Woman's Southwest Airlines Meltdown Goes Viral

By Alia Shoaib

News Reporter

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A video of a woman screaming at an employee at Denver International Airport has gone viral.

The woman, who was traveling on Southwest Airlines, was filmed arguing with an employee at the gate, and claiming that she was not allowed to board the flight.

The video was uploaded to TikTok and has been viewed nearly 2.5 million times as of Monday.

Newsweek contacted Southwest Airlines and Denver International Airport via email on Monday.

Why It Matters

The video comes during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, with Thanksgiving fast approaching and airports already under strain.

Flight delays are widely expected to cause disruption, driven partly by winter weather conditions and lingering operational issues following the recent federal government shutdown, which widely disrupted aviation.

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What To Know

The video, posted on TikTok by user @unacceptabletay on Friday, showed a woman getting increasingly irate while waiting to board her Southwest Airlines flight.

“How dare you treat me this way. How dare you,” she shouts at an employee behind a desk at the gate.

“Who are you? Why is our plane late? Why are not we boarding? And you tell me that I can’t board now because I question why is it late?” she adds.

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The woman can be seen using her phone to film the employee while shouting at them, first complaining about a flight delay and then claiming that she had been kicked off the flight.

It is not clear whether she was in fact removed from the flight, and if so, whether this was due to routine overbooking or due to her behavior.

Overbooking is a common practice for airlines. Between April and June 2025, around 7,000 passengers on major U.S. airlines were involuntarily removed from their flights, according to data collated by the Department of Transportation.

Throughout the TikTok video, the employee appears to avoid engaging with the woman and cannot be heard responding.

The woman then called out across the gate several times requesting to be breathalyzed.

“Who’s going to come and get you fired? Because this is not ok,” she tells the employee behind the desk. “I ask you why is our plane not boarding, and you told me that I’m kicked off because you have a full flight and you need to give the seat to someone else.”

The video ends with security guards approaching the woman, and the TikTok user captioned the moment: “The cops took her away lmao.”

What People Are Saying

The TikTok user who posted the video captioned it: “Literally what is wrong w ppl lol.”

One person commented on the video: “I get that people might be afraid to for valid reasons, but I wish at least one person recording would step in to break up the abuse of the workers in a situation like this.”

Another commenter wrote: “I know it’s a hot take. But I feel bad for her. You never know someone’s mental health and hers is hanging on a tread by this vid.”