Teen claims she was forced to fly home with stranger’s toddler in her lap due to overbooked flight

An Australian woman said she was forced to travel with a stranger’s toddler in her lap during her flight home from the United Arab Emirates after suffering a panic attack.

Lily Winward, 19, of Ulladulla, said she was flying back on Etihad Airways from an athletics competition in Athens in September when the flight stopped for a layover in the United Arab Emirates.

Airline staff told her the plane was overbooked and that she would have to be put up in a hotel, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

But Winward said she did not feel safe leaving the airport at night wearing activewear tights and a singlet in the middle of Abu Dhabi, and that another passenger was allegedly harassing her to get into a taxi with him.

“I was quite upset. I was crying, and I said, ‘I just want to get home; I don’t feel safe going to a hotel, especially with this guy bothering me,’” she told the Herald.

The situation caused Winward to have a panic attack. Etihad staff told her they could squeeze her back on her original flight with the caveat that she share her seat with a toddler.

Winward took the deal and had to endure the rest of the flight, which can take between 14 and 16 hours, with a child on her lap.

“I just think it’s not good enough, for someone who has paid $3,000 for flights, it shouldn’t happen,” she told the Herald.

Winward said she and her travel agent have repeatedly reached out to Etihad to complain about the ordeal, but the airline has allegedly kept quiet.

The 19-year-old said she also wants to know why she, a young woman traveling alone, was bumped from the flight instead of a family or couple.

Etihad did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

This is not the first time an Australian woman has bemoaned her treatment under popular Middle Eastern airlines.

In 2020, more than a dozen women, including five Aussies, were booted off a Qatar Airways plane in Doha and forced to undergo an invasive search when an abandoned baby was found in the airport bathroom.