More United Airlines fail: First class seat force-canceled for regular passenger and given to Congresswoman

[Dan Druff]

This is Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee:



She somehow convinced someone at United to force-cancel a passenger out of their first class seat, and give it to Congresswoman Lee, who was privately escorted onto the plane first before any of the other passengers.

Political favors, perhaps?

Jean-Marie Simon plunked down 140,000 United miles to purchase a First Class seat well in advance, and then arrived to the airport to find that her reservation had been canceled. A United attendant told her that united.com had changed her reservation an hour earlier and upgraded another passenger to her seat.

Then the gate agent acted very rude and obnoxious with her, and then shoved a $300 voucher for future flights in her face, barking, "Take it and get on the plane, or go find a flight somewhere else."

When Simon asked for an additional voucher for a meal, stating that people giving up their seats voluntarily often get more than $300, the gate agent flippantly replied, "And I want a Mercedes Benz, but I’m not going to get it."

She then attempted to take a photo of her occupied seat while on the plane, and a flight attendant threatened to have her kicked off the plane if she took another photo.

She only later learned that Congresswoman Lee was the one who ended up in her seat, but remembered seeing a United employee grab her from the passenger boarding line and escort her onto the plane first.

United is trying to avoid discussing this situation, and only put out a weak claim that their "internal systems showed she canceled the flight due to weather delays" -- a statement so non-committal that it's pretty much dripping with dishonesty. Notice the "internal systems showed" part, which allows them to backpedal later and claim a computer error.

They have not explained how Congresswoman Lee got Simon's seat, nor will they explain why she was given a private boarding.

Shaaaaaaaaaady.

Perhaps Lee is on some committee where United needs favors done?

Oh, and rather than apologize to Simon for what occurred, Lee decided to play the race card and make herself the victim.

Lovely woman.

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

Wait. Why would Sheboon Lee have to apologize? You picture United giving her the flight itinerary and her saying, "Yeah, give me that white bitches seat."

[shortbuspoker]

How is there not already a thread of all the stupid shit that twat has said publicly over the years. She is a corrupt racist, yet also absurdly ignorant.

[Dan Druff]

Wait. Why would Sheboon Lee have to apologize? You picture United giving her the flight itinerary and her saying, "Yeah, give me that white bitches seat."

She should apologize because, whether she knew it or not, a regular citizen was kicked out of her seat at the last minute to accommodate her.

A decent person would have said, "I had no idea that I got my seat in this fashion. United just told me one was available for me, and I was happy to have it. I feel terrible that this occurred, and never would have taken it had I knew it already belonged to another passenger."

Instead, we're getting complaints that the displaced passenger is only angry because a black woman got her seat.

I mean.... come on.

[Dan Druff]

Also, I have a feeling that she knew exactly how she was getting her seat, but didn't care about some regular peasant losing their first class seat.

Someone at United probably told her, "The section is full, but we can downgrade one of the miles passengers out of their seat and put you in it", and Lee probably said, "Great, do it!"

But even if she didn't know, she should feel bad after-the-fact for what United pulled on that woman, and not be playing victim herself.

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

Yeah I'm the nicest person I know so I would have said, "I'm sorry that happened to you," but I really don't think like the average PFA poster is apologizing here. For all we know every airline auto bumps people using their miles in favor of people voted into Congress. It might have even been written into the fine print of the mileage rewards contract. What bothers me the most about this is the airline not rolling out the welcome wagon for anyone bumped in such a fashion. I blame the airline 99.9 percent and the black congress lady 0.01 percent. If she was told by the airline that they would have to kick someone out who had a ticket that percentage would change.

[hongkonger]

Absolutely unacceptable behaviour out of United, which is by far the shittiest major airline. But the dumbest thing about the story is that someone paid 140,000 miles for a first class ticket from Houston to Washington.

[Charham]

Absolutely unacceptable behaviour out of United, which is by far the shittiest major airline. But the dumbest thing about the story is that someone paid 140,000 miles for a first class ticket from Houston to Washington.

and when you use miles, they treat you like crap. you can see an agents face scrunch up when you check in or have to deal with anything, "ohhh you are on an award ticket" and worse service follows.

still 140,000 miles. good lord you can go business class to europe or asia for that.

[donkdowndonedied]

I smell racism in this thread.

Druff acts as if someone should be able to hangout in firstclass and snap pictures at their own will. I mean omg, they wouldn't let her take more pictures!!

Verm should go through years of Druff threads and see how often he includes a picture. It might he interesting and it might not.

Otherwise I'm in agreement, just trying to understand the outrage here outside of the bumped woman. I mean good for her.... but sheesh.

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

Absolutely unacceptable behaviour out of United, which is by far the shittiest major airline. But the dumbest thing about the story is that someone paid 140,000 miles for a first class ticket from Houston to Washington.

and when you use miles, they treat you like crap. you can see an agents face scrunch up when you check in or have to deal with anything, "ohhh you are on an award ticket" and worse service follows.

still 140,000 miles. good lord you can go business class to europe or asia for that.

I think it's just to rile up the white's extra hard at this modern day Rosa Parks story. "She sat in coach for 140K miles all to get her first class reward stolen by the hands of darkie. Just imagine the poor teacher crying as she walked passed first class and saw the unappreciative vile n-word sow blowing farts and queefs all over the seat she earned and laughing at the good white woman who was on her way to the back of the plane to take her seat next to the bathroom."

[ErickAA]

Meh. Probably something that happens all the time, but isn't normally posted to social media, and obviously the reverse Rosa Parks parallels and the Congresswoman playing the race card is making it much more of a story than it should be.

[Daly]

She's a US Congressman paying for the seat in cash (our cash, but cash none the less).

The other got a free flight using miles.

I love a good story where we can shit on the powers that be but in this case the frequent flyer can hit the bricks.

[ErickAA]

I smell racism in this thread.

Druff acts as if someone should be able to hangout in firstclass and snap pictures at their own will. I mean omg, they wouldn't let her take more pictures!!

Verm should go through years of Druff threads and see how often he includes a picture. It might he interesting and it might not.

Otherwise I'm in agreement, just trying to understand the outrage here outside of the bumped woman. I mean good for her.... but sheesh.

Druff doesn't make any pretenses he isn't a staunch conservative. Also, being a conservative isn't necessarily a bad thing. Any stable, successful society definitely needs a conservative faction to stop change from happening too fast and too unresponsibly.

The current iteration of the Republican Party and the criminal who is our current president (that most conservative would argue isn't really a conservative at all) give conservatism today a much worse rep than deserved.

[Dan Druff]

She's a US Congressman paying for the seat in cash (our cash, but cash none the less).

The other got a free flight using miles.

I love a good story where we can shit on the powers that be but in this case the frequent flyer can hit the bricks.

I'm surprised this is your take on the situation. I'm not sure how often you buy flights with miles.

I buy tickets with miles all the time -- sometimes first class, sometimes not.

I have never once been bumped once my seat was ticketed.

While some airlines do have policies which allow them to downgrade miles-purchased tickets in favor of cash-purchased tickets, this is not at all common practice.

Airlines rarely oversell first class (they don't want to degrade this high-end product by creating this hassle/surprise), so downgrades tend to only happen when there's a system error which causes accidental overbooking, or a federal air marshal shows up and needs a first class seat.

It is true that SOMEONE must be bumped down to coach in such a situation, and that miles-paid passengers are the ones who go first.

However, this was HIGHLY unusual. You can't just walk up to an airline desk, offer to pay full fare for first class, and get them to bump a miles-paid passenger in that cabin. Won't happen. Once it's sold out, it's sold out.

This Congresswoman definitely pulled some strings to make this happen, either by simply invoking her title and impressing someone at the airport, or by having some contact at United.

100% this was a case of special treatment -- including a United employee escorting her onto the plane before everyone else. She's a fucking Congresswoman, not the President. She can board the plane with the rest of the commoners, and she definitely has no right to force-bump people out of their seat so she can have first class.

BTW, what was her urgent need for first class? Just because she didn't feel like sitting with the peasants? The main reason I get first class is because of the leg room. I'm too tall to fit into a standard coach seat, so I need either "economy plus" or business/first. That clearly wasn't her issue. And were the taxpayers funding this flight?

[Dan Druff]

Absolutely unacceptable behaviour out of United, which is by far the shittiest major airline. But the dumbest thing about the story is that someone paid 140,000 miles for a first class ticket from Houston to Washington.

There's something wrong with that figure.

It's never 140k miles to fly one-way within the domestic US, no matter how busy the season.

Maybe this was a round trip ticket.

United miles have degraded in value. I see they're listed as being worth 1.5 cents on some sites, but in my personal experience, it tends to be closer to 1.2. It's much tougher to find a great deal in miles for a United flight than an American flight. So 1.2 cents x 140k is $1680, which is quite expensive but not completely outrageous for a first class seat round trip from Houston to Washington.

Some people do foolishly waste miles, seeing them as "free flights" rather than a resource which one should manage just like money.

I will often pay cash instead of using my miles if the miles expenditure can't be justified.

[Daly]

She's a congressman of the United States of America. She gets special treatment.

[Dan Druff]

She's a congressman of the United States of America. She gets special treatment.

She shouldn't in situations like these.

Unless there is a security reason for it, she should board with everyone else, and she should especially not be pulling strings to force people out of their seats.

Congresspeople are not royalty.

[lol wow]

So it's come down to this were letting the blacks fly now DONALD

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

She's a congressman of the United States of America. She gets special treatment.

She shouldn't in situations like these.

Unless there is a security reason for it, she should board with everyone else, and she should especially not be pulling strings to force people out of their seats.

Congresspeople are not royalty.

Dang, him spelling the name of the country all the way out was not match for you.

[Charham]

hmm, this congresswoman has a history of prima donna behavior:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-behavior.html


The ticket was the first leg on a flight to Guatemala. The teacher denies canceling the flight. And United is bending over backwards to give her vouchers now.... which means they bumped her for the "VIP"...... teacher should have sat in any empty first class seats and made them drag her out for $$$$