Southwest Airlines apologizes to mom after her daughter Abcde was name-shamed by gate agent

Southwest Airlines issued an apology to an angered mother who complained about her daughter getting name-shamed by the gate agent that they dealt with.

During what was supposed to be a lovely trip for a mother-and-daughter duo, Traci Redford ended up having to feel uncomfortable before a flight to El Paso, Texas when a gate agent made fun of her daughter's unique name. Traci shared a little bit about the incident, saying that prior to boarding a plane at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, an agent noticed the unique name.

Two of them boarded the plane early as Abcde has epilepsy, and according to the mother, it was easily noticeable that the gate agent started laughing and pointing at the both of them when she read out the name.

“The gate agent started mocking my child’s name, laughing, pointing at me and my daughter and talking to other employees. So I turned around and just said, ‘Hey, I can hear you, so if I can hear you, my daughter can, too. I’d appreciate it if you’d just stop.'”

Being the young girl that she is, Abcde, pronounced as "ab-city", asked her mom why people were laughing at her name. Having to explain to her that not everyone in the world is nice, she said:

"You know, honey, not everybody is nice, and not everyone is going to be nice, and it’s unfortunate."

As if laughing about her daughter's name was not enough, Redford found out that the gate agent even posted about her daughter on Facebook.

“While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter. It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines.”

Since the incident went viral on the internet, Southwest Airlines felt the need to apologize to the mother and her daughter, and so they released a statement about it.

“We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online. The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees. We have followed up with the Employee involved, and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all Employees.”