Woman Claims Airline Misled Her Over Free Seat Following Knee Surgery

A 20-year-old Massachusetts woman fighting a rare disease says she was told by an airline that she would get a free extra seat to stretch her leg out. But the airline didn’t fulfill the promise, she says.

Jacynda Pena suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare disease that causes loose joints, stretchy skin and chronic pain. After undergoing her 14th surgery, she had plans to go to Orlando, Florida to visit relatives. Her family bought tickets from Frontier Airlines, flying from Providence, Rhode Island.

Pena told FOX25 Boston that she repeatedly called Frontier to make sure her flight would be comfortable. She claims they told her she would get an extra seat for free.

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“It’s a big surgery. I’m not willing to ruin it on a flight,” she said. “They told me I would have a full row. That I could stretch my leg out.”

But when she got on the plane, she wasn’t given an extra seat, she said.

“They made me feel so small, what I was going through didn’t matter,” she told FOX25.

Her doctors said she needed to keep her leg straight, which is why she needed the extra seat. The flight attendant did give her a seat at the front of the plane, but she still didn’t have much room there. She claims the attendant told her, “If you don’t like your seat, you can help yourself off the plane.” After the flight landed, she waited an hour for a wheelchair, she said.

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A Frontier spokesperson told Fox25 they never offered her a free seat and denies Pena’s account.

“Ms. Pena was seated in an extra legroom seat (3F) and was dissatisfied with it, our crew then actively worked to reseat Ms. Pena in a seat where she would be more comfortable,” the spokesperson said. “She was then seated in the bulkhead seat, (1C), where she would have no seat in front of her.”

“I was in tears, in so much pain, I’m not supposed to bend my leg,” Pena told Fox25. “I was a check, that’s not how it should be. I’m a person with feelings and was in pain the whole time.”