Family booted off Southwest flight because of dad's tweet

Acting up and yelling on a plane can be grounds for getting kicked off. But tweeting? Well, yeah. Now that's a thing.

One family from the Twin Cities was asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight to Minneapolis from Denver, because the dad tweeted a complaint about one of the gate agents.

With priority seating, Duff Watson was told he would either have to board Flight 2347 separately from his 6-year-old and 9-year-old children (who didn't have the same elite flight status as their dad), or wait to all board together later.

After arguing with a staff member, Watson posted an angry tweet: "Something to the effect of, ‘Wow, rudest agent in Denver. Kimberly S, gate C39, not happy @SWA’”, he told CBS Minnesota.

Once the Watsons had taken their seats, they were removed from the plane by the agent involved in the argument, who allegedly told Watson: "You can’t board the plane unless you delete that tweet", adding that she felt "threatened" by his social media post.

Watson complied, and the whole family was able to resume its trip to Minneapolis.

As a Southwest spokesperson explained the incident to Mashable, "A Southwest Airlines employee and customer were having a conversation about the airline's family boarding procedures that escalated... The customer was removed from flight #2347 from DEN to MSP for a period of time to resolve the conversation outside of the aircraft and away from the other passengers."

The airline has since issued an apology to Watson and his family over email, along with offering coupons worth $150.

You are now free to tweet about your flight.


Chloe Pantazi is an editorial assistant on Thrillist's travel team. Yes, that's a British accent. No, she doesn't watch Doctor Who. Follow her on Twitter at @ChloePantazi.