Refund processing underway: Delta Airlines finally admits to Lee Hye Ri’s ‘airline mistreatment’

Delta Airlines, an international airline that has been embroiled in controversy for unfair treatment towards singer and actress Lee Hye-ri, has finally apologized.

On August 1st, Delta Airlines explained, “The incident that Hwasa brought up as ‘airline mistreatment’ occurred when the flight scheduled for August 30th at 2:19 PM (KST), departing from Los Angeles, USA, to New York, was replaced with a smaller aircraft for safe operation.”

They continued, “In cases like this, as per our customary procedures, we offer the passenger the option to board the next available flight in first class or receive a refund for the price difference when boarding in economy class.” They stated, “In this case, the customer (Lee Hye-ri) was seated in economy class, and the refund for the price difference is currently in progress. We apologize for any inconvenience and will have our customer service representative contact you directly. We will do our best for a safe operation. We sincerely apologize once again.”

Earlier, on July 31st, Lee Hye-ri had garnered much attention by raising the issue of ‘airline mistreatment’ through her personal account stories. Lee Hye-ri said, “I made a reservation a month and a half ago and even selected my seat in advance, but they downgraded me to economy class, saying there were no first-class seats available. The airline told me that if I didn’t like my seat, I should take the next flight. I even booked two seats; how could both of them be downgraded?” She lamented, “There are so many things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t express them properly, so I thought I should study English harder. It was such a ridiculous experience.”

After Lee Hye-ri disclosed the situation of her seat downgrade, the controversy spread rapidly. Even though Lee Hye-ri did not specify the airline, Delta Airlines was revealed through the ticket she posted together with her story, leading to increased criticism. On the second day of the controversy, as public outrage continued to grow, Delta Airlines belatedly issued an apology, stating that they were in the process of issuing a refund to resolve the controversy.”

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