Lucie Bahetoukilae said she took her boarding pass — marked “Newark to Charles de Gaulle” — to the gate, where a United rep scanned it before she boarded the plane.
“When she went to sit, someone was sitting there already,” said her niece, Diane Miantsoko, who translated for the French-speaker.
But she said the flight attendant looked at her boarding pass and simply sat her somewhere else.
Ms Bahetoukilae, who speaks no English, said she never realised United made a last-minute gate change without making an announcement in French or notifying her by email.
“If they would have made the announcement in French, she would have moved gates,” Ms Miantsoko told WABC.
“Of course, because she speaks French, she would’ve moved to another gate.”
Instead of a 7.5 hour flight to the City of Lights, Ms Bahetoukilae flew almost 4,800km to the City by the Bay, where she languished for 11 hours at the airport before being rerouted to France.
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http://www.sbs.com.au/arabic/live
