Same-Sex Parents Prevented From Boarding Together on Taiwanese Airline

A San Franciscan gay couple have claimed they were prevented from boarding together on a Taiwanese airline. Jeff Cobb was travelling with his husband and 19-month-old baby to Taipei with EVA Air, they were stopped at the gate and told it was the airline’s policy that only parent could pre-board with an infant and that the other parent would have to wait and board with the other passengers. When Cobb later joined his husband they saw that other straight families were allowed to board together.

“My husband and I were told only one of us could join our 19 month old in the family boarding group of EVA Air 27 from SFO,” Cobb wrote on twitter.

“I explained we were both the fathers of the child, and they said it was their policy that only one parent can boardand the other has to wait in the normal line. Not having flown EVA before, I accepted it and let my husband and child go while I boarded later. When I met him on the plane, he said there were many other (straight) families all boarding together.

“I’m very disappointed that the EVA ground staff at SFO thinks it’s ok to separate same-sex families during boarding. I will definitely not be flying this airline again after this incident.”

EVA has since released a statement saying the ground staff were issuing mistaken instructions.

“EVA Air and most especially our San Francisco International Airport team sincerely apologize to all the passengers affected by this incident.

“It is our policy that passengers traveling with infants can have priority boarding.

“The policy does not limit the number of accompanying adults or specify the relationship to the infant.

“This unfortunate incident was due to misunderstanding. Our San Francisco ground-handling agent understood that only one parent could board with an infant.

“We have apologized to our passengers and reminded our airport staff and agents about our priority boarding policy so that we can prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”

The airline have also promised to review their diversity training.

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