Woman Car Dealer Thrown for Loss After Winning Football Trip : Bias: Infiniti executive says she was denied seat on Rams charter. Team says it was ‘clearly a misunderstanding, a mistake.’

Diann Shelton was initially excited by the grand prize that Infiniti offered to its auto sales executives in a recent contest: a trip for two with the Los Angeles Rams to watch the team play the Falcons in Atlanta.

But Shelton never had an opportunity to enjoy the prize she won by selling cars. The sales executive was not allowed on the Rams flight because she is a woman.

Infiniti, Nissan Motor Corp.’s luxury car division, blames the Rams for barring women from the team’s charter flight. A spokesman for the Rams, a team owned by a woman, now says there must have been some misunderstanding.

Shelton, the rare woman executive in an industry dominated by men, is considering filing a lawsuit against Infiniti.

“I’ve endured a lot of torment through the years being a woman in the industry,” said Shelton, 36, who manages an Infiniti dealership in Santa Fe Springs. “I don’t feel I should be discriminated against.”

Infiniti officials say they have bent over backwards to resolve the dispute, including offering Shelton a trip to Hawaii.

“There was no intentional exclusion,” said Debra Sanchez Fair, Infiniti’s public relations manager.

Marshall Klein, the Rams’ vice president in charge of media and community relations, was at a loss to explain why it happened. After all, Rams owner Georgia Frontiere flies on the team’s chartered plane. The Rams gave the trip and other perks to Infiniti, which loaned three cars to team executives.

“It was clearly a misunderstanding, a mistake,” Klein said. “She most certainly has a right to collect the prize. She has a right to be on that team plane.”

Klein said he planned to call Shelton to try to resolve the dispute.

The Infiniti feud began in August, when Shelton received a memo on the incentive program from regional headquarters in Irvine.

She would be competing against male sales managers at five other Southern California Infiniti dealerships for first-place and second-place prizes that included trips, televisions and video cameras. Shelton is one of just five female executive managers at Infiniti’s 106 dealerships across the nation.

“The winning dealer will win one trip for two gentlemen” with the Rams to their Oct. 27 game with the Falcons, the memo said. The words “two gentlemen” were underlined. The prize included seats on the team’s chartered flight, meals with the players and game tickets

“Why would they (Infiniti) consider something like this that is so blatantly discriminatory?” Shelton asked.

Shelton said she complained to Infiniti officials but was told the Rams would not allow her on the team plane if she won. In the meantime, she geared up her sales staff.

On Aug. 23, Shelton received a bulletin from headquarters informing her that her dealership was well ahead and urged her to keep selling cars.

In mid-October, Shelton was told she had won; her staff had exceeded its sales quota by 200%. She has received some prizes, including a television and a video camera.

Shelton had anticipated victory and had begun to negotiate an alternative to riding on the Rams’ plane.

The Rams’ director of special projects, Barbara Robinson, made it clear she would not be allowed on the flight.

“We regret no women are allowed on the charter but I am sure you will have a marvelous time,” she wrote in a message faxed to Shelton on Oct. 17.

Shelton wanted Infiniti to pay for first-class air travel to Atlanta. Her boyfriend would travel with the team.

Infiniti initially pressed Shelton to travel coach, but then consented to pay for first-class travel, an offer she refused, Shelton said. The hesitation angered her.

In a scathing reply to Infiniti, Shelton said she was “appalled at the abject sexual discrimination.”

“I demand and expect this trip in its entirety to be awarded just as it would be to a man, and in a very timely manner,” she wrote.

Infiniti said that was impossible because the Rams would not allow it.

Like any good car saleswoman, Shelton then sought a better deal.

Shelton then asked for a five-day trip to Hawaii for three, first-class air transportation and a rental car.

Infiniti officials agreed to a Hawaii trip, but not all of Shelton’s demands. They declared an impasse.

“We regret that an acceptable compromise to both parties could not be made,” Sanchez Fair said.

But Shelton said Infiniti must make a better offer.

“I felt like I was working the hardest car deal of my life rather than winning something for doing a good job.”