American Airlines kicked hen party off flight to Mexico because the bride's mother 'looked drunk'
A group of American women from Sarcamento, California, who were en route to Mexico for a bachelorette party got banned from an American Airlines flight by an employee who said the bride’s mother appeared to be drunk.
The women had just landed in Phoenix and were attempting to board their connecting flight to Cabo San Lucas when they were denied, according to Fox 40.
But Amber Granlund, a bridesmaid who spoke with the outlet, claims it was a misunderstanding, and that the bride’s mum was just nervous about travelling.
“She’s in her 50s, almost 60s,” Granlund said. “There could have been something else going on.”
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Granlund admitted that the mother of bride had consumed one or two drinks before boarding but was definitely not intoxicated. “It wasn’t drunken behaviour,” she said.
Granlund even took it upon herself to try to sort things out with the airline employee, to no avail. The worker can be heard on video insisting, “She is not travelling, OK? She is too intoxicated.”
As the bridesmaid tries to defuse the situation and get her group on the plane, the employee warns her, “You need to calm down.”
The employee then says, “If I have to call the police, I will do so.” But Granlund says it was too late. “They had already called the cops at that point,” she told the outlet. “About eight of them showed up.”
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Granlund said the group included pregnant women and breastfeeding mums, as well as some in their 50s. They had invested a combined total of $30,000 (£22,675) in the trip they had all been looking forward to before the stressful incident took place. She said most of the women had spent the night peacefully in the airport, sleeping on the floor.
“We had about a good full day of no airline drama,” she said.
The bridesmaid said the fiasco set the group back about $16,000 (£12,093) and caused a great deal of distress. The airline reportedly offered to give the group a partial refund on the flights they missed and had to rebook, but they haven’t yet received it. Granlund said they’re mostly upset about how they were treated, though.
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Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to American Airlines for comment. A spokesperson for the airline told Fox 40 that some of the women became irate after being told the bride’s mother couldn’t board, and that they “posed a safety risk to crew members and other passengers. These passengers were subsequently denied travel on this flight.”
Granlund said most of the group ultimately did make it to Mexico for the bachelorette party. But she called the airport situation “a complete mess that could have been avoided, absolutely.”
Yahoo Lifestyle also reached out to Granlund and the rest of the bridal party for an update on the situation.
