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Basic Economy passenger trys to join family in E+

Basic Economy passenger trys to join family in E+

Old Jul 26, 2017, 6:53 am
  #1  
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Basic Economy passenger trys to join family in E+

I didn't see a thread for this story:
A United Flight Attendant Enforces Rules, so a 7-Year-Old Can't Sleep on Empty Seats

In summary: Family of 5 buys BASIC economy. UA UPGRADES 4/5 of them to E+. Family uses overhead bins. 5th person tries to self-upgrade, gets caught. Daughter complains she can't lay down taking up two seats and is "forced" to sleep sitting up like everyone else on the plane. (Though FA didn't seem to restrict this). UA then offers family $750 ETC. Apparently this is not enough so they goto the new and a report who obviously has never flown on an airplane before makes a story. The only legitimate complaint is for the stroller which they got $200 for.
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 7:12 am
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Originally Posted by eng3
I didn't see a thread for this story:
A United Flight Attendant Enforces Rules, so a 7-Year-Old Can't Sleep on Empty Seats

In summary: Family of 5 buys BASIC economy. UA UPGRADES 4/5 of them to E+. Family uses overhead bins. 5th person tries to self-upgrade, gets caught. Daughter complains she can't lay down taking up two seats and is "forced" to sleep sitting up like everyone else on the plane. (Though FA didn't seem to restrict this). UA then offers family $750 ETC. Apparently this is not enough so they goto the new and a report who obviously has never flown on an airplane before makes a story. The only legitimate complaint is for the stroller which they got $200 for.
This is the latest tripe posted on the front page of FT by "journalists".
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:10 am
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Agree. Whiners
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:20 am
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Originally Posted by eng3
Daughter complains she can't lay down taking up two seats and is "forced" to sleep sitting up like everyone else on the plane. (Though FA didn't seem to restrict this).
So which is it?
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:27 am
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Originally Posted by eng3

UA UPGRADES 4/5 of them to E+.
No good deed goes unpunished, as my mother-in-law is fond of saying (usually in the same conversation in which she opines, "You die alone.")
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:29 am
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Originally Posted by eng3
I didn't see a thread for this story:
A United Flight Attendant Enforces Rules, so a 7-Year-Old Can't Sleep on Empty Seats

In summary: Family of 5 buys BASIC economy. UA UPGRADES 4/5 of them to E+. Family uses overhead bins. 5th person tries to self-upgrade, gets caught. Daughter complains she can't lay down taking up two seats and is "forced" to sleep sitting up like everyone else on the plane. (Though FA didn't seem to restrict this). UA then offers family $750 ETC. Apparently this is not enough so they goto the new and a report who obviously has never flown on an airplane before makes a story. The only legitimate complaint is for the stroller which they got $200 for.
Absolutely ridiculous to offer anything other than $200 for the broken stroller. If UA is going to throw ETC's at everything/everyone, I am going to start nitpicking when I fly. I'm pretty easygoing, but why not cash in when everyone else is?
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 8:59 am
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Originally Posted by rufflesinc
So which is it?
According the the article, when the father got caught trying to upgrade to the open E+ seat, the FA told him to move back. FA cited that some people had to pay $150 for an upgrade though someone else in E+ said they didnt pay anything. The girl says she was afraid to lay down across the empty seat after that incident and was therefore "forced" to stay upright (like everyone else on the plane). There was no mention the FA explicitly said that the girl could not lay down.
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 9:15 am
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Originally Posted by eng3
The girl says she was afraid to lay down across the empty seat after that incident and was therefore "forced" to stay upright (like everyone else on the plane). There was no mention the FA explicitly said that the girl could not lay down.
What really steams me is that, in order to goose their traffic, some of the frequent flyer blogs have been spinning a tale that the FA forced the child to sleep bolt upright, despite the adjacent empty seats. That's the story UA is now fighting on social media.

The girl's parent encouraged this with her misleading tweet, staging the photo to make the poor girl look miserable.

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Old Jul 26, 2017, 9:34 am
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Even if the girl was forced to sleep upright by the FA, I don't see why it would be so horrible (relative to everyone else that has to sleep upright). When I'm on a flight and the middle seat is open, I share the open space with the other person. (ie. we we each put our bags on the seat and share the tray table. I don't hog the entire space.

I know there are some bad FA's out there but I feel sorry with the BS they have to put up with on a daily basis and can understand how years of this can have an affect. It's only worse now where DYKWIA have been empowered with further entitlement.
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 9:39 am
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Originally Posted by FlyngSvyr
Absolutely ridiculous to offer anything other than $200 for the broken stroller. If UA is going to throw ETC's at everything/everyone, I am going to start nitpicking when I fly. I'm pretty easygoing, but why not cash in when everyone else is?
Maybe because you behave ethically?
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 10:41 am
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Originally Posted by radonc1
Maybe because you behave ethically?
True, my Mom would not be happy if she read that post. But seriously, I have rarely had anything go sideways where I thought I was due anything. And when I have, the compensation was just.

UA is settting themselves up to be a Pinata
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 10:48 am
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Funny that the Mom's twitter bio lists "fact-checker" though she seems to have spun some of the "facts" in this story. I'll have a good morning trolling her and others. Thanks for the link.
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 11:17 am
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Originally Posted by Rikki3072
No good deed goes unpunished, as my mother-in-law is fond of saying (usually in the same conversation in which she opines, "You die alone.")

For real, I just saw this story on FB and almost everyone who commented was sympathetic to the family and complained about United. I didn't see the part on the FB the the family was given $750. Why were they given it?
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 11:20 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by FlyngSvyr
Absolutely ridiculous to offer anything other than $200 for the broken stroller. If UA is going to throw ETC's at everything/everyone, I am going to start nitpicking when I fly. I'm pretty easygoing, but why not cash in when everyone else is?
Thank You. I find myself actually irritated that they were given this.
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Old Jul 26, 2017, 11:39 am
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Reading what I did about it, I think the thing that the FA may have overdone was not allowing a seat-trade with another passenger. They usually don't mind if someone wants to give up their seat to accommodate another passenger.

However, expecting to be able to use the overhead luggage bins, etc. when they knew they were on a basic economy ticket is definitely out of bounds for the passenger. This person looks like they were just looking to pick a fight.
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