Los Angeles: Actor Matthew Lewis, known for playing the lovable Neville Longbottom in the ‘Harry Potter’ series, expressed his anger at an airline, saying that he was moved to economy from first class with little explanation and no apology.
He was on a flight to a fan convention in Canada.
The star, who played cardigan-wearing hero Neville Longbottom in the franchise, told his Twitter followers that he first class ticket was torn up when he approached the gate at Orlando International Airport, and he was bumped down to economy, reports mirror.co.uk.
The 33-year-old took to Twitter on Friday to vent his frustration, writing: “Confirmed. @AirCanada is the worst airline in North America. And that’s saying something.”
His fuming tweet has nearly received 4,000 likes and been retweeted 434 times, with others sharing their own grievances about the airline.
In a series of replies to other Twitter users, Matthew said he had a ticket to fly first class from Orlando to Toronto with the airline, but he was booted down to economy.
“Kicking me out of first class to back of plane is what it is but doing it at the gate. Literally tearing my ticket up. No explanation other than “full fligha,” he said.
“Said if I wanted to sort it I should go to customer service. I asked where that was. “Toronto.” I’m in Orlando,” the actor fumed.
“But at the gate, less than two minutes to boarding and without explanation or apology? Never. They even said if I wanna complain or get a refund I have to reach out to them!”
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, the actor said he hadn’t yet spoken to Air Canada in person about the incident yet.A
“Air Canada customer service is s***e,” he said.
“And we as a society should not be okay with normalising the profiteering of overbooking and kicking people off flights.”
Lewis was heading to Fan Expo in Toronto, which took place over the weekend.
Commenting on Matthew’s tweet, Air Canada said: “Hi Matthew, we regret hearing this. Please send us a DM with further details of the issue, we’ll see if we can help from here.”
The company told CTV News Toronto that the matter was under review, and they can’t yet provide further comment.
This is not the first time one of Matthew’s Tweets has hit the headlines. In 2019 his missing wallet was returned to him after he issued a plea on the site.
–IANS