One thing I’d suggest, from personal experience, is that if it’s not egregious (dragged out bleeding with cameras recording), United isn’t interested in fixing problems, it’s interested in fixing you: hence the miles.

UA is probably already aware of the personnel issue.

That said, I have received a response from customer care acknowledging receipt of a complaint about a crew member's conduct, so while it is no doubt true that UA will not provide details about personnel actions, it will acknowledge the subject matter of the complaint and that it is following up internally.

I don't mean to be critical, but I'm afraid it is generally a mistake to raise more than one issue in a single complaint. As for next steps, I would second the suggestion that you reply to the email, thank them for resolving your complaint about WiFi/IFE, and just reiterate that your primary concern was inappropriate conduct by a crewmember (and that you are not seeking additional compensation,).

Hi

I returned from Buenos Aires 2 days ago on UA flight and had the unfortunate experience of getting my knee slammed by the drink/food cart pushed by the cabin crew. I was asleep during that time and apparently my knee was protruding and the crew said he didnt see it. Not sure if he was in a rush or the cart was not locked and slid down the alley because the impact was great and it was really painful ( in fact i let out an expletive out of reflex). What was annoying was that the crew didnt even offer an apology and acted like he couldnt be bothered. He just asked if i am ok and needed anything. Told him i need a bag of ice to which he said ok but then continued serving the passengers, After 5 minutes my wife got agitated and went up to him to ask about the ice and he just said its coming. Thats when i heard his colleague say " just offfer them the compensation". Needless to say i was pretty pissed. After i got the ice he came by and told me that he didnt see my knee sticking out and will file an incident report and offered me 2750 miles as compensation. Asked me if i would accept it. I said no and he then said ok he will put a note to get customer service to contact me.

Approx 30min later the lead crew came by and she was much more professional, apologized for the incident and said she could only offer 3750 miles at her level. I told her that i'm going to get an xray done and a visit to the doctor to check the knee out as i was still in pain especially when bending my knee. I said i would want UA to pay for those expenses. She said she totally understand and would inform customer service to contact me. So question now, is i havent received any call from UA and i'm thinking i should proactively file a complaint on the UA website via feedback page. Is that the best approach now? Also due to the holidays the earliest appt for the doctor's visit is almost 2 weeks out which means i wouldnt know the cost of the visit and MRI/xray. In that instance how should i ask to be compensated when the amount is not known. I am fine if the compensation is in miles as long its in line with the cost. My guess is the dr's visit and MRI should be around $200-400. If anyone has had somewhat similar experience would love to know what/how was compensation/reimbursement given.

I would wait until you have an accurate tally of the medical cost you incurred from the FA pushing the cart into your knee.

Long overdue update -

So about 3.5 years ago, I made a vague comment in this forum about an issue I had with United. I’ve always wanted to finally get the full story off my chest, because my wife and I still talk about it to this day. It completely ruined my planned marriage proposal, and looking back, I feel like we let the airline off the hook too easily.

Because of this experience, we’ve gone out of our way to avoid flying United ever since. In fact, we’ve even done long road trips instead of flying just to avoid dealing with them again.

At the time, I traveled frequently for work usually three round trips per month so I had plenty of experience flying and dealing with airports.

The Situation
Over three years ago, I was at Newark Airport with my girlfriend (now wife) and our 12 lb dog. I had the entire day planned out. I had a diamond ring hidden in my suitcase, we had a morning flight to San Francisco, and I planned to propose at sunset under the Golden Gate Bridge. It would’ve been her first time in California, and our first real vacation after the post-COVID period.

Our dog had flown with us at least a dozen times before without a single issue, including recently. But this morning was different.

When we got to pet check-in, there were six United employees standing around waiting for customers, which was unusual. Normally pet check-in at Newark is empty and located away from the main ticketing area. We were the only customers there.

A female agent began helping us, but a male employee literally pushed her aside and took over. He immediately told us our dog couldn’t fly because her head touched the top of the carrier while she was sitting.

We stayed calm. There was no argument. We simply asked for a manager for a second opinion.

The Manager
A heavy-set Black female manager came over, loudly stomping in high heels, and immediately began berating us at 6:00 AM. She didn’t even look at the dog or the carrier. She simply said:

“My employee said the dog doesn’t fit, so she can’t fly.”

We calmly showed her a stack of previous boarding passes that were in our dogs carrier pocket, proof that our dog had flown multiple times, even just weeks earlier. Instead of reconsidering, she held up the tickets and shouted to the six employees:

“If any of your names are on these tickets, you’re fired!”

Then she turned to me and said:

“Do you want me to fire someone here?”

We were shocked. Again, we never raised our voices, never argued, and never gave her any attitude. We were calm the entire time. She refused to let us board.

The Second Attempt
We booked a later United flight and spent hours Ubering around to pet stores trying to find a “larger” carrier even though we already had the largest carrier available for airline travel. The whole thing was ridiculous because the dog fit comfortably in the bag.

We returned to the airport for the later flight and went back to the counter. A new agent took one look at our dog and said she was “perfect for the bag.” She printed our tickets immediately.

But then another employee whispered something in her ear and called that same manager back down.

Escalation
The manager came out again, stomping in her heels, and started yelling at us:

“You guys again? You’re not allowed to fly with that dog, and you made me come down here on my lunch break.”

My girlfriend asked for her name, and that seemed to set her off even more. She then told me:

“That’s it. You’re not flying on my airline. I’m taking away your Gold status when I go back upstairs.”

And then:
“You’re never flying United again, im putting notes in the system”

The entire ordeal was completely insane. I never mentioned my airline status, she brought it up herself. She clearly wanted a confrontation, even though we remained calm the entire time.

