Ann Coulter Delta twitter fight

Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

Ann Coulter blasts Delta on Twitter, receives measly compensation

Here's how Delta finally responded.

 

Josh Katzowitz

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 17, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 11:42 pm CDT

Like so many people before her, conservative commentator Ann Coulter had a bad experience with her airline this weekend, and she wasted no time taking to Twitter to bash Delta with every ounce of vitriol she had.

It got so bad, in fact, that Delta had to scold her for her incendiary tweets.

Here’s how the conflict began. On Saturday evening, Coulter—who has a long history of trolling America—tweeted this.

Coulter was on board a flight from New York to West Palm Beach, Florida when a Delta flight attendant made her move from the seat with extra leg room that she had specifically paid for in advance.

She tried to shame the passenger who took her seat by tweeting a photo of her and insulting her.

Then, Coulter kept going and going and going (and going into Sunday).

(It’s unclear who Nurse Ratchets is, but Nurse Ratched is the cruel nurse who acts as a tyrant over her patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Anyway, back to the Coulter rant, which extended into early Monday morning.)

Eventually, Delta got tired of the ranting and responded, saying it’d be happy to refund her the $30 she spent to pre-book the seat.

The airline also released a statement online, writing that it was sorry Coulter didn’t receive the seat she had reserved. But …

More importantly, we are disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers by posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos in social media. Her actions are unnecessary and unacceptable.

 

Each of our employees is charged with treating each other as well as our customers with dignity and respect. And we hold each other accountable when that does not happen.

 

Delta expects mutual civility throughout the entire travel experience.

 

We will refund Ms. Coulter’s $30 for the preferred seat on the exit row that she purchased.

After more than 100,000 people liked the tweet in which Delta scolded her for her insulting tweets, the airline found itself in an unfamiliar position—basking in the Twitter glow.

Delta said Coulter had booked 15F, a window seat in the exit row, but within 24 hours of the flight, she changed her seat to 15D on the aisle. “At the time of boarding, Delta inadvertently moved Coulter to 15A, a window seat, when working to accommodate several passengers with seating requests,” the airline said.

In other words, Coulter had a Twitter fit because she was moved to a different seat in the same exit row.

Delta also said its social media team tried to contact Coulter after she began tweeting. But the airline said it didn’t get a reply from Coulter until Sunday evening, about 24 hours after her long-winded rant that ultimately netted her $30 and plenty of online scorn.

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*First Published: Jul 17, 2017, 7:34 am CDT