American Airlines slapped with official complaint after downgrading African-American passenger

A BLACK woman has filed an official complaint against American Airlines, claiming that they downgraded her on a flight while her white friend stayed in first class.

Rane Baldwin had booked two tickets from Kentucky to Charlotte on May 2 with her pal Janet Novack and then upgraded them before the flight.

But the women say that when they arrived at the airport and got their tickets scanned, Ms Baldwin’s ticket was downgraded.

She told the website The Root that the agent didn’t mention the downgrade, so she didn’t notice until she saw that her seat number had changed to a row in the back of the plane.

When she questioned the employee, she was informed that she had been reassigned because the plane had fewer first class seats than originally thought.

But while Ms Baldwin had bought the tickets and was an Advantage Platinum Select/World Elite cardholder, Janet’s ticket was the one that remained unchanged.

In a complaint on Twitter after the event, Ms Novack said: “The reaction by staff was completely unacceptable and just got worse from there.

“As [Rane] asked questions, she was ignored. However, whenever I asked the same questions, I received thorough answers.

“The whole reason that I was flying first class was because I was associated with her and her reservation. They were ignoring the card holder.”

When the pair boarded the plane, Ms Baldwin claimed that she tried to complain to a flight attendant about her seat but was completely ignored and told to stand at the back of the aircraft until it became clear if there was another economy seat available nearer the front.

“Rane is denied approval to wait towards the front of the plane,” Ms Novack said.

“They literally made her wait at the back of the plane and refused to make eye contact with her or speak with her.

“After I asked why she was sent to the back when they knew that the plane wasn’t full, they ‘let’ her move to the front of the main cabin.”

As there were plenty of spare seats at the front of the economy cabin, Ms Baldwin then took a space in an empty row instead of her assigned seat at the back, and Ms Novack went to join her.

But Ms Novack claims that the staff then made a point of telling her that she didn’t have to sit in the same row as her friend.

“When I got next to her, I watched as a flight attendant looked at groups of people sitting together and walk past them without a word,” she said.

“When he got to us I was informed that I could move, and we didn’t HAVE to sit together. Apparently, everyone else could be squished, not us.

“The microaggressions that your workers projected are prejudiced, ignorant. They literally didn’t believe I was flying with a black woman.

“I was repeatedly offered things and information that she was not and they went out of their way to have us not sit together.”

Ms Baldwin told The Root that the incident was the most blatantly racist thing to have ever happened to her.

“When my ticket was changed and Janet’s was not, I felt like I was being sent to the back of the bus,” she said.

“I just kept wondering if I was in some sort of time warp and asking myself, ‘Is this what it felt like to be black 60 years ago?’”

American Airlines has been contacted for comment.