When we impute motives to others we are likely to be mistaken.

The security video was of a publicly accessible area owned by the airport which is owned and operated by a government entity, therefore the security video is public information. The airline has no control of the video. Unfortunately, for the OP, he requested the video from the wrong entity which had no ability nor obligation to preserve it; it is almost assuredly no longer available.

My wife and I also have that problem and wish we could be less attractive sometimes.

Best to let this go after 3.5 years. Dealing with the here and now can be challenging enough.

OP, you need to focus on the core issues of this episode.

The first is you have been subjected to the inconsistent interpretation of pet