California Woman Forced To Change Her Airline Seat Because Muslims Wouldn't Sit Next To Her

COTO DE CAZA  (CBSLA.com)  — An Orange County woman said she is the victim of discrimination.



Mary Campos says her pre-booked ticket was given away by United Airlines. The reason? She’s a woman, and two men didn’t want to sit next to a female.



It’s a story that is Only On 2.  Stacey Butler spoke to Campos.



A a million-mile flier, Campos — a mom who lives in Coto de Caza —  said she thought she’d seen it all.



Until a gate agent handed her a new boarding pass just before she got on a flight to Houston last Monday.



“He said this is your new seat,” Campos said, “And I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this'”
She said she continued by saying, “Yes?”



And the agent told her, “The two gentlemen seated next to you have cultural beliefs that prevent them for sitting next to, or talking to or communicating with females.”



She was shocked.



“I thought I lived in a culture where women were equal to men,” she says.



Campos is a senior consultant in the oil and gas industry.



She said she had no choice but to take her new seat assignment.



That’s when she said she wrote a letter to the CEO of United Airlines.



The letter said, in part, “What if I were handicapped, or transgender?” she wrote. “What if your entire crew were female? Any belief that prevents individuals from interacting with females should not travel on commercial aircraft.”



She got a reply that said United would look into it. She said she didn’t hear from them again.



But Butler did.  A company spokesperson wrote, in part:



“We regret that Ms. Campos was unhappy with the handling of the seat assignments on her flight. United holds its employees to the highest standards of professionalism and has zero tolerance for discrimination.”



Campos was told the men were Pakistani monks who were wearing long orange shirts. She says the female flight crew were not allowed to serve the men.



“We can’t discriminate against half the population,” Campos said, “for a belief from another nation.”