EasyJet staff 'threaten to deny boarding to passenger complaining on Twitter'

A passenger due to board an easyJet flight was allegedly threatened by staff at an airport after he complained on Twitter about the airline.

Mark Leiser (@mleiser), a PHD student at Strathclyde University, tweeted last night that an easyJet flight was delayed by 90 minutes and that as a result a soldier was going to miss their last connection. Leiser complained that easyJet should compensate him for his transport to Portsmouth.

He said: "Soldier going to miss last connection & @easyjet refusing to help pay for him to get to Portsmouth. Get right into em!"

This was shortly followed by Leiser claiming that the airline was threatening to not let him board his flight.

He tweeted: "Manager from easyjet just said I couldn't board flight because I criticised @easyjet on Twitter before boarding the flight."

This was then followed by: "Manager came down to inquire why I was tweeting about @easyjet. Staff member said I can't tweet stuff like that. Asked me to save the tweet."

Finally, Leiser quoted a member of easyJet staff as saying: "You're a lawyer. You know you can't tweet stuff like that and expect to get on an @easyJet flight."

The company's corporate Twitter account tweeted an apology this morning.

@easyjet said: "Hi Mark, we are sorry to hear about this unfortunate incident. NO passenger will be denied boarding due to comments made on twitter. Please send us a DM so that we can sort this out for you. Best regards, NK."

A spokesperson for the airline told Computerworld UK: "easyJet has never denied boarding due to comments on social media. On the rare occasion that we consider denying boarding it is on the basis of disruptive behaviour."

However, the airline was unable to deny the sequence of events and comments made by members of staff.