My Cousin’s 12-Year-Old Almost Went On Southwest’s “No Fly” List

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Joe and I just came back from a week long trip to Texas. We usually only make a Sunday-to-Thursday trip, so we can visit the World’s Best Waterpark and Resort (no, really!), Schlitterbahn Waterpark New Braunfels, for a few days.

New Braunfels is located roughly halfway between Austin and San Antonio. However, we have family and friends from 4 very different circles of our lives who all live in the greater Dallas area:

• A friend of mine from high school (who I had a crush on in 11th grade. I’ve since told him that fun fact)
• Friends that Joe and I had from when we were big Disney fans, back in the 90’s and early 2000s
• Our friend from a local community choir here in Orlando, and her husband, who moved to Texas a couple of years ago because their first granchild was born (or some stupid reason like that 😉 )
• My “Baby cousin Sofia” (she’s not a baby anymore but she’s 5 years younger than me and was the first baby I ever held [and almost dropped. Oops!], hence the nickname) and her family

We decided to extend this trip and start it in Dallas, so we could visit with everyone. Well, almost everyone…turned out our community choir friends were going to be on a cruise the days that we were in town. How rude! ;-).

Anyway, we met Sofia & Co. for breakfast at a restaurant called Biscuit Breakfast & Lunch (I highly recommend the Western skillet with a side of pancakes. Just sayin’). We talked about everything that cousins do when they haven’t seen each other for a while – our respective moms (both gone), family gossip, health stuff, etc. However, knowing that Joe and I write Your Mileage May Vary, Sofia told me about something that happened with her younger daughter, Aaralyn, last year – Sofia was pretty sure she (Tracylyn) was almost put on Southwest’s Do Not Fly list.

The family was flying from Dallas to Myrtle Beach over Labor Day weekend, 2021. It was Southwest and I guess they were in the C boarding group because they (Sofia, her husband, Tracylyn, and their older daughter, Whitney) were all seated separately, but relatively near each other. Tracylyn, age 12 at the time, was the youngest of the group. However, she’s always looked mature for her age, was wearing full makeup, and could easily pass for 18.

Sofia and her family are very careful about COVID and Tracylyn was wearing a face covering, as was required at the time. However, her mask didn’t fit well and kept falling down, past her nose. Every time she noticed it, she’d pick it up and place it correctly so it was over the bridge of her nose again. One time though, before she noticed it had fallen again, one of the the flight attendants told her to pick up her mask so it would cover her nose.

Fast forward to the plane landing, everyone disembarking, and Sofia and her family reunited.

Some representatives approached Tracylyn and said, “Excuse me, Ma’am.”

Sofia immediately went into “Mama Bear” mode and asked, “Can I help you? I’m her mother.”

The reps kept ignoring Sofia (they probably thought Tracylyn was an adult so they didn’t need to address an adult’s mother) and said something to the effect of, “You broke the TSA’s federal regulations by not wearing your mask.”

Sofia spoke up again and said, “You’re joking, right?”

The reps replied that they got a call while the plane was in flight that she wasn’t complying. They continued by saying she had broken the law by not complying with the mask mandate.

Sofia said something to the effect of, “That’s bulls**t!” [Note from Sharon: That’s my cousin! Atta girl! LOL!]. “She was told one time to pick her mask up. She had no warnings, no nothing, any other time!”

The airline reps said that when a call is made, they take them seriously and that she wouldn’t be able to fly again.

They asked what the girl’s name was. “Tracylyn,” said my cousin.

And then they asked my cousin’s name. “Sophia Gorman.”

They then made Sofia sign something, and they left.

Sofia was positive that Tracylyn was going onto their No Fly list. But then she realized that they never asked for Tracylyn’s last name; they only knew her first name.

See, although married for over 20 years, my cousin regularly uses her maiden name. Her kids use their dad’s last name, which is different from Sophia’s. She figured they’d look for an “Tracylyn Gorman” and there’d be no such person, so she’d be home free.

Well, except how many people with the first name of “Tracylyn” would be on a plane’s manifest at any given time? And wouldn’t it be easy enough to go into the computer to see the names of what other passengers were traveling with Sophia Gorman? So she didn’t really fool anyone.

So yeah, Southwest COULD have put Tracylyn on their “Do Not Fly” list…but I guess they were just trying to scare her into not doing it again. As it was, the whole family was able to fly back home from Myrtle Beach a few days later with no problems whatsoever.

And Tracylyn got a mask that fit better. 😉

*** Many thanks to my “Baby cousin Sophia” (that’s not her real name, BTW. All names were changed to protect the innocent – even the one who told airline reps that what they said was “bulls**t” LOLOL!) for sharing her story!

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