UK: Must not complain about a late flight

A PASSENGER claims he was told he couldn’t board his flight after posting a Tweet critical of the airline.

Mark Leiser, a law lecturer at Strathclyde University, was waiting for his delayed easyJet flight from Glasgow to London, and became concerned he would miss his connecting train.

The flight was over an hour late, so he approached a staff member about his concerns but was allegedly told it wasn’t their problem.

The employee then mentioned that there was someone in the military who may also miss their connection.

It was at this point that Leiser decided to take to Twitter to complain about the delay.

He told The Independent: “She implied that if easyJet wasn’t able to do anything for him if he might miss his boat, then they definitely weren’t going to do anything for me.  “It was at that point I sent the Tweet. I wasn’t concerned for me but if this guy might miss his boat which was potentially disembarking into a war zone because he had relied on easyJet then I thought put pressure on them to do something about it.”

But later on, when in the boarding queue, the same staff member allegedly approached him and pulled him out of the line.

“She pulled me out the line which was embarrassing,” Mr Leiser said. “Then she told me they were not going to let me get on this flight because of the Tweet I sent. The manager then came over and told the woman to check if I had any bags on board.

“They asked to see the Tweet and said to save it and that I was not to delete it.”

He claims the manager then said he should know better than to send Tweets like that and think he can still board the flight.

Ironically, Leiser had been working on a lecture he was due to give next week on free speech and social media while he waited at the airport. So he responded that it was free speech and that he was a lawyer, flashing his ID from university.

“At this point everyone else had boarded and I said to him that he needed to make up his mind whether I would be allowed on the flight or not,” he said.

“He then asked the woman if I did have any bags on board but decided to let me on the flight. He only really let me on the flight because I flashed my law lecturing ID and I don’t like doing that.”

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