Delta Airlines has been accused by a Black customer of discriminating against her at the request of white passengers.
Camille Henderson was flying from Atlanta to San Francisco on 3 February when she said she took her row 15 window seat.
Two female passengers, who were white, sat in two aisle seats on the same row and began complaining about a lack of space.
Ms Henderson, in an interview with ABC7 News, said attendants then forced her to the back of the flight to accomodate the women despite being some way into the journey.
Ms Henderson told the news station that walking to the back of the aircraft was “humiliating” and attacked Delta Airlines for asking her to relocate more than an hour into her flight to “make two white women comfortable”.
“I don’t want to make it a race thing, but instead of asking the two white women that were seated next to me (to move), in an attempt to accommodate them, they basically made me have to move,” she said.
“I just don’t know why I had to move because that was the seat that I paid for, that was my assigned seat”.
Ms Henderson said she tried to file a complaint with Delta but felt the interaction was inadequate, with a customer service agent for the airline allegedly asking her: “How were you humiliated for them to ask you to go to another seat?”
Delta Airlines are now investigating what happened on the flight andThe Independent has approached the airline for comment.
News of Ms Henderson’s experience have been condemned on Twitter, with Atlanta-based author and writer Goldie Taylor writing: “Hello, Delta, Loyal customer here. I need you to be better than this.”
Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) guidelines say “a zero-tolerance policy toward passengers who cause disturbances on flights or fail to obey flight crew instructions” is enforced.