Lesbian claims she was ‘banned’ from American Airlines over sex allegation
A lesbian TikTok claims she was banned from flying with American Airlines because they said she had sex with a man during a flight (J. David Ake/Getty Images)
A lesbian has claimed she was banned from flying with American Airlines because the company said she had previously had sex with a man in a toilet during a flight.
Erin Wright, who posts on TikTok under the name @erin_wright, uploaded a four-minute video to the platform on 8 August with the caption: “How I got permanently banned from flying American Airlines for having sexual relations with a man on a plane even though I’m a lesbian.”
In the video, which has amassed nearly three million views and 300,000 likes, Wright detailed how she was set to fly to her sister’s bachelorette party but wasn’t allowed to board. She initially tried to check in on her phone but when that did not work she went to the airline’s help desk at the airport, which also failed, and staff proceeded to make a call higher up.
“The lady [gate agent] looks nervous, and she’s like: ‘Ma’am, I’m really sorry to tell you this but you’ve been banned from flying American Airlines.”
Wright said was left confused, and asked the agent to explain the reasons behind her being added to a no-fly list. However, due to the fact that it was “an issue with internal security”, the check-in staff member was unable to tell her and said: “The person on the phone told me that you should know why.”
While still at the airport, and with time ticking away until her flight took off, Wright said she tried in vain to find out reason for the ban.
“I realise that I’m going to miss my flight and I just need to book another. I quickly booked myself another $1,000 (£780) round-trip to New Orleans,” Wright said, noting that she had to wait eight hours for that flight. I proceed to be like, I’m going to get this cleared up and they’ll refund me money. It’ll be fine.”
However, Wright went on to say, it was not fine. Numerous emails and 12 days later – and still without a refund – she was notified the reason for the ban was she supposedly engaged in sexual activity with a man on-board a flight while drunk.
“Let me tell you: I am a 24-year-old lesbian. You see me. Am I having sexual relations with any man? No,” she said to the camera with a scoff.
Going through a number of “loopholes” to try to resolve the problem, Wright said the team at American Airlines told her to submit an official appeal to get herself off the no-fly list.
“I email them a very serious email, but also somewhat funny: ‘I don’t really know how to prove it wasn’t me, except for the fact that I am a lesbian and can get letters from other people telling you that’s the truth,” Wright said, clearly exasperated by the situation as she recalled it.
Wright’s mother vouched for her daughter by sending an email to the airline’s law department and eventually Wright received a recall from a member of staff who said after a review they had determined it most likely had not been her in the toilet.
“So, now I’m off the American Airlines permanent no-fly list, also out a $1,000 but they did refund me the $400 (£312) flight but said they couldn’t send me any more than that, even though it was their fault that I had to buy that $1,000 round-trip flight,” Wright said.
In a follow-up video posted on Sunday (11 August), Wright told her followers the viral nature of the original video meant she was able to make back the money she had lost.
“I’m really grateful for all your help and for blowing that video up because it took a lot of stress off me financially and I’m grateful to the community that TikTok has provided for me.”
PinkNews has approached American Airlines for comment.
