United Airlines apologises for flying passenger 3,000 miles from where they wanted to be

Lucie Bahetoukilae ended up on the wrong flight after the airline did not tell her that the departure gate had changed

This is the latest in a string of PR gaffes for the airline (Reuters)

United Airlines have been forced to apologise after flying one of its passengers to the wrong airport nearly 3,000 miles away.

A last-minute departure gate change at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport meant that Lucie Bahetoukilae, who does not speak English, boarded a plane in to San Francisco in California instead of Newark, New Jersey.

Ms Bahetoukilae said the airline did not email her about the change to the departure gate or make the announcement in French at the airport.

When Ms Bahetoukilae boarded the flight she found someone else sitting in her seat and notified the flight attendant who checked her boarding pass.

Although her destination was clearly printed on the pass, she was directed to another seat.

After landing in San Francisco she then had to wait another 11 hours before she could get a flight home.

United has said it has apologised to Ms Bahetoukilae and said it was working with its team to make sure similar incidents did not take place in future.

Her niece, Diane Miantsoko, told ABC7: "This is not about money, this is about United getting serious with their employees."

It is the latest in a string of PR disasters for the airline which began last month when footage emerged of staff dragging an elderly doctor off the place in front of shocked passengers.

They forcibly removed him from the flight when he refused to accept money to get off voluntarily to make way for staff members from a sister airline.

United’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, then poured fuel on the fire by praising the actions of the staff and claiming Dr David Dao had been aggressive.

The company has since changed its policy on asking customers to give up seats to staff members, increasing financial offers to up to $10,000 in Travel Certificates, reducing the overbooking of flights and no longer calling law enforcement officers to force passengers to give up their seats.

They also settled with Dr Dao for an undisclosed sum after he needed corrective surgery for his injuries.

However, their troubles did not end there, as a valuable giant rabbit died while being transported in the hold of a flight from Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.