Airline Allegedly Threatened To Remove Family From Flight If They Post Feedback

A family, comprising Katie Kolenberg, her partner Jeremy Byrnes and their five-month-old daughter, accused Virgin Australia of being rude to them when they requested for some assistance. The airlines also reportedly threatened to remove the family from their rescheduled flight if they dared post something about the incident on social media.

The family was supposed to fly from Canberra to Cairns in Australia at 12:30 p.m. local time Wednesday (10:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday) but their flight was delayed. After that, they were informed they were reassigned to a new aircraft that would arrive five hours later.

Kolenberg claimed they were not provided with any form of accommodation, which meant they had to fend for themselves.

“We had no easy means of getting back home because we needed a taxi with a car seat for our baby — not a simple thing,” Katie told News.

But when they approached the airline staff for assistance, not only did they not help, they were also rude to them, Kolenberg claimed.

“Virgin wouldn’t give us two taxi vouchers there and back either. So staying at the airport seemed the simplest choice. They weren’t just dismissive, they were downright rude to us. All we asked for was a bit of help. We were also the only customer in this situation … Anyone with a small baby knows it’s not just as simple as sitting down for five hours in an airport gate and waiting,” she said.

Adding that it would have been very easy for them to grant the family’s request because it was a relatively quiet day at the airport, Kolenberg alleged they were also denied lounge access — something they requested for to be comfortable and feed their baby — and they were only given a food voucher.

“It was well over an hour before we were offered any help and that came in the form of a $32 meal voucher. That’s after I asked to speak to a manager twice and we stood waiting next to the service desk for over an hour,” she said.

Lastly, Kolenberg accused Virgin of threatening to boot her and her family off the flight when she suggested she might post about the incident on social media to see if she got a better response from the airline.

“They threatened us with being removed from our flight if we posted about our treatment on social media,” she said.

Virgin Airlines, however, had a drastically different account of how things unfolded. When “The Parenthood” tweeted out Kolenberg’s story, writing, “Hi @VirginAustralia Super disappointing to hear about your staff’s appalling treatment of this family. Is there anything you can do to help make up for it? Airports are tough places for wee babies,” the company issued the following statement on the matter:

In addition, the airline told News it was Kolenberg who had behaved rudely toward their staff, to the point where she even abused them.

Kolenberg was shocked to hear airline’s claims, and vehemently denied them.

“I was not in any way abusive,” she said. “All we did is request some assistance for the difficult situation we were placed in. … And when it was denied and the staff member could not even be nice to us, I got a little frustrated. I did not call names, swear or shout. I was holding my baby at the time. I was upset and worried about what we would do and the first two female staff members we spoke to didn’t even know how to be nice.”

In conclusion, it was Kolenberg’s belief that the airlines was trying to turn the blame on them because the story had become public.

“I’m deeply hurt that they would try and spin that I was abusive. And now that the story is out there, and Virgin are implying that we were at fault, what’s going to happen on the way home? Will they single us out … because we spoke out?” she said.