their seats, the family of three was asked to de-plane.
“She said her safety feels threatened because of what I tweeted,” Watson said.
“She said ‘I’m going to call the cops,’” Watson’s daughter Lucy said. “I thought something bad was going to happen, like my dad was going to jail.”
“And that’s when my children started crying,” he said.
Watson says he doesn’t understand why his family was targeted.
“There was no use of profanity, there were no threats made, nothing other than you know a terse exchange between a customer service agent and a customer,” he said.
Watson also said he was forced to delete the tweet. “She said you can’t board the plane unless you delete that tweet.”
Southwest Airlines sent this statement, saying: A customer was removed for a short time and continued on to Minneapolis. And the incident is currently under review.
Southwest apologized to Watson in an email and sent three $50 vouchers.
But, Watson said he won’t fly the airline again.
