I'm with you, no chance I would have backed down on this. I would have done my best to remain polite, but You are in the right and a power tripping FA needs to be reprimanded. UA's idea that small items 'must' be placed under the seat is going to lead me into the realm of always bringing a full size carry-on for my small items just to put them in the bin, there bye taking up more bin space. As I regularly check my luggage and am tall I am not at all inclined to give up my foot space so that UA can make $$ by charging other people for their checked bags. They are already capturing mine.

As a male traveler this has happened to me several times on UA and other carriers. Since I'm tall I regularly check my luggage and only carry on a small bag that could fit under my seat but usually place it up top for more foot room.

Again I'm in full agreement. Good on you for standing up to him. Make sure to get a name, that way if he chooses to escalate you know.

Not by my definition - someone challenged me / threatened me and I did nothing to counter them. I allowed them to get away with the misuse of their position.

I think the foolishness is overstated. I don't take this crap and I've yet to be deplaned or arrested.

I've never had a problem with TSA or CBP. I did argue with a security guy in BKK though. I did not win and to be honest I'm not even sure if I was right, since the rules differ from country to country.

I believe this to be true but the common belief is that if we say boo to the FAs we'll be deplaned/arrested etc.. I really would like to be believe that is not true.

Agreed, this idea that these people (TSA, CBP, GA's, FA's) should never be questioned is beyond absurd. It's all too common for them to believe that they are the ultimate arbiters when they are often poorly informed and very very used to never being questioned.

Fair enough. At the end of the day, we all have to decide what's important to us. I hope you are able to find peace with your decision, though, because all you can do at this point is resolve to do things differently in the future.

I'm sad you think this. I don't believe it is all foolish bravado. Certainly not on my part. I believe many of us are beginning to stick up for our rights now more than ever before -- especially with our current political climate where it's now become commonplace to trample over people's rights.
I refuse to be pummeled into submission by anyone when I know I'm in the right, and I don't care what sort of "authority" they think they have over me.
And if I was sitting next to the OP and heard the Clint Eastwood FA threaten her, I would have not stayed quiet either.

As a man of color - who more frequently vs. what I wish to admit ignores blatant stupidity in public settings that I simply can't think would be tolerable if I were someone different. I FULLY understand your peeve and this post has a different context to me.

Sadly, I had one experience in first class whereas, the gentleman behind me (happen to be olive tone) had his cellphone grabbed by FA who thought he was filming the cabin after closing the door. He was simply poor vision and watching a video on his mobile device with this business casual attire on. I wrote a letter indicating how awful I thought the treatment and felt bad for the embarrassment of the passenger and FA should get retraining - the reply was safety/operations matters. I didn't bother going back with the number of folks filming aircraft take-off/landing, their first/vacation/honeymoon flight, etc. without a peep. Honestly, that incident irritated me so much I would speak up if I were onboard and challenge the FA on unnecessary tone/confrontation is unnecessary as you haven't done anything. I agree the passengers have the numbers and shouldn't feel we are pupils in N.Vietnam forced to endure disrespect.

The reason I said gender/race did not matter is because the FA himself was African American (I'm not AA, I am brown).

I REALLY argued with a GA once. I won that one too. Basically they gave away my pre-selected window seat and tried to put me in a middle. After about 15 minutes of arguing I was back in my window seat. It was about 10 years ago though and I don't remember the airline. All I remember was that the flight was somewhere in the Bay Area to either HNL or LIH.

It's just a matter of L'esprit de l'espalier ; )
You, and me, and anyone reading this thread will remember this for next time and maybe be ready for it. Keep your chin up girlfriend and don't let the .......s get you down.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8e3c7b83b6.gif
"Don't worry sir, we'll make the lady with ONLY a tiny personal item check her bag to accommodate you."

Had similar experience on another *A airline in North America (I'll let you figure that one out). They insisted I put my dress suit organizer on the ground in spite of the fact that I checked my carry on bag in and had already put something under the seat in front of me. While it did fit, the fact that my freshly pressed dress clothes were in such close contact to the ground to be disgusting. Granted it was on a Q400 but you would think they would extend a little courtesy for a proud UA Gold traveller who travels regularly on business and makes use of the Zone 1 boarding specifically to ensure these situations never happen!

Safe Travels,

James

BEGIN MESSAGE from United Customer Care

Dear Ms. pindi:

I'm sorry that you had such a poor experience because of our inflight crew member regarding your carry-on and personal bag.

You should be able to depend on us for reliable, courteous service and we let you down. It is very clear from reading your comments that we have some improvements to make and please note that I will be following up with the inflight supervisor to ensure this does not happen in the future. Thank you for your candid feedback and we’ll continue to work on providing you the service you deserve.

Ms. pindi, because your overall satisfaction is important to us, we would like to regain your trust. Therefore I’m sending an Electronic Travel Certificate for $XXX.00 which will arrive via email within a few days. I hope you will use the certificate to allow us an opportunity to provide the service you deserve.

As you are a valued Premier MileagePlus member, we do appreciate your feedback and look forward to welcoming you aboard another flight soon.

END MESSAGE from United Customer Care

For the record, I did NOT ask for any compensation. Just stated the facts and said I hope my feedback helps you in getting this FA re-trained. I would love to get info on the conversation with in-flight supervisor but I know that will never happen. I hope the feedback results in a small change in behavior of this FA.