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Home • News

Flying While Black: American Airlines Called The Cops On Symone Sanders For Trying To Check In Luggage  

Things quickly escalated for the political strategist and CNN commentator when she tried to get a bag on her flight
Flying While Black: American Airlines Called The Cops On Symone Sanders For Trying To Check In Luggage
Brad Barket
By Paula Rogo · Updated October 26, 2020
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Political strategist Symone Sanders is the latest victim of the recent spate of airlines-behaving-badly incidents. 

The CNN commentator and Sen. Bernie Sanders’s former national press secretary shared her experience Friday trying to check in luggage before her American Airlines flight from Los Angeles, an incident that quickly escalated when the airline called the police for no apparent reason, she tweeted.

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“American Airlines [sic]officials literally called the police to come to the gate check area because the customer service officials were threatened,” she said in a series of tweets.

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863285883172147200

The problem, according to Sanders, started when she tried to check in a piece of luggage about 40 minutes before her flight. She is a frequent flier of the airline and did not expect to run into issues.

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863276490141581312
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863276818886926336
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863286052139573253

It appears that Sanders’ refusal to pay full price for the flight, despite being a frequent flier  of the airline was enough for the customer service representative to feel threatened. 

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863288009126330368
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863288332075151361

It’s not clear how the incident ended. Sanders obviously thought her actions did not warrant a phone call to the police. Especially because she witnessed another passenger yelling at a customer service representative with no repercussions.

https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863306037754867712
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863287077999321089
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/863289370614222848

It’s unfortunate this happened, and we hope Sanders was able to find a flight home. We are waiting to hear from American Airlines.