- Two flight attendants accused United Airlines of race and age discrimination in a lawsuit.
- They say United removed them from LA Dodgers charters in favor of "young, white, thin women."
Two flight attendants have accused United Airlines of race and age discrimination in relation to flights that the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team chartered in a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of California on Wednesday.
United Airlines has denied these allegations.
Darby Quezada and Dawn Todd, who have both worked for United for over 15 years, per the suit, said they were removed from working the charter flights in favor of young white women and that United employees subjected them to racist comments.
Todd is a 50-year-old Black woman; Quezada is 44 years old and of Mexican, Black, and Jewish descent.
The suit says that after two other flight attendants sued United, alleging similar discrimination, the airline interviewed some flight attendants of color for the "highly coveted" Inflight Charter Program.
Quezada and Todd were selected for the program after being interviewed, but the complaint says that United added several white flight attendants to the dedicated crew later without interviewing them.
The lawsuit said these women were "blatantly" selected because of their looks. "They are white, young, thin women who are predominately blond and blue-eyed," it said.
Then in April, United demoted Quezada from the core crew of the charter program and removed her from it altogether in August, the suit says. Todd was also demoted to another crew list, and she and other minority flight attendants on that list never got to work on these charter flights, according to the suit.
Todd formally complained to United in September, questioning why "as one of the two African American flight attendants, we have been placed at the bottom of the list denying us equal opportunity to participate in charters," per the court document.
The complaint said that United didn't take any meaningful action and that Todd experienced retaliation — including fellow employees and management calling her the "flight's maid," and being instructed to clean parts of the plane.
Meanwhile, Quezada said in the suit that other flight attendants told her that she was only on the crew because they needed "a Mexican to clean the bathrooms."
In a statement to Insider, a spokesperson for United Airlines said the company "fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.
"We believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Dodgers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.