On their flight from LA to New York, a gay couple was recently forced off their flight by Alaska Airlines after one of them refused to move for a straight couple to sit together. Irate at the situation, David Cooley shared his frustration in a public Facebook post, where he blasted Alaska Airlines for their discrimination against him and his partner.
Cooley wrote that his partner "was given a choice to either give up the premium seat and move to coach or get off the plane."
Not wanting to spend the flight alone and uncomfortable, they elected to de-board the plane and take a later flight instead. They found the whole experience deeply humiliating, and could not understand the clear preference that Alaska Airlines had shown for the straight couple.
After leaving the flight, the couple took another flight with Delta, whom Cooley described as an "LGBT friendly airline."
In response to the community outcry over the issue, Alaska Airlines told Teen Vogue, "This unfortunate incident was caused by a seating mix-up on a full flight. It's our policy to keep all families seated together whenever possible. That didn’t happen here. We are deeply sorry for the situation and did not intend to make Mr. Cooley and his partner feel uncomfortable in any way. We’ve reached out to Mr. Cooley to offer our sincere apologies for what happened, refund his ticket and make this right. Alaska Airlines has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind," the statement said. "All of us at Alaska value inclusion for our guests and each other. Full LGBTQ equality is part of the fabric of Alaska Airlines. We are an airline for everyone and reflect these values through our work with dozens of nonprofit LGBTQ organizations, and our efforts toward achieving a perfect score in HRC’s Equality Index. We’ll keep building on this commitment with our LGBTQ employee group, GLOBE.”
Alaska Airlines then reportedly reached out to Cooley and his partner, offering apologies to both and potential ideas of how they could rectify the situation. Cooley shared this information on social media, stating, "Thank you to everyone for all the support. Alaska Airlines has reached out, apologized, and we are discussing making things right. I accept Alaska Airlines apology and appreciate it addressing the situation."
Although we aren't happy to hear that this type of discrimination is still happening in 2018, we applaud Alaska Airlines for so quickly acknowledging and correcting their mistake — and hopefully this will not be an issue on future flights.
