A 20-year-old Massachusetts woman who has been fighting a rare disease said an airline failed to fulfill its promise to accommodate her after a recent leg surgery.
The surgery was the 14th for Jacynda Pena, who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Her symptoms include loose joints, stretchy skin and abnormal scar formation, which causes her to be in chronic pain at times.
Her family bought her Frontier Airlines plane tickets for a trip from Providence, Rhode Island, to Orlando, Florida, where relatives live.
"It's a big surgery," she told Boston25News. "I'm not willing to ruin it on a flight."
Pena said she called the carrier repeatedly in the days before the flight to make sure she was accommodated with an extra free seat.
“They told me I would have a full row,” she said. “That I could stretch my leg out.”
But when she arrived, she said, that wasn’t the case.
“They made me feel so small -- what I was going through didn’t matter,” she said.
Doctors had told Pena that she would need to keep her leg straight, but she claimed Frontier Airlines forced her into a cramped spot. Eventually she was moved to the first row, but she claimed she still had her foot touching the bulkhead.
Pena said the flight attendant wasn’t helpful.
“Her response was, ‘If you don’t like your seat, you can help yourself off the plane,’” Pena said.
A spokesperson for Frontier Airlines denied that the airline offered Pena a free seat, but said the crew did work to make her comfortable.
“Ms. Pena was seated in an extra legroom seat (3F) and was dissatisfied with it, our crew then actively worked to reseat Ms. Pena in a seat where she would be more comfortable,” the spokesperson said. “She was then seated in the bulkhead seat, (1C), where she would have no seat in front of her.”
Pena said that issues continued even after the flight landed. She said she had to wait almost an hour for a wheelchair.
“I was in tears (and) in so much pain. I’m not supposed to bend my leg,” she said. “I was a check, that’s not how it should be. I’m a person with feelings and was in pain the whole time.”
A spokesperson for the airline told Boston25News that Pena has an upcoming flight scheduled and they will continue to work with her.
Full statement from Frontier Airlines:
"Our crew and reservations acted in accordance with our internal policies and procedures. Ms. Pena was seated in an extra legroom seat (3F) and was dissatisfied with it, our crew then actively worked to reseat Ms. Pena in a seat where she would be more comfortable. She was then seated in the bulkhead seat, (1C), where she would have no seat in front of her. This passenger's initial request to our reservations team was for a seat with extra legroom and this was provided free of charge. Ms. Pena has an upcoming flight scheduled with us and we continue to work with her to find an acceptable solution including allowing her to purchase the adjacent seat for the original cost - $19.20. She declined this offer."
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