At that point, my girlfriend was in tears. It was humiliating and stressful, and we were basically out of options with United.

Flying Another Airline
We left the terminal and went to other airline counters. American, Alaska, JetBlue, and Delta all told us the same thing: Our dog was perfectly fine to fly.

We ended up flying out later that day on Alaska Airlines and returning on JetBlue with zero issues. But buying last-minute tickets at the airport cost me several hundred dollars extra.

Why This Still Bothers Me
What made this worse is that this incident completely ruined my proposal plan. I had arranged for a photographer to be waiting, and I had a friend in San Francisco helping coordinate everything. The entire surprise engagement was destroyed. I ended up proposing weeks later after we returned to New Jersey.

United’s Response
The day after the incident, I reached out to United Customer Service with a full complaint, including the threats made and the manager’s behavior. I requested video footage. I received no response for two weeks.

I followed up multiple times and was repeatedly told the issue had been “escalated.”

Five months went by with no meaningful response. Eventually, I emailed United’s top executives. I finally got a reply (likely from an executive assistant). They called me and apologized and issued my girlfriend and I each a $200 voucher. They also said they “looked into” my complaint about the manager, but that was basically the end of it.

At the time, I didn’t even want to use the voucher. The entire experience left such a bad taste in my mouth.

Final Thoughts
So here I am, almost 3.5 years later, still angry about it. It wasn’t just an inconvenience it was an unnecessary, hostile situation created by a manager who seemed to enjoy abusing her authority. I truly hope no one else has to deal with that person.

Of what possible relevance is her gender, race, or weight? Would you have felt differently about the situation if you were berated by a slender Asian man?

Since the manager declined to provide her name, this seems to be an attempt at identification by description.

It’s unfortunate that you had that experience, sorry to hear about it.

unfortunately, I think it’s very common that most companies simply don’t care anymore. Customer service is nothing like it used to be.

the best option for you and your wife is to forgive and forget. If you’re still thinking about it, it’s still bothering you. By forgiving United and the lady, you can both move on and no longer be upset about it

That might be useful during the escalation process with UA. Nobody reading this thread is going to be in a position to identify her based upon that description.

I would never expect an airline (or any company) to disclose disciplinary action taken against an employee. That opens them up to all kinds of legal jeopardy. Also, I would seriously re-consider including any racial or ethnic description to this forum (or United for that matter). It is very likely to be taken the wrong way.

A real clever attorney might just find your post here. Any action taken against the employee could then be construed as racially motivated and voila! You have a multi-million dollar lawsuit!

We also felt we may have been treated differently because we are white. My wife is also very attractive, and unfortunately she sometimes receives jealousy or hostility from other women for no reason.

When we asked for her name, she refused to provide it, so this was the best description we could give.

She was also stamping around like a linebacker, with walking and getting into your face attitude. Im 6ft, 220lbs and she was my height in heels plus larger, so yes there was an entire intimidation factor to it. I didnt do a great job at explaining this, but these conversations were not over the counter, she literally got into our faces with an 'unprofessional' attitude, trying to physically intimidate us. That is why I asked for the videos in my complaint.

I also put a complaint in to support the employees working there. She was intimidating her own employees, they were literally working in fear of this woman. She was threatening them in front of me. She literally took our paperwork and was holding them up and told her employees, that if he makes me read this ilm going to fire you.


To be clear, we can’t say for certain what motivated her behavior, but based on how hostile and dismissive she was toward us from the start, we couldn’t help but wonder if it was driven by bias or jealousy. Nothing else about the situation justified that level of aggression.

I also put a complaint in to support the employees working there because of her threats to them, so was following up if they were aware that situation.

This. Had the OP not included that “identification” in their post, I would have been a lot more sympathetic.
You really should consider stop digging the hole you have been working on. Yes, you were treated unfairly, but you’re erasing any sympathy you might have gained by your continued reliance on the appearance of the supervisor.

Oh, and you were at EWR. What did you expect?

I'm pretty sure we would never had read this had the situation been different: "A heavy-set White female manager came over, loudly stomping in high heels..." I guess I wonder if you’d still be pursuing this if it was a white supervisor or is this a case of perceived “uppitiness” that you want addressed. I’d let it go - you have no proof she was discriminating based on race or looks - you’re assuming too much.

If you were trying to identify the person to UA, yes, this might have been appropriate. Here, has zero bearing. At EWR, brusque attitudes are hardly restricted by race :)

Maybe she didn't like dogs? Or maybe she did like dogs and didn't want to see one suffer a cross country flight in a carrier that was too small? Or maybe a million other things that don't pertain to race or gender or beauty standards?

Blaming so-called reverse racism, and then blaming women for being so jealous of how attractive their spouse is makes this reader much more sympathetic to the UA manager, and every other mammal involved here, than the OP.

The aggressiveness of the male employee seems more egregious, but that's beside the point. Was his statement correct? Regardless of whether the dog had flown in the past, the employee's concern is accurate, especially if it's a soft sided carrier.

Assuming they cancelled your reservation and offered a refund, at this point you might be better off flying out of a different airport or airline.



At this point your beautiful girlfriend (now wife) became a Karen due to the fact that the manager is jealous of her beauty.

Although, did the manager cancelled your status and second tickets and processed the refund?

At the Newark airport with the said manager in the picture?

What was your expected outcome from the complaint? Cash compensation?

Also, private companies do not release private video footages unless there is a lawsuit and subpoena. And what are you going to do with the video? Relive that moment over and over again?