(RNN) - Ticket troubles stood between a Pueblo, CO, woman and a last goodbye she'll never get to say.
On Jan. 16, a gate agent removed Carrol Amrich from a flight she had already boarded to see her gravely ill mother, the New York Times said.
Because of the error, she didn't make it to the hospital before her mother died.
Carrol Amrich’s landlord bought her a ticket to fly to Minnesota, where her mother was seriously ill.
The landlord bought the ticket through a third-party vendor, but when Amrich's mother's conditioned worsened, the landlord called United to make arrangements for an earlier flight.
The landlord said the United representative told her there would be no problems with United changing the travel plans even though the ticket was originally purchased through a third party.
Apparently, the United representative was wrong.
A gate agent removed Amrich from the flight just minutes before it took off and told her ticket had been cancelled.
She pleaded with the agent to no avail.
"The agent responded that her ticket had been refunded and that 'nobody flies for free,'" the New York Times said.
Unable to fly, she took to the road, driving without stopping to even use the bathroom, but couldn't make it in time,
United said they refunded the ticket and fees and offered Amrich their condolences, the Associated Press reported.
The airline is no stranger to public relations nightmares.
In April of last year, a man was injured when security dragged him off an overbooked flight. The video of the incident went viral, causing airlines to take a second look at overbooking policies.
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