A recent complaint claims that United Airlines, located in the United States, favors flight attendants with specified characteristics and age groups on charter flights supporting professional and collegiate sports teams. According to the Los Angeles Times, two United Airlines flight attendants have filed a lawsuit alleging that they were passed over for the coveted job of working on charter flights for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team because the players prefer a “certain look” of “white, young, thin women who are predominately blond and blue-eyed.”
Dawn Todd, 50, and Darby Quezada, 44, claim they were ignored and later denied access to these flights in favor of female coworkers described as “young and thin.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, both women alleged harassment and/or discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, and age in regard to the staffing of United’s charter flights for the Dodgers and their treatment by coworkers on those flights in the lawsuit, which was filed on October 25 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Ms. Todd and Ms. Quezada Have Both Worked for United for More Than 15 Years
Ms. Todd and Ms. Quezada, according to the lawsuit, have both worked for United for more than 15 years and have spent more than a decade attempting to join the airline’s program that staffs the Dodgers’ flights. Because of longer travel hours and other bonuses, such jobs might pay up to three times as much as ordinary assignments.
“Plaintiffs had the necessary experience and qualifications,” according to the complaint, “but their requests were dismissed and rejected because Plaintiffs were not white.”
According to The New York Post, United Airlines had resolved a similar dispute in which the carrier was accused of using “young, white, female, and predominately blonde or blue-eyed” flight attendants. The latest complaint bases itself on the 2020 settlement, claiming that “things changed again in 2022 when several white United flight attendants were added to the ‘dedicated crew.'”
