Airline allows straight parents to board with kids—but not gay dads
Jeff Cobb was denied early boarding (jeffcobb415/twitter)
A gay couple has claimed that they were denied early boarding with their daughter—only to see straight parents walk through with children.
Jeff Cobb and his husband were flying with Taiwanese airline EVA Air from San Francisco to Thailand on Saturday (September 1) when they were reportedly separated on the false basis that only one parent could accompany a child onto the plane.
Cobb described on Twitter how “my husband and I were told only one of us could join our 19-month-old in the family boarding group of EVA Air 27 from SFO on 9/1/18.
“I explained we were both the fathers of the child, and they said it was their policy that only one parent can board and the other has to wait in the normal line.
“Not having flown EVA before, I accepted it and let my husband and child go while I boarded later.”
But Cobb said he was in for a surprise when he was finally reunited with his husband and daughter.
The family was flying to Thailand (EVA Airways Corp./Facebook)
“When I met him on the plane, he said there were many other (straight) families all boarding together,” he wrote.
“I’m very disappointed that the EVA ground staff at SFO thinks it’s ok to separate same-sex families during boarding.
“I will definitely not be flying this airline again after this incident.”
When they got their connection in Thailand with EVA Air, the two dads were allowed to walk through early boarding with their daughter, according to Attitude.
An EVA Air spokesperson said: “EVA Air and most especially our San Francisco International Airport team sincerely apologise to all the passengers affected by this incident.
Cobb said he “will definitely not be flying this airline again after this incident” (EVA Airways Corp./Facebook)
“It is our policy that passengers travelling with infants can have priority boarding. The policy does not limit the number of accompanying adults or specify the relationship to the infant.
“This unfortunate incident was due to misunderstanding. Our San Francisco ground-handling agent understood that only one parent could board with an infant.
“We have apologised to our passengers and reminded our airport staff and agents about our priority boarding policy so that we can prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”
Last year, Grant Morse and husband Sam said Southwest denied them priority boarding to a flight because the airline didn’t consider them and their three children to be a family.
Grant Morse and his family
In July, a gay couple on a Alaska Airlines flight was forced to move so a straight couple could sit together.
David Cooley’s partner was told he had to move from his premium seat to the main cabin—or leave the plane.
And last month, Canadian woman Lenore Herrem said she felt “unsafe” after a WestJet crew member outed her as transgender to other passengers on the plane.
