“How Many Boobs Do You Have?”: New Mother Humiliated by Gate Staff
Jackie Reddy May 10, 2018
Kelsey Myers says that she was informed by gate staff that she needed to check an item as she was carrying too many pieces of luggage, one of which was a breast pump. Myers recounted her encounter in a Facebook post and says that she felt “harassed, disrespected and humiliated” by the incident.
A new mother has said that she was humiliated by American Airlines gate agents after she was forced to check a carry-on item on a Chicago-bound flight from Los Angeles on Sunday. In a Facebook post recounting the incident, passenger Kelsey Myers, who was boarding American Airlines Flight 1243, said that she was stopped by an agent and informed that she was carrying too many items and that she would need to check a bag before boarding.
At the time of the encounter, Myers explains that she was carrying “a carry on, personal item, breast milk and a breast pump.”
In her post, she said that she informed the gate agent that her “breast pump is a medical device and the small cooler was breast milk. And he still told me I need to check my bag. I continued to tell him I read their policy online and knew what I had was all allowed to be carried on.”
At this point, Myers was asked to step aside by the gate agent until a supervisor arrived. Upon her arrival, Myers said that the supervisor “did not even ask me the situation, but instead immediately told me I need to check a bag. I again told her it was a medical device and I needed to carry it on.”
Myers says that the supervisor then began yelling at her and, in a tone that she described as “condescending,” asked, “How many boobs do you have?” while referring to Myers’ breast pump supplies.
Breast pumps are permitted in the cabin and are not included in the carrier’s carry-on limits. However, AA advises on its website that items “may need to be checked” due to space limitations.
Myers reached out to AA via Twitter this week and the carrier replied to say that it was “concerned” by her comments.
Commenting on the situation to NBC Chicago, AA representative Leslie Scott said, “If that happened, it’s certainly not professional and not how team members should act. It’s difficult enough to travel as a breastfeeding mom. We want it to be easier, not more difficult.”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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Our doom arrived when it became acceptable to apply a monetary value to completely subjective concepts such as feelings without showing damages. She showed up with one bag (or cooler) over the limit and was told one needed to be checked and hence was "humiliated". “a carry on, personal item, breast milk and a breast pump" is her attempt to avoid admitting she was bringing a cooler along as well. A small cooler counts as one of the other two. I've flown several times already with my (now) 2 & 3 year-olds and understand completely exactly what the situation entails. She gamed the system and lost out to the printed rules. The story, and its click-bait headline, omits the most important detail - how much does she want for her humiliation? At some point I'd love to see a carrier respond with "we're disappointed that you feel your experience was sub-par, but as we followed our own printed guidelines we invite you to not fly with us in the future". Until tort reform this will be the best way to put an end to this insanity.
Has anyone noticed a correlation between the advent of social media platforms and a marked increase in the heightened emotions of people to feel, "harassed, disrespected and humiliated"? It seems like simply describing unprofessional events is no longer sufficient without also claiming some exaggerated degree of having ones feelings hurt.