How the Phrase 'H8GAYS' Ended up on a Delta Airlines Ticket

Delta Airlines is apologizing after a customer claimed that he received a controversial ticket code that read "H8GAYS."

Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File

After reportedly receiving this surprise on his boarding pass, Jeff White, a student at the University of West Florida, went to the media with the story, telling The Washington Post that, at first, he thought he was reading the boarding pass wrong.

But then he said he realized that it actually said "H8GAYS."

"I was worried that another customer might think I somehow picked that code," White said.

He added, "If I were a gay male, I might have thought that a Delta worker purposely gave me that code, and that would have made me extremely uncomfortable."

Delta Airlines has apologized over the "misunderstanding," according to the Daily Mail, claiming that all codes are "computer-generated and are completely random."

"We will make every effort to ensure that a similar combination does not occur in the future," spokesperson Russell Cason told the outlet.

White was traveling from Pensacola, Fla., to Albany, N.Y., when he received the now infamous boarding pass.

Credit: Twitter/Daily Mail

White said he was surprised that the airline hadn't blocked the code. Ironically, he's an IT major and had plenty to say about how the company should have handled the term "H8GAYS" and others like it.

"I’m an IT major, and what surprises me is that they didn’t block (his confirmation code) as a possibility of the string of random numbers and letters in the software they use to generate” White said. "I’m sure they removed many four-letter words that would be seen as offensive. I’m surprised that ‘gays’ and ‘H8’ weren’t blocked as well."

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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Featured image via Twitter/Daily Mail

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