YouTube
Matthew Lush.
YouTuber Matthew Lush was permanently banned from JetBlue airlines after tweeting a "Mean Girls" joke at a customer-service representative named Regina (like the character Regina George) and including her employee identification number.
It all started when Lush was charged and booked for a flight without receiving any notification of the booking.
When he "tried to correct the error on the phone, an agent named Regina was apparently less than helpful, telling him he'd incur a $150 charge. Lush refused the charge and decided to just take the flight instead of booking a new one," The Daily Dot reports.
Then he sent out a tweet to his 154,000 followers:
Don't fly @JetBlue! Their customer service is horrible! Especially Regina 87346. She is ruining my Thanksgiving vacation ????
- Matthew Lush (@MatthewLush) November 25, 2014
This inspired a bunch of his fans to send out tweets of support, all of them including Regina's ID number, and Lush continued to tweet.
#ByeRegina87346 @JetBlue pic.twitter.com/xCWPD1dGjR
- Matthew Lush (@MatthewLush) November 25, 2014
When Lush went to take his flight, JetBlue agents told him he was no longer allowed to fly the airline. He was then removed from the terminal for being a "physical security threat."
"Lush described his plight in a video on his channel and encouraged his 580,000 YouTube followers to boycott JetBlue," The Daily Dot reports.
In a statement to Yahoo, JetBlue defends its decision to permanently ban Lush.
The decision to remove any customer from a flight is made after careful and informed decision by local airport officials and flight crew. It's based on an individual's actions and our assessment whether further actions during the flight would lead to further disruption or non-compliance with crew member instructions which could lead to diversion and delays for all customers.
Here was the video Lush made in response to the ban: