United Airlines Sued For Preferring ‘Young, Thin And Blue-eyed’ Attendants On Charter Flights – News18

There are specific prerequisites to being selected as a flight attendant in big airlines but an American airline has been accused of implementing unreasonable conditions for its attendants. According to the Los Angeles Times, a recent lawsuit alleged that United Airlines, a US-based airline, preferred flight attendants with specific characteristics and age ranges on charter flights that serve professional and collegiate sports teams.

The airline, according to a lawsuit filed by two flight attendants, is partial to a “certain look” of “white, young, thin women who are predominately blond and blue-eyed”. For this reason, the flight attendants were not selected to work on the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team’s charter flights. Dawn Todd, 50, and Darby Quezada, 44, contend that they were disregarded and subsequently kicked off these flights in favour of their female counterparts, who were “young, thin and blue-eyed”. Both Todd and Darby are women of colour.

Both stated they have over 15 years of experience with United Airlines, and they are requesting money in compensation for what they claim to be harassment and discrimination. According to the lawsuit, Darby Quezada and Dawn Todd have been trying for more than a decade to get into the airline’s staffing programme for the Dodgers’ flights. These duties provide higher remuneration than standard assignments by up to three times because of longer flight hours and extra perks.

They were selected last year but soon many white flight attendants were introduced to the programme, and things started to shift. As a result, Todd had fewer assignments, and Quezada was eventually kicked out of the programme. According to the complaint, United Airlines retaliated against Todd and Quezada after they complained about being passed over despite their seniority. This included calling Todd the “flight’s maid” and making fun of her in meetings and on flights.