Imagine you arrive at the airport, excited for your trip to see family. But when you try to check in for your flight, you get an error message. After being bounced from one customer service department to another, an American Airlines employee finally breaks the news: The company has banned you from flying for life and that “you should know why.”

This bizarre nightmare of bureaucracy run amuck really happened to TikToker Erin Wright. She had to blow $1,000 on a flight with a different airline just to make it to her sister’s bachelorette party. And after days of back-and-forth with American Airlines, the company finally revealed that the 24-year-old lesbian’s lifetime ban was for allegedly “having sexual relations with a man on a flight while intoxicated.”

Check-in chaos turns into a nightmare

Wright thought it was just a glitch. Her phone wouldn’t let her check in for her flight to New Orleans. When the airport kiosk also errored out, Wright started to worry. She went straight to the help desk, hoping to sort things out.

“The lady looks nervous,” Wright said. “She’s like, ‘Ma’am, I’m really sorry to tell you this, but you’ve actually been banned from flying American Airlines.’”

Wright froze. “I was like, what? I’ve never done anything.”

But the gate agent wouldn’t budge. “I’m really sorry,” the agent said. “It’s an issue of internal security. I can’t tell you, but the person on the phone told me that you should know why.” Wright didn’t know why. But time was ticking, and her airplane was leaving without her.

Missed flights and a $1,000 scramble

Desperate to make it to the party, Wright paid $1,000 for a same-day ticket with another airline. “I realized that I’m going to miss my flight and I just need to book another flight,” she said. “So I quickly booked myself another $1,000 round-trip flight day-of.”

Wright had no choice but to wait eight hours for her backup flight. “I was really frustrated,” she said. “I cry and call my mom, start emailing customer relations saying that I’m really confused and I don’t know why I’ve been banned.”

But her $1,400 expense—$400 for the original ticket and $1,000 for the emergency flight—was just the beginning of her battle.

Accused of joining the Mile High Club?

Twelve days later, Wright finally got an answer. Corporate security told her she’d been banned for “having sexual relations with a man on a flight while intoxicated.”

Wright was stunned. “Let me tell you, I am a 24-year-old lesbian,” she said. She turned it into a joke for her TikTok followers: “Do you see me? Am I having sexual relations with any man? No.”

With no way to prove her innocence, Wright sent what she called “a very serious email but also somewhat funny.” In it, she told the airline, “I don’t really know how to prove that it wasn’t me except for the fact that I’m literally a lesbian and I can like get you letters from other people telling you that’s the truth.”

You’ve probably guessed by now that American Airlines had a problem with a poorly behaved vacationer, and then banned the wrong “Erin Wright.” Days stretched into weeks, and our hero still hadn’t been cleared.

Three months after the ordeal began, Wright got another call. “We’ve reviewed your case,” they said, “and we’ve determined that it most likely was not you.” The ban was lifted, but Wright was still out $1,000.

“They did refund me the $400 flight that I booked,” Wright said. “But they said they couldn’t send me any more money than that even though it was their fault that I had to buy that $1,000 round-trip flight.”

TikTok saves the day—but not American Airlines

Wright turned to TikTok for help. Her video, where she shared the story, racked up millions of views.

She didn’t get more money from American Airlines, but the TikTok ad revenue covered her costs. “I made pretty much the exact amount that I lost, so American Airlines doesn’t even have to make it right.”

Still, Wright’s viewers are urging her not to give up on seeing some more money from American Airlines. She’s looking into filing complaints with the Department of Transportation—or taking the airline to small claims court.

“I’m just really grateful for all your help and for blowing that video up,” Wright said. “It took a lot of stress off of me financially.” For Wright, the ordeal isn’t over. But she’s not letting it go without a fight. Check out Wright’s viral TikTok video to hear her tell the full story in her own words: