DENVER – While traveling home over the holiday weekend, San Diego residents Billy and Michael Canu say that after an exchange with a group of United Airlines employees over a customer-service issue, a manager called the couple “faggots.”

The derogatory term was used by Rodney Hill, who presented himself as manager after the pair had difficulty getting information from a group of United Airlines employees at the service counter about United’s “Gold Access” program, Billy told San Diego Gay & Lesbian News today.