Summary

United Airlines apologized to Melissa Sotomayor after crew members tried to make her remove her son’s ventilator during a March 8 flight from Tampa to Newark.

Sotomayor, whose 2-year-old son relies on a ventilator and tracheostomy tube, said staff demanded the equipment be stowed for takeoff despite prior medical clearance.

A third flight attendant claimed the child would “be OK” without it. The captain called her “difficult” and said the equipment was a safety risk.

Sotomayor expressed feeling humiliated and vowed never to fly United again.

    • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I’m US based, I only fly Air Alaska basically but obviously I live in the Northwest. There’s a fallacy though that “oh, ethical consumption is impossible therefore it doesn’t matter.” Just because it’s a choice between Delta, AA and United, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still pick the slightly less shit option and fly Delta.

      • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I wasn’t suggesting anything of the sort. I was saying that only using alaska was not possible for the vast majority of americans. Of course you should be attempting to use the least shitty option. It’s just not possible to only use the non-shitty option. You gotta get where you gotta get.

        • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Alaska isn’t even a non-shitty option to be clear. They have a storied history of cost-cutting at the expense of safety. They just seem to be reliably the least shitty.

      • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Delta is like the fucking Target of air travel I swear. They’re still a shitty mega corporation but it’s where you pay a tiny bit extra to not use Walmart/United