Southwest Apologizes for Gate Agent Mocking 5-Year-Old’s Name

A Texas woman is upset after a Southwest gate agent couldn’t help but rag on her 5-year-old daughter’s name.

Traci Redford said that she was trying to fly home to El Paso, TX from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport when a Southwest employee openly mocked her daughter’s name. In the gate agent’s defense, that little girl is named Abcde Redford and she’s probably never met little FilmOn Dot Com. (If you’re curious, her name is pronounced “ab-city”). 

“The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees. So I turned around and said, ‘Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I’d appreciate if you’d just stop,'” Traci told Los Angeles’ ABC 7.

Redford recalled that her daughter asked why the agent was making fun of her. 

“I said, ‘Not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it’s unfortunate,'” she told the news station.

The incident spread beyond the ticket counter of a regional airport. Redford said that the agent posted her daughter’s boarding pass to social media so that her non-work friends could laugh at the name as well.  

“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. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn’t done anything,” Redford said.

Southwest did eventually issued an apology to Redford, after being contacted by ABC. 

“We extend our sincere apology to the family,” they wrote. “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.”

Redford, as far as we know, has not been forced to apologize for her choice of name. We’re just glad it wasn’t Cheese.