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Pax accuses UA of giving her F seat to US Rep

Old Dec 29, 2017, 7:11 pm
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It is the desire of the FT UA Moderation Team to keep this thread open, as there is still much to be learned. While realizing this incident has some elements that have led to some very active discussion; such as the Congresswoman is local to a major UA hub and familiar to many UA flyers, FT has certain rules for discussion. This forum is focused on travel with UA and there are better places for other types of discussion.

After some discussion among the FT UA Moderators, we wish to clarify what is appropriate and what is not.
Discussion of the actual incident and how it might have happened
Discussion of how UA has handled the event
Discussion if the congresswoman or others forced this to happen
Discussion of UA granting unearned GS status

Not appropriate and better elsewhere
Overly political or racial comments about the congresswoman (or anyone else)
General comments about politicians, government officials unrelated to the actual incident
General ethics discussion concerning corporate/government officials accepting complimentary status

And all the standard FT rules apply including not commenting on other posters and not posting unnecessarily inflammatory, inciting or provocative comments.

Generally, if you are not discussing the incident, good chance you may be Off Topic.

WineCountryUA
on behalf of the UA FT Moderation Team
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Pax accuses UA of giving her F seat to US Rep

Old Dec 23, 2017, 7:55 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by sexykitten7
they have no idea what happened.
Given the Congressperson's past meltdowns on CO and now UA, odds on are that the UA bounced the award-redeeming pax to avoid a meltdown by said Congressperson. In all likelihood, the Congressperson raised such a todo at the gate prior to boarding that when the pax deboarded and saw SJL in her previously allocated seat, all the pieces fell into place.
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Old Dec 23, 2017, 11:43 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by AndyInSaigon
Pity that poor passenger that was seated next to SJL. She's notoriously rude & demanding of the airlines. The Houston Press once had a story about how Continental sent her office a Delta schedule & suggested she use another airline. My congressional rep.
Gordon didn't {redacted per FT rules}. I could tell from her quote she's trouble.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Dec 23, 2017 at 11:47 pm Reason: Using symbols, spaces or other methods to mask vulgarities is not allowed.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 12:40 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by AndyInSaigon
Pity that poor passenger that was seated next to SJL. She's notoriously rude & demanding of the airlines. The Houston Press once had a story about how Continental sent her office a Delta schedule & suggested she use another airline. My congressional rep.
As this was UA predecessor CO, and mentioned upthread, I hope this is acceptable:

[Former Rep. SJL staffer Burruss] then described an incident the previous month when Lee boarded a flight at National, and found the menu did not include a seafood special she had wanted.

"She screamed at the top of her lungs at least a minute," Burruss quotes [CO government affairs VP] Cox as telling her. "She embarrassed the flight attendants and the passengers in first class. And she embarrassed herself."

According to Burruss, Cox claimed Lee declared, "Don't you know who I am? I'm Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Where is my seafood meal? I know it was ordered!"

When Burruss asked Cox what could be done, Cox asked that her message be relayed directly to Lee, and then joked, "We have already given her the Delta Airlines schedule."
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 8:56 am
  #19  
 
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The APP is pretty tricky on alternatives. And to make matters worse, you can 'cancel' or change your flight and the app will still show your original boarding pass. I really think United needs to do something in the APP to make it clearer when you are giving up your old seat and when you have the new one. I don't change many flights, but I go through the call center to get it done now.

The worst thing I say in the report is she spent 140,000 miles for a F seat from DC to Houston? Ouch.

A 50 min delay is pretty much ontime in UA world.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 9:02 am
  #20  
 
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I have no doubt UAL deliberately downgraded the passenger. They did it to my father and me in order to accommodate Australia's ambassador to the US and his aide on a trip from LAX to IAD. They lied then too. I've seen them do it for other politicians out of IAD (and DCA) frequently.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 9:15 am
  #21  
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Originally Posted by PushingTin
The worst thing I say in the report is she spent 140,000 miles for a F seat from DC to Houston? Ouch.
The 140K was apparently for IAD to Guatemala and back.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 9:56 am
  #22  
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UA flies Members of Congress and other high-profile government officials all the time. Jackson Lee likely flies this route weekly when Congress is in session. Same for other Members for their respective routes.

I consider it unlikely that UA would boot a passenger and force a DG, knowing that it would cause a scene which is problematic for both UA and Jackson Lee as it did. Much more likely is that the passenger inadverdently cancelled or the UA app glitched. While it was possible to reinstate the ticket, there was no F seat, thus Y.

If UA had wanted to do this, it presumably knew that Jackson Lee was flying and could have handled all of this behind the scenes. Another signal that this was a routine error which, on a percentage shot, lands on a well-known passenger.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 10:03 am
  #23  
 
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Classic United BS - no doubt Jackson-Lee and United kicked this person out of 1A
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 11:26 am
  #24  
 
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In contrast, Sen. Ted Cruz boarded my SAT/IAD flight soon after the church shootings and walked far back into coach, smiling and shaking hands with pax as he went. Quite a few upgrades on the flight too, but not him, as he likely declined one.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 11:57 am
  #25  
 
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I'm sure the facts will present themselves over time. The statement out of United appears to me to be a PA-friendly statement that chalks the incident off to an accident and doesn't accuse either party of lying about what happened while they try to find a way to placate the offended passenger off-line and not incur the Congresswoman's wrath. I'd probably try that route myself if I were in United's shoes because they're in a no-win situation.

The problem with UA's story is that they boarded the passenger in question. If she had cancelled (via app or otherwise), she wouldn't have had a valid boarding pass for the flight, period, end of story. I have no doubt the press would expose this logical fallacy for what it is if this was someone they despised but they will do their best to bury it for someone they like/prefer.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 12:05 pm
  #26  
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It is not unusual to have a member of congress, i.e. the people who are supposed to work for us but in reality... , on the plane. Usually they are alone and pretty low-key.

I remember once I was on DCA-IAH, this woman showed up with an entourage (2-3 people). I think it was her. When I got to IAH and talked to my friend there, he did not have anything good to say about her (and my friend is liberal-leaning).

Don't they, by the government contract with the airlines, get some perks? Some might not look good in this world of social media and our crazy political environment.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 12:20 pm
  #27  
 
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accusing someone she's never met or interacted with of racism, and bragging about how nice she is in the next sentence is really obnoxious. I would hope that UA speaks up for the displaced pax if she did indeed complain about the situation prior to knowing who got her seat.
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 1:45 pm
  #28  
 
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The Daily Mail is all over it in the best British tabloid style...

Teacher 'was evicted from first class United seat so that airline could give it to US Congresswoman who ''always does it'' and was threatened by staff when she complained'
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 1:58 pm
  #29  
 
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Front page news in the NY Post and NY Daily News.

https://nypost.com

http://www.nydailynews.com
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Old Dec 24, 2017, 1:59 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by ExplorerWannabe
... The problem with UA's story is that they boarded the passenger in question. If she had cancelled (via app or otherwise), she wouldn't have had a valid boarding pass for the flight, period, end of story. ....
The reported story seems to be the passenger was initially denied boarding but UA was able to restore the ticket -- in economy, E+. So the stories seem consistent

For a classic "bumped from first class" passenger, UA does not cancel the ticket but simply changes the seat assignment -- a forced downgrade. So this situation does not fit the standard bump pattern. The "canceled" ticket is anomalous.
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