Rapper Paul Wall Abuses Buddy Pass, Gets Friend Fired
Meg Butler January 12, 2018
Chicago, IL, USA - March 17, 2016: A United Airlines 747-400 landing on 28C at the Chicago O'hare Airport.
Houston rapper Paul Wall recently made the news when he Tweeted about the firing of a friend, United Airlines employee and “combat disabled veteran” who was recently fired for letting Wall use his buddy pass:
Wow. This unbelievable. A close family friend was fired by @united airlines after 16 Years with no infractions for allowing me to fly on his pass to do Charity Work out of town. More details coming. Please RT!!! 🙏💯🤘
— Paul Wall (@paulwallbaby) January 9, 2018
My boy is a combat disabled veteran. Never a single infraction in 16 yrs with @united
— Paul Wall (@paulwallbaby) January 9, 2018
While friends and family are allowed to fly on employee passes like these, United is accusing Paul Wall of conducting business while flying on the pass, something that Wall denies.
During an interview with TMZ.com, Wall went on to allege that the accusation came after he complained about a canceled flight that nearly made him a performance (a flight that he paid for) on Twitter back in May 2017.
Paul says,
I’ve been flying on my close friend’s ‘friend of the family’ pass for a few years. Which isn’t a problem. It’s never been a problem. You know, I’m flying on the pass, meeting the gate agents, they’re taking pictures with me…
[The Tweet] just set the whole thing in motion where they just said, ‘oh, wait a minute, Paul Wall is flying on someone’s travel benefits.’
They suspended my friend.. he’s worked for United, never once an infraction, never late, never called in sick… he was a couple years away from his pension and retirement. I feel horrible. I don’t want to do anything to cause anyone to lose their job. Much less someone who is a close friend.
The whole time they were doing the investigation, I was cooperating with everything, telling them ‘I don’t have anything to hide’ I wasn’t traveling improperly, I wasn’t traveling for business or personal gain, I was traveling to a Mac Dre benefit concert to raise money for his family. And honestly, United just didn’t believe it.
United responded to TMZ by saying, “We restrict this benefit to leisure travel. Mr. Wall used these travel benefits for business purposes, which our policy does not permit.”
For more on this story, head to TMZ.
We have no evidence United's claim is true. Kinda messed up if they fire you without proof of the wrongdoing. Fired employee should talk to his union about challenging this.