After shuttling back and forth between state and federal court for 16 months, a lawsuit by two longtime United Airlines flight attendants accusing the company of favoring youthful white female flight attendants on its charter flights for the Los Angeles Dodgers will have its first proceeding in state court next month.
The suit originally filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2023 by Darby Quezada and Dawn Todd alleges that United engaged in discrimination by removing the only minority female flight attendants from the Dodgers charter flights and replacing them — at the Dodgers’ request — with “young white thin women who did not have to interview for the highly coveted positions.”
United twice removed the case to federal court on jurisdictional grounds, but each time a federal judge sent the case back to Superior Court. On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gail Killefer scheduled a case management conference for March 18.
The flight attendants also allege that white United employees engaged in blatant racism, discrimination, and antisemitism toward minority flight attendants on the Dodgers charter flights.
United spokesman Charles Hobart said in a previous statement that the airline “fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”
The Dodgers are not a defendant in the suit, and the team has declined to comment on it.
Quezada, who is of Mexican, Black and Jewish descent, claims she was called the “flight’s maid” because they needed “a Mexican to clean the bathrooms,” was told to stop speaking Spanish with a Dodgers player because “we are in America,” and endured antisemitic comments such as “you know Jesus died for you even if you don’t believe” and “you don’t look Jewish,” the suit alleges.
Todd, a Black flight attendant with over 17 years of experience at the airline, alleges she suffered retaliation after complaining about the demotion of Black flight attendants, the denial of benefits and perks to Black flight attendants on the Dodgers flights, and the racism and ageism she allegedly experienced herself.