Barbara Brotine bought her small Samsonite suitcase in December for flights like the one she took on JetBlue last Sunday.
The bag is big enough to hold a laptop and a change of clothes and small enough to fit under an airplane seat, allowing her to skip checking luggage.
The flight to New York, for treatment following a recent joint replacement, was a breeze, and the suitcase fit perfectly.
But on her flight back to Chicago on Monday afternoon, the suitcase proved to be trouble.
Hoping to avoid the jostling that often occurs during boarding, Brotine and her husband, Brent, waited until the flight was mostly full before walking down the gangway.
By then, the plane's overhead bins were full, and JetBlue employees were checking some carry-ons. Brotine said there was a gate agent taking luggage as passengers boarded. The agent said nothing about her bag.
But as Brotine walked to her seat in row 17, a flight attendant several rows away asked if Brotine could fit her suitcase under her seat.
"I said, 'Yes I can,'" Brotine said. "She said, 'Are you sure?' I said, 'Yes, I put it under the seat on your plane yesterday.'"
As Brotine passed the flight attendant, the woman looked at the suitcase and said, "Oh, it's smaller than I thought it was," Brotine said.
"I said, 'It would be nice if you apologized to me,'" Brotine recalled. "She made a comment under her breath. I made the comment, 'And your attitude could be improved.'"
That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say.
A short time later, the flight attendant came to her seat, Brotine said.
"She says, 'Miss?' and I look up. And she said, 'Miss, I just wanted you to know that my name is Tina so you can tell my supervisors about me,'" Brotine said.
By then Brotine, an internist from Evanston, was miffed.
"I said, 'My (title) is doctor so you can address me as that, and I want an apology."
The apology never came, but a few minutes later a man who identified himself as flight security arrived and asked her to follow him off the plane.
Brotine and her husband walked with him into the gate area, where she was told she was being removed because the pilot had deemed her a security risk.
For Brotine, it seemed almost surreal.
For starters, she said, her suitcase fit under the seat. In addition, the pilot had never spoken to her or looked into what had transpired. Finally, she had done nothing wrong, she said.
She certainly wasn't a physical threat.
