A heavily pregnant woman has had to sleep at a bus stop overnight with her toddler son after staff at Tigerair allegedly turned her away from the Sydney to Melbourne flight despite her having a medical certificate.
Aileen Chand, 30, was with her husband Sharneet and two-year-old son Jacob and had no issues flying from Melbourne to Sydney two days prior.
Mrs Chand said the experience – where two airline employees declared her medical certificate ‘invalid’ – was “horrible” and “distressing”.
Telling the Courier Mail, Mr Chand said: “I asked if Tiger could give us accommodation as my wife and child were both very exhausted and we had no money to book [anything] last minute.”
This request was allegedly denied, with their only option to sleep on the streets.
Telling Yahoo7, “We stood there for 20 minutes trying to explain we had used the same certificate just two days before on the flight up to Sydney,” Mrs Chand said.
“The staff suggested my son and husband fly back to Melbourne without me and I became very distressed. I don’t drive and never travel alone.
Tigerair has launched an investigation into the matter. A spokeswoman for the airline company said: “All airline policies are different which is why it is important to check the relevant detail on the website.”
The website states that a woman over 35 weeks pregnant cannot fly, but passengers between 30-34 weeks with a medical certificate can. At the time, Mrs Chand was one day into her 35th week.
“Tigerair Australia apologises sincerely to the family for the inconvenience and in this instance, will contact them directly to offer a full refund for their full travel expenses,” the spokeswoman continued.
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