Tahera Ahmad is not a happy United Airlines customer.
According to her Facebook page, a flight attendant refused to give her an unopened can of Diet Coke. Ahmad wrote, the flight attendant was “clearly discriminating against me” after the male passenger seated next to her received an unopened beer.
The incident took place on her flight from Chicago to Washington Friday. Ahmad was presented with a can that was previously opened. Upon asking for a new closed can, for her own personal hygienic reasons, the flight attendant stated, “Well, I’m sorry. I just can’t give you an unopened can, so no Diet Coke for you.”
When Ahmad mentioned the man next to her had an unopened beer, the flight attendant quickly opened his as well. The flight attendant then told Tahera, “We are unauthorized to give unopened cans to people, because they may use it as a weapon on the plane.”
To make matters even worse, when Tahera asked for her fellow passengers for help and she was told to “Shut the F*ck up!”
“I can’t help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something,” she wrote in the post. “Some people just shook their heads in dismay. “#IslamophobiaISREAL”
United Airlines issued a statement claiming,
The flight attendant onboard Shuttle America flight 3504 attempted several times to accommodate Ms. Ahmad’s beverage request after a misunderstanding regarding a can of diet soda. The inflight crew met with Ms. Ahmad after the flight arrived in Washington to provide assistance and further discuss the matter. Additionally, we spoke with Ms. Ahmad this afternoon to get a better understanding of what occurred and to apologize for not delivering the service our customers expect when traveling with us. We look forward to having the opportunity to welcome Ms. Ahmad back
However, Tahera does not feel the apology was enough. Tahera posted a new post stating,
“It is ridiculing to my integrity to dismiss the discriminatory behavior towards me. It is truly disheartening when the discrimination of Americans as myself who are working hard every day to promote dialogue and understanding is disregarded and trivialized. This is not about a can of soda,” she said. “I was really hoping that after speaking with me they would have publicly acknowledged their lack of consistency in following procedure, the flight attendant’s rude and discriminatory behavior and accusations which led to hateful words, and the unfortunate lack of bystander intervention nor the flight attendants attempt to intervene and prevent further disrespect which created an unsafe space for me.”
