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The low-budget European carrier easyJet Airlines is under fire after denying boarding to a 14-year old girl traveling alone.
The young girl, Deva Joseph, attends boarding school in London and was traveling back home to Spain. When she attempted to board the flight last week, she ran afoul of the airline's new bag policy, enacted just two weeks earlier. Flying on an economy ticket, Joseph was only allowed to carry on one bag. She had a bag and her purse.
When her purse couldn't fit into her bag, she offered to pay the baggage fee of 45 euros for her suitcase to be checked. But the airline refused because it only accepts credit cards at the gate.
"I was sat on the floor crying. I just wanted to get home, but they didn't care. I was desperate, I was pleading," she told London's Daily Mirror. "My phone wasn't working and I was all alone. It was only thanks to a lovely couple that I could ring my dad."
The airline refused to allow her to board the flight; she was put on another flight later in the day.
After the backlash hit from an incredulous public wondering why an airline would do that to an unaccompanied minor, easyJet apologized.
"easyJet would like to apologise that Miss Joseph was unable to travel on flight EZY3225 from Stansted to Bilbao on Tuesday 31 March as a result of a cabin baggage issue. The passenger was unable to pay to put a bag in the hold with a credit card. We would like to apologise as, whilst easyJet's policy is not to take cash at the gate, we should have made an exception on this occasion."
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