A woman said she was yelled at by a United flight attendant after refusing to give up her seat for an 'Ultra Orthodox' man

16.08.2023 - 04:31 / insider.com / United Airlines / News

An Israeli journalist said she was yelled at by a United Airlines crew member who blamed her for flight delays after she refused to move seats on her plane.

Neria Kraus, a journalist based in the US, posted Tuesday that she was asked to move seats by a group of "Ultra Orthodox" Jewish men on a flight to New York City. Kraus explained that they did not want to sit near a woman.

"What a sense of humiliation that the stewardess in charge of United, an Israeli who speaks Hebrew, approaches me and shouts at me that the flight will not take off," Kraus said in one post translated from Hebrew. "And if they do fly, the flight will have to stop in Egypt because of me. Thanks to two amazing Israeli men and women next to me who supported me."

A @united crew member yelled at me that the flight to NYC won’t take off because of me - after I refused to Ultra Orthodox passengers’ request to change my seat. I was told the flight might touch down in Egypt and it would be my fault. What a humiliating event for me as a woman.

Kraus told Insider that she was "surprised" by the incident.

"I didn't see it coming," Kraus told Insider in an email. "I felt humiliated by the entire scene. First of all, while the passengers were trying to move me around and then when I was being yelled at. But the problem is the airline's policy, and this is not the fault of a specific employee."

Kraus said she was unsure why the United employee who yelled at her on the flight said that they would need to stop in Egypt if she refused to move.

Kraus said the flight eventually took off after another woman said she was willing to switch seats with the man who refused to sit next to Kraus.

In reply to Kraus' post, United Airlines apologized for the situation and said it wanted "to look further" into the incident.

"We offered the customer another seat — which was declined — the flight departed for New York/Newark and is arriving on time," United Airlines said in a statement to Insider.

Over the years, other airlines have dealt with similar issues of conservative Orthodox men requesting to be segregated from women on their flights.

It follows the practice of sex segregation in Haredi Judaism, whose adherents are discouraged from interacting with women in public spaces and outside the confines of marriage.

A movement to make sure men and women are kept separate on trains, concert venues, and various facets of public life is being bolstered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The New York Times reported.

In 2021, European airline company EasyJet compensated a British-Israeli passenger after she moved when requested to do so by a group of Orthodox men, the Guardian reported. The airline told the publication that it has a policy not to