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Wicked actress Marissa Bode claimed she was denied boarding her Southern Airways flight due to her wheelchair.
On Thursday, April 23, the 25-year-old, who has been using a wheelchair since a car crash at the age of 11, turned to her TikTok account to call out the airline.
"I was denied boarding a flight because I'm disabled," Bode said in the video, describing the experience as "awful".
Bode said that the interaction occurred during a layover flight while she was travelling to an event in Pennsylvania.
She shared that while her first flight on United Airlines went without any issue, things took a turn for worse when she approached the gate for her connecting flight with Southern Airways, which serves only eight states in the US.
"I got to the gate and was like, 'Hey, could you help me locate my boarding pass?'" she said.
Bode added, "And the two people at the gate look at me and they're like, 'Can you stand?' And I said, 'No.' And they said, 'I'm sorry, because of that we're gonna have to deny you boarding.'"
Sharing their reasoning, Bode said that the staff informed her that all the planes only have stairs for access, calling the situation "blatant segregation".
The actress said her team had already coordinated with the airline before the trip.
"My manager spoke to them beforehand, and they fully assured that I would be set for my flight," she said, suggesting the denial came despite prior arrangements.
"It's so much more than bad communication," she said. "It's so much more than a mistake. These are our lives. This is our entire existence you're talking about. My wheelchair is my freedom."
Ultimately, she had to take a car and drive for "three and a half hours" to reach the event. In the video, she directly called out the airline, noting, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
"And airlines as a whole, once again, do f—ing better," she added.
Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines are prohibited from discriminating against passengers with disabilities and are required to assist, including help with boarding and connections.
However, Southern Airways' contract of carriage states that passengers "must be able to ascend and descend several steps" due to the design of its smaller aircraft, which typically carry fewer than 30 passengers.
The airline notes that it is not required under federal law to provide mechanical lifts in those cases, though ramps may sometimes be available.
