Jason Derulo was "kicked off a plane" by American Airlines in a dispute over baggage fees - but the pop star says he requested to leave the flight.
The incident involving the 27-year-old singer happened on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on Wednesday after he learned his travel companions had been charged US$4000 for checking in 19 items of luggage.
The star expressed outrage on social media, saying his "status" meant he "never" had to fork out the whopping sum before because American Airlines allow recognised stars to have three bags free of charge.
He explained to People: "We'd never paid for our bags because of our status - with all of our miles - so we'd never paid for bags. So $4000 is obviously a huge sum. We were like, 'No, we're not paying that. We've got to turn the plane around.'
"And that was really upsetting to me because I felt like he was trying to make it seem like we were delinquents, and he was kicking us off the plane, when it was us that asked to get off the plane. I was like, 'Listen, sir, you're not going to talk down to me; I'm not your son. Don't talk to me in that tone of voice.'"
And when the In My Head hitmaker got off the plane, he was greeted by 15 police officers as well as other members of American Airlines crew, and instead of retaliating with the foul language he claimed he was met with, he turned to social media to publicly broadcast the humiliating event - and things quickly changed.
He explained: "As you can imagine, I'm surrounded by 15 police officers, I'm not going to curse back because I know what's going to happen. So I pick up my phone, and I go live on my Instagram.
"So I go live, and I start to hear whispers happening, and as soon as they find out who I am, everything changes. Every single person becomes somebody else, and all of a sudden, we're not in trouble anymore.
"I just want everybody to be treated with respect. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. I'm not asking for anything extra, I'm not asking to be taken care of."
Meanwhile, a police report is rumoured to have detailed a different turn of events, claiming Derulo and his friends "smelled of marijuana and were getting aggressive" as they refused to hand over the passport identification.
- Bang! Showbiz