Blind teen traveling alone says airline staff canceled her seat and told her to 'sleep on the floor'

Maddie is a legally blind student from Dallas, Texas, who has been studying at a college in Western Massachusetts, regularly flying back home. On average, she takes about 12 to 14 flights a year via her airline of choice — Southwest. In 2025, Southwest Airlines ended its long-standing “bags fly free” policy, which had promised free bag checking with no additional cost. After 60 years, on May 28, 2025, Southwest will increase its fees and implement a tiered pricing structure for bag checking, with A-List members retaining some of their previous privileges.

So dear was the airline to Maddie that the extra fee didn’t matter. She had always felt safe and experienced hassle-free rides with Southwest Airlines and wasn’t going to trade that comfort for anything. As a disabled person, traveling alone is perhaps one of the most harrowing experiences one is inevitably forced into, but as a white cane user, Maddie had special privileges with Southwest, given their long history together. She had “meet and assist” — an airport guide service where staff go the extra mile to accommodate your unique needs. She was also on their “preboard” list and had “blind” stamped on all of her luggage. It’s a no-brainer why anybody would invest their trust in a company like this, right? Except it all turned into a nightmare quicker than Maddie could fathom. 

On March 16, 2025, Maddie was supposed to fly from Dallas to Hartford, resuming college after spring break, when she was informed of a layover in Tampa — a completely new caveat Maddie had not faced before. Despite initial trepidation, arrival at Tampa was quite smooth, and the people were great, so Maddie did not think too much of it. As passengers deboarded, Maddie remained in her seat since the same plane was to fly to Hartford with a different flight number. Given her disability, it would be a waste of time and inconvenient to disembark only to come back in a few minutes.

When all passengers got back on board, the airline canceled the flight, citing bad weather conditions. “There were a bunch of tornadoes in the area,” Maddie was seen saying in her TikTok video. She did not mind the cancellation at all, as she would much rather be alive than on time. Upon deboarding and moving into the airport, Maddie learned that all her flights had been rebooked — without any consultation. Text messages kept flooding her phone, informing her that her flight had been shifted, throwing her deeper into a spiral of confusion.

In the next 6 hours, Maddie tossed and turned at the airport, waiting for a way out. “Flights kept getting pushed, flights kept getting canceled. It was a mess,” she admitted. In the new booking, Maddie was to travel to Baltimore and then to Hartford on a connecting flight. Soon enough, the flight to Baltimore was pushed to 10 pm, which meant that she would miss her connecting flight to Hartford. “The gate agents in Tampa were lovely. They came over and gave me frequent updates.” Upon seeing her perturbed, they got her on an outbound flight for 8:45 pm. She would have to rush, but if the Hartford flight could wait just a tad, then she would finally make it! 

Since she was a priority customer, the desk asked her to inform the flight attendant that she was to catch the Hartford flight leaving 10 minutes after they landed. “They were going to hold the plane for me,” Maddie sighed. Once on the plane, however, the flight attendant turned hostile.

Upon seeing Maddie, she told her off about how “everybody has a layover” and nobody’s “special.” Soon, “Another flight attendant came up to her and said, ‘Hey, she has made an assist. She's legally blind. She's right. They will hold the plane for her.’ But [she] kept going.” The first attendant wanted her to “run” like everybody else because only they deserved to make it.

The flight reached Baltimore very late, with Maddie having completely lost any hope of making the connecting flight to Hartford. To her surprise, however, the plane was still there — just about to take off. Jostling through the crowd, she tried to convey this to the desk agents, but nobody would listen to her. Ultimately, she enlisted the help of her co-passenger, who was a seasoned A-list flyer with 15 years of experience using Southwest Airlines. “He had over a million points,” Maddie mentioned. “[He] explained that I was 19, traveling alone… I was legally blind and had never been to this state before.”

The agent was clear about not refunding her ticket since it had been canceled due to bad weather, and they wouldn’t provide her accommodation, food, or any sort of assistance. When her A-list helper interrogated the supervisor over this, he simply said, “I'm expecting her to sleep on the floor. A lot of people are doing it.” Left without lodging or food, Maddie would be put on the next flight at about 9 am the next day. The airlines had also lost her luggage, which they claimed was in Hartford: “Just because you weren't on a plane to Hartford doesn't mean your bag wasn't.” 

Without any toiletries, money, food, clothing, or respite, Maddie will have traveled for several hours on an empty stomach, unable to shower, use deodorant, or feed herself — even going without her medication at this point. “By the time I make it to Hartford, I will have been on five planes, one of which was a canceled flight. And I will have been traveling for 30 hours. The last time I ate food was around 4 pm, and now it's 1 am. I have not had food since since before I left Tampa,” she concluded. 

Viewers were left shocked by the mistreatment, particularly the flight attendant's humiliating behavior. Many called out the airlines, with @yayalynn77 saying, "Southwest has some SERIOUS training to do with their employees. Outrageous. Hope this is addressed publicly because many many people will be booking elsewhere after hearing this story." @lolitsnaj said, "OH PLEASEEEE LAWYER UP. you need compensation for this entire experience AS WELL AS THE EMOTIONAL trauma. SO sorry this happened to you!!!" @chikirikies_ pointed out, "This isn’t a Southwest Issue, this is a Baltimore issue. They got the worst customer service and team." 

In a follow-up posted later, the content creator revealed that Southwest had seen her original video that went viral, and she was, in fact, being compensated for her hotel and any food she bought and was also being given an additional voucher. 

You can follow Maddy (@mylilmad on TikTok) for more content about growing up with special needs as well as music.