Originally Posted by pvtwong

Hi all, i flew with my parents on JFK - LAX route last friday after treating them on a trip to New York. I purchased 3 round trip tickets in Business Class. I love the premium service on UA. To me, they are by far a million light years better than AA which I have for the last few years been flying their AFS route between LAX and JFK. Since it is my parents first trip out of california for 7 years and first time to NYC, I decide to buy them business class seats. They were impressed.

After 10 days in NYC, we headed home. We were a bit late to the airport and my mom and dad are slow walker. After clearing security, they both were walking as fast as they could as the boarding had already begun for a little over 5 minutes. When we got to the gate, the gate agent was paging our family for final board call while there were a few people waiting by the gate. I think they were trying to get upgrades. So when we got there we showed the gate agent our boarding passes and were welcome to board. Since my parents are "moving slow", after we collected our boarding passes, we were still at the gate when the gate agent announced that business class has checked in Full. One guy was heard loudly while we were still at the gate. and here is the conversation between him and the gate agent.

Passenger: I have been waiting here for 2 hours and you won't even upgrade me?
GA: I am sorry but business class is full
Passenger: You upgraded those 3 people even they showed up late???
GA: I am really sorry but they were not late.
Passenger: I don't care, i am going to talk to your supervisor.
GA: Sure but I must remind you that if you do not wish to board at this time, I will have to cancel your seat.
Passenger: FINE, what is your name?
GA: <<gave her name to the unruly passenger>>
Passenger: I will be sure that you no longer work for United.

While we were still on the jet bridge, this guy was very upset the fact that we "stole" his business class seat. Hello buddy, we paid for the seats. So he came charging down and I told my parents to move aside and let this guy pass. I was assisting my mom walk because she is the slowest one and my dad was behind us. When the guy get near us, he asked my dad for his boarding pass. My dad does not speak English so he didn't know what he was saying and as he turned to me, the guy took the boarding pass from his hand. Adding to the fuel after looking at the boarding pass, he was pissed. The purser on the flight came out to the jetbridge and check out what is going on. This unruly passenger told the purser that this CHINESE guy is not even an elite and yet he was upgraded. I was mad to hear that because we don't need an elite status to be in business class, because I paid for those seats.

When I heard that, I yelled back at him and said, "I paid for these tickets so the gate agent didn't have to upgrade us three. Perhaps if you wish to be in a better cabin, you would have purchased a ticket in there." He said, "Look, I don't know where you came from, but I am a 1K and you are not even an elite. You should go back to CHINA and not taking up all these spaces in my country and look at this, he can't even speak English, that's why our country is so f***ed up with all the illegal immigrants here."

The purser acted upon it and said, "Sir, you are out of line and I don't think you should board this plane. I ask that you remain here and the captain will have a talk with you shortly." She further asked us to continue on boarding the aircraft. Once we boarded, we were welcome on board. This guy was never seen again as he did not board the plane with us. If he did, I can't guarantee that he won't get hurt. The purser personally came to us during the flight to apologize for the outrageous comments from the passenger to which I said, thank you for helping and she did not have to apologize for something she did not do. I wrote United a very nice and postive letter commending this purser and told UA that the gate agent did nothing wrong in case the passenger complains.

It upsets me when the race card has to be played. Come on, just because you are an elite, does not make you above everyone else. Sorry that you didn't get your upgrade and if you really want that seat, don't be cheap, buy it. Airlines can only upgrade you when there is a seat available. Upgrades are not guaranteed. When you don't expect it, you won't be disappointed when you don't get it. IT is uncalled for when he said all those things. I am sure it was just the heat of the moment but it really hurts. I came to United States 15 years ago. Served in the US Marine Corps for 8 years. I am just as an American as he is. I am glad the purser took the appropriate action and made our flight enjoyable.

To the credit of UA, their service on transcon premium service exceeds my expectation. I hope they keep up the good work.

Thank you for reading this post.