Southwest Employee Tells 19-Year-Old Blind Woman to Sleep on the Floor After Multiple Flight Delays

You’ve probably heard the saying "walk a mile in my shoes," a reminder to approach others with empathy before passing judgment. Unfortunately, that empathy was missing when a Southwest Airlines flight attendant and airport supervisor showed no compassion for a legally blind 19-year-old passenger.

After several delays, one even told her to sleep on the floor despite her medical condition and "meet and assist" status. After more than 30 hours of travel and 14 hours without food, she finally made it to her destination. Here’s her story.

On March 16, 2025, TikToker @mylilmad, known as Maddie (or perhaps Maddy), shared a mind-blowing (and not in a good way) travel experience on Southwest Airlines that left viewers stunned. Maddie, who commutes regularly between college in Western Mass. and her home in Dallas, Texas, averages 12-14 Southwest flights per year. So, this unfortunate incident during a flight from Dallas to Hartford, with a layover in Tampa, was far from typical.

Maddie, a white cane user with "meet and assist" and pre-board status with Southwest, had always had positive experiences with the airline. She even said she didn’t mind the recent hike in baggage fees, though, let’s be real, we all know they're a huge pain!

Things went smoothly when she arrived in Tampa until the flight to Hartford was suddenly canceled due to the weather. Southwest rescheduled Maddie's flights, but she still had to spend over six hours in the Tampa airport as flights kept getting delayed or canceled. It was a mess. Her flight to Baltimore was pushed to 10 pm, but luckily, they managed to get her on an 8:45 pm flight.

They even offered to help her find a hotel and food at no charge, with the catch being that her connecting Hartford flight was scheduled to depart just 10 minutes after landing in Baltimore. At this point, she didn't need to hotel or food.

She was told to inform the flight attendants about her situation. That’s when things went south. One flight attendant, let’s just call her "Karen," told Maddie she was "not special" and that it "doesn’t matter" she had a connecting flight — everyone had somewhere to be.

When another flight attendant tried to step in and confirm that Maddie is legally blind and that they would hold the flight for her, "Karen" doubled down, even announcing to everyone on the plane that if they weren’t willing to run to their connecting flights, they’d miss them. Rude much?

Maddie was understandably upset and cried the entire flight. Upon landing in Baltimore, an hour late mind you, her Hartford flight had just taken off. So, it seems they waited as long as they could. She spoke to a gate agent who couldn’t help, and customer service only offered her a 9:30 am flight the next day, refusing any compensation due to weather delays.

Things got even worse when a fellow traveler asked the supervisor what Maddie should do (this person had been trying to help her) to which the supervisor replied, "I’m expecting her to sleep on the floor. A lot of people are doing it."

To make matters worse, Maddie was told her luggage was in Hartford, though she later found out it had been in Baltimore the whole time! Luckily, her dad was able to book her a hotel for the night, where she filmed her initial video.

After a grueling 31 hours of travel across five flights, Maddie arrived in Hartford, starving for nine hours without food. She couldn’t even get anything to eat due to the time and location, and of course, no Uber Eats was available.

Maddie eventually made it back to school, but we can all imagine how exhausted she must have been, both physically and mentally! The good news is that she came back with an update: A Southwest executive board member named Logan personally called her to apologize for the ordeal, and she was ultimately compensated for the experience.