Two blind women traveling from Louisiana to Florida said that Southwest Airlines “forgot” them at the airport following a nearly five-hour flight delay.
The women said the ordeal happened on July 14 as they waited to board their flight out of New Orleans, according to WSVN in South Florida. The pair told the outlet that they realized they had been left behind because they were the only two on the Orlando-bound flight.
One of the women, Sherri Brun, told the news station that they were told, “You’re the only two people on this flight because they forgot about you.”
“I was angry and frustrated,” Camille Tate said.
Southwest denied that Brun and Tate were forgotten at the gate. The airline said the flight the women were scheduled for was delayed almost five hours and that many of the other passengers “were accommodated on another MCO-bound flight that left a little earlier from a nearby gate.”
“These two customers were not re-booked on that flight, so their assigned gate never changed,” Southwest said. “Our records show that they flew to MCO on the airplane that had been parked at their original gate.”
Brun said that no one at the gate told the women about an earlier flight.
“That airplane took off, and our boarding pass had not been swiped,” Tate said.
Both women said Southwest needs to change how it communicates with passengers who need extra help when traveling.
“There needs to be follow-through,” Brun told the news station.
“There needs to be some improvement in how they communicate with their passengers, especially those who have disabilities,” Tate said.
The airline apologized and said it issued $100 vouchers as compensation for the delayed travel.
“Southwest is always looking for ways to improve our Customers’ travel experiences, and we’re active in the airline industry in sharing best practices about how to best accommodate Passengers with disabilities,” the company said.
