Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
This may sound like a lousy reason to remove a family from a flight.
The Newman family — mom, dad and two daughters, aged 4 and 6 — were on their way from Chicago to Disneyland.
Their chosen airline was Southwest.
It all went wrong, however, when they were waiting to get on the plane.
“There was some dry skin in my daughter’s hair,” J Newman told NBC Chicago. “So, she [his wife] was just kind of taking it out of my daughter’s hair.”
It seems, though, that some fellow passengers expressed their lack of fellowship to a Southwest gate agent.
They suspected that the little girl may have lice.
Dad described his family’s reaction after the gate agent expressed concerns like this: “And we looked at each other like are you serious right now or is this a joke?”
Oh, you know where this is going, don’t you?
The family was removed from the flight.
There’s no evidence that their daughter had lice. There’s no evidence that the family did anything wrong.
They say, however, that Southwest offered them an alternative flight — two days later.
I contacted Southwest to ask if all it takes for a fellow passenger to be removed is for someone to complain that they might have cooties.
If so, I suspect many might be tempted to try this route.
An airline spokeswoman told me: “Our Chicago Employees working flight 1652 to Oakland were approached by multiple Customers with concerns about a fellow passenger in the gate area exhibiting behavior consistent with a highly contagious condition. We never want any of our Customers to walk away with a negative experience but when we are approached by multiple people, we’re obligated to look into the concerns. After our conversation with the family, we determined it would be best to rebook their travel for another day. Our Employees are responsible for the well-being of hundreds of thousands of Customers daily and are well-known for the care and hospitality they show time again. We must always prioritize the health and Safety of our Customers and Employees as our top priority. We regret any inconvenience delayed travel has caused the family and have refunded the cost of their tickets.”
Look into concerns? Does looking into them simply involve booting a family from a flight?
Or might that only happen, some may fear, if there are other customers available to take those seats?
Some airlines do have a thing about lice.
Earlier this year, sports analyst Clay Travis claimed that Delta kicked his family off a flight because his son had lice.
In that case, Delta didn’t have a policy about lice. Neither, as far as I can tell, does Southwest.
The National Institute of Health, however, says there’s nothing wrong with kids who have lice going to school. The lice simply need to be treated.
Such decisions are, though, made every day by individual airline employees.
Southwest generally has a good reputation for treating people well.
But tell that to the woman dragged off one of its flights this year.
Moreover, my worst airline experience this year was with Southwest.
It only takes one decision, the attitude of one airline employee, to ruin your trip.
Perhaps the family was unlucky that they got an overzealous — or simply overly cautious — gate agent.
Southwest told me that “approximately 15 passengers approached the agents.”
Dad, though, says his daughter is upset because she thinks it’s her fault that their Disneyland trip was ruined.
Not exactly a Happy New Year.