Originally Posted by Ber2dca

Oh no, a tiny person. My heart bleeds. There's a good chance the FA she's dealing with is also a 'tiny person'. What does that have to do with anything? Would a 'big person' have a better chance of not getting kicked off the plane? I've seen a lot of questionable service conduct by FAs of different airlines but never did I wonder "Can I take this FA in a fight?" (as if it makes a difference either way). If that's your approach, maybe you have a problem.

Also she didn't 'just see' this incident. She perhaps saw it on the news 3 months ago. And it was an incident that wasn't all that similar to this one. For most people not gripped easily by public hysteria flying hasn't changed since then.

Nobody disputes UA staff made a mistake. That's obvious. What we say is that it was made a huge deal by this woman's apparent lack of effort to resolve her situation before the flight. And whether it's 'fair' or not, in these situations - on any airline - *you* have to make sure your issue is resolved. In a situation where a small number of staff have to take care of several dozens of people (and the logistics of commercial airplane operations) it's quite likely they will not be able to pay sufficient attention to your issue unless you make them.

The number one customer mistake is to assume that staff are magically aware of all issues surrounding the customer's situation and that there's no need to effectively communicate all the relevant aspects to the staff. This often leads to a breakdown in communication and then if things go predictably wrong 'It's their fault! I want my money!'