A female entrepreneur who was flying with American Airlines for the launch of her new startup claims she was arrested on suspicion of fraud in front of other passengers at Dallas Fort Worth Airport after the airline accidentally sent her booking details to a random person in Tennessee.
Kavita Raymond, a published author and regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, says she was left humiliated after she was taken into custody by three police officers who demanded proof that she had booked her plane tickets despite the fact that AA’s gate agents had access to computer systems which would have immediately proven her innocence.
Instead, the mother of two, who was recently widowed at the time of her arrest, was booked into the DFW airport jail on suspicion of credit card fraud, had her mobile phone and laptop seized, and was held for hours before being released in the middle of the night without any help.
In a new lawsuit that has recently been filed in a California District Court against American Airlines, Kavita says the drama started when she used Orbitz to book a flight from Burbank to Charleston with a short layover in Dallas Fort Worth in September 2022.
Kavita used her Chase bank account to purchase the tickets and American Airlines issued her the ticket without a problem. In fact, Kavita even managed to travel from Burbank to Dallas Fort Worth without a problem and she was waiting to board her next flight to Charleston when things started to go quickly downhill.
In her lawsuit, Kavita alleges that American Airlines accidentally sent multiple “incorrect and inaccurate” text messages to a random person who lived in Tennessee about Kavita’s booking.
Fearing her identity had been stolen, the woman who received the text messages contacted American Airlines, who, in turn, told the woman to report an allegation of fraud to law enforcement.
By the time Kavita got to the gate to board her connecting flight, police were already waiting to interrogate her about an allegation of fraud. The police officers demanded proof that Kavita had legally purchased her ticket.
Kavita says she wasn’t immediately able to find the receipt for the purchase but was able to show the officers the charge on her Chase bank statement. The police report detailing Kavita’s arrest, however, claims she wasn’t able to find any documentation to show the officers.
But Kavita says her interrogation happened within feet of AA gate agents, and the airline should have been able to prove her innocence simply by looking up her booking on their computer and providing the officers with the required information.
If they had done so, they would have been able to locate Kavita’s booking in the same way that customer service agents managed to do for two of her friends who contacted the airline shortly after her arrest.
After managing to get faxed copies of Kavita’s booking, her friends forwarded these to law enforcement, which ultimately led to her being released from custody.
Kavita is suing American Airlines and Orbitz for a slew of charges, including negligence, defamation, fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. American Airlines is yet to respond to the allegations.
To this day, Kavita says she still feels “publicly humiliated, defamed and shamed” by her arrest and that such “public invasion and embarrassment is a permanent stain on the reputation of a traditional and dignified Hindu woman.”
Wow what a mess. Wonder if she transposed a digit when entering her phone number in the booking.
Either way her biggest beef should be with the police for seizure under thin pretenses.
exactly, I don’t think this met probably cause required for an arrest
I suspect the police were untrained for a fraud investigation under the US Constitution. Detained, briefly…perhaps. Arrested was an overreach..
yeah, I don’t think this accusation meets the threshold for probably cause. Also, what about juridiction whereby the fraud would have alledgedly occured outside of Texas. Wouldn’t you generally need an arrest warrant for something outside of the jurisdiction? It’s not like they were accusing her of being a stowaway, which would actually be an issue inside the state of Texas.
Sounds like a police issue. I don’t think they actually had enough evidence to make an arrest. “A Texas peace officer must have two things in order to make a warrantless arrest: probable cause and statutory authority. Probable cause is developed when an officer’s logical investigation discovers facts that would lead a reasonably intelligent and prudent person to believe you have committed a crime.”
Remember they have to have probably cause without you helping them. She had no duty to “prove she legally bought the ticket” – they needed to prove the suppposed fraud.
Lastly, did the Texas police actually have jurisdiction here? It wasn’t an investigation into a stowaway, it was a fraud investigation. If the fraud occured in California, how could the police in Texas do a warrentless arrest?
A constant stream of incidents like this one gives me reasons to continue to avoid flying on American Airlines. Only the Ultra Low Cost Carriers like Frontier and Spirit appear to have less regard for the well-being of their passengers than AA.
I may cancel my upcoming American Airlines flight due to this hot mess they created for this innocent passenger
Are American Airlines and Hertz managed by the same people?