UAL250

Sheila Jackson Lee Is An Entitled 'Queen | The Daily Caller

Edit: Hope this isn't political, just thought I'd post this to show why I side with the passenger on this one. At some point, you act so much like a drama queen that it is impossible to side with you anymore. Congresswoman who cried wolf.

deniah

Where do the miles come from?

Or why does https://storefront.points.com/mileage-plus/en-US/buy , at this moment, offer to sell me 140,000 miles for the small sum of 5,088.41 EUR?

"ohhh, im sorrry that happened to you, let me look into this" is also quite different from "on behalf of united we are sorry we were wrong for xxx".
one is a reflexive throwaway - about as genuine as a "good morning how are you" - and the other a proper admission of wrongdoing.

or that she begrudgingly accepted it since it was getting to the back of the plane or getting DAO'ed off.

if they escort someone aboard before ever making an announcement welcoming GS, military members, ordained priests, etc, wouldnt it be easy to deduce if one is a part of that group or not?

never seen in my life the ability for pax to cancel a flight mid-journey... (i have thrown away segments...)

a congressperson who has been known widely in the state and in the capital as the nastiest is just a mere coincidence ?

chrisl137

Hipplewm

I had the same, but if you go to United.com online (even using your phone) it is still there. It is like the app times out and it gets so far past the boarding time or landing time and it just moves on. IF you select a new flight with a new time, it seems to stay, but if you are on the old flight and time passes, it just drops off.

joe_miami

It's a weird bug, though, since the app knows your flight is delayed and then, poof, your record disappears anyway. One part of the app apparently isn't talking to the other part.

zippy the pinhead

The pax, Jean-Marie Simon, has continued to update on FB and Twitter. UA has not apologized, as she asked, but has refunded her miles and allegedly provided proof of the cancellation to various bloggers, including one upthread. On FB, she asks:

I must say, Jean-Marie Simon seems pretty credible, whereas the behavior of UA-- refunding the miles, back-channeling via bloggers, no written apology-- reminds me of a verse: "the wicked flee, though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."

Hipplewm

According to one of the "Bloggers" her ticket was cancelled at 11:22 and the original boarding time was 11:55 - curiously close to the 30 min window to process upgrades

This whole thing smells like freaking sewer and UA is holding the outhouse door

I wonder if they bothered to check IP addresses on her phone, vs the gate agents phones to determine exactly whose phone cancelled the ticket?

jsloan

Hipplewm

Thanks, you made my point even better, without physically examining her phone, there is no way to know who actually cancelled the ticket in all likelyhood

daisyatl

Maybe I would behave the same way but this seems to be dragging on. Is the issue that she got downgraded or that she (allegedly) got downgraded because of a politician that nobody seems to like?

Again, maybe I am missing something and maybe I have low expectations. I don't expect companies, especially large ones in the airline industry, to always get it right. No excuses for them but seems naive when so many factors come into play with travel. My experiences have generally been good but I have also had some bad ones. I have complained when appropriate. Received something when appropriate and moved on.

I don't understand the hatred of a company. It is comprised of individuals. Many. Unless all are awful or unless policies are terrible, there will always be some bad people. The hope is the complaint will change future behavior. I guess I am jaded but other companies mess up all the time but just not in an industry that makes the news.

Anyway, not judging anyone or even the passenger. Just hoping a lesson will be learned and someone else will be better off in the future.

PS: She complained about United on Twitter earlier this year and also referenced how much she paid for her ticket. Not suggesting anything except maybe she should try a different airline. Have to make a stand somehow.

minnyfly

Here's a problem I have with believing that this was the intentional act by someone at UA. If the whole point was to accommodate SJL in F, why go through the trouble of cancelling Simon's ticket entirely and do it by using their own device using the UA app? Why not keep her ticket, downgrade her to E+ or E-, give her healthy compensation, tell her all this in advance, and make excuses if necessary to placate her? (a FAM would be a great excuse) After this was an IRROPS situation, so that gives UA excuses to work with. Why take her off the plane entirely and not make it known until she tries to board? Why let her back on the flight so she can identify who took her seat? That doesn't make sense to me.

Has anyone seen her identify this other "Texas congressman" that sat next to her? I find it interesting in her detailed account that she doesn't identify who that was. That doesn't help her credibility if she fails to provide a witness that can prove or disprove her story.

How is she any more credible than anyone else? All she says is "no apology", "no apology", no apology". The issue now for her side of the story is that the credibility of three entities is on the line (UA, TPG, and Matthew) against her claims. Both sides have plausible arguments. Both sides have reasons to lie or not tell the whole truth. Why should I believe her instead of those three?

Giving back her miles and offering compensation could be a simple case of "the customer is always right". I would expect UA to give her something, whether is what accidental not. It's good customer service. Compensation being given doesn't prove anything.

Except by then the delay for a late inbound would have almost certainly been posted, and TPG reports that to be the case. Indeed, her plane to DCA ended up being N807UA, which didn't arrive at IAH until 12:07. A 11:22 change, if true of course, makes sense with UA's side of the argument.

sethb

I count miles as paying.

She initially didn't, then she did.

How hard is it to notice that someone is boarded before they call for Global Services members to board?

I haven't seen anything about whether or not she even used the app while she was waiting.

If your ticket was canceled without any action on your part, and the airline claimed you did it, would you have reason to suspect foul play "with no corroborating evidence"? I'd love to see a lawsuit, in which United would have to allow Discovery. They claimed that the ticket was canceled from their app; I wonder what the low-level logs would show, e.g. the IP address of the user who did the canceling.

Which is relevant to what? (In any case, we haven't seen the first class seats in the long flights on the itinerary.)

MatthewLAX

The two are not mutually exclusive. When she allegedly canceled her original flight, the app invariably offers alternate booking options.

Sorry, but I don't accept that because I have not seen it and fly over 100K miles on United each year. I also use the app daily. I want to see screenshots. Other very seasoned UA flyers are also expressing skepticism.

That is beside the point. In order to use the lounge, she would have had to scan her onward boarding pass. After clearing immigration/customs she would not have been able to get back into the secure area without a boarding pass. Therefore, timing matters...or we need clarification from United that the United Club check-in system does not validate if a ticket/reservation is valid.

sexykitten7

Interesting. Another anecdote: my kettle friend flew SFO-SAN ns a few years back and I told him he could take an earlier flight. GA did it no questions asked. So the nonstop "policy" certainly isn't set in stone.

Hm. Part of the Feepocolyse I suppose.

halls120

This story still has legs, at least in the DC local TV market. It was featured again this morning.