One of America’s most provocative political pundits has managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible and evoke sympathy for an airline on Twitter.
Ann Coulter publicly scorned Delta Air Lines on social media at the weekend for allegedly giving her “carefully chosen” seat to another passenger.
The Conservative commentator sent a series of scathing tweets, calling Delta “the worst airline in America”, and sharing images of the woman she claims was given her seat.
Coulter, who has 1.6 million followers, likened Delta employees to Nurse Ratched and suggested the ideal job for staff would be a prison guard, an animal handler or Stasi officer.
On Sunday Delta hit back, saying they would refund Coulter’s $30 and added that her insults about passengers and staff were “unacceptable and unnecessary”.
Airlines are usually on the wrong end of the ire of social media, but Delta’s reply drew plenty of praise:
While people are usually sympathetic to passengers who have high-profile customer service problems with airlines, a lot of people on Twitter were apparently pleased with Coulter’s Delta despair.
Coulter is one of America’s most provocative pundits on the political right.
The 55-year-old often slams liberals and people of colour for playing the “victim card.”
This evoked a range of jokes on Twitter.
Delta Air Lines has been at the centre of a number of PR storms in the past few months.
In May the airline was forced to apologise to a couple on the flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles who were told their two year old son could not occupy a seat, even though his father had paid for it.