Ingrid Guimarães Accuses American Airlines Of Threats And Coerce On Flight From New York To Rio
Actress Ingrid Guimarães used her social media to denounce an episode she classified as “abusive” during an American Airlines flight. The case happened last Friday (7), on flight 973, which left New York (JFK) to Rio de Janeiro.
According to Ingrid, she had bought a premium economy class seat, and was surprised to be informed that she should give up her seat to a business class passenger, whose seat had broken.
“Let’s say an abusive situation… I bought a ticket in Premium Economy and when I was already sitting with my belt on, an employee told me that I would have to leave my seat and go to economy class because I had broken a chair in the executive class and the person was going to take my place,” reported the actress on X (formerly Twitter).
According to Ingrid, the situation worsened when airline employees began to pressure her to accept the seat change.
“I said I wasn’t going to leave my seat, that I didn’t know this rule, and that it was my right. They started coercing me saying that I would never travel by American Airlines again. I said: all right. Three people appeared, all threatening me and saying that the flight was not going to leave, that everyone was going to have to get off because of me,” he said.
The actress reported that her sister and brother-in-law tried to intervene in the discussion, but were reprimanded by an employee.
“My sister and my brother-in-law, who speak better English, tried to help, and the woman simply told them to shut up. The only Brazilian commissioner who had told me the following phrase: ‘Honey, you better leave for better or for worse’.”
Embarrassed, Ingrid ended up giving in and was relocated to a seat in economy class. According to her, the only compensation offered by the airline was a $300 voucher, delivered without explanation.
“Coercion, moral abuse, disrespect and threats. In exchange, they gave me a voucher without explaining anything to me, just a paper in my hand (which I thought was the new ticket) saying that I had a discount of 300 dollars on the next ticket. Unbelievable!”, she wrote.
American Airlines has not yet officially commented on the case, but responded to one of the actress’ publications on X. “Your comment worries us,” said the company, requesting more details about what happened.
Article by Gazeta Brazil
translation by Hotspotorlando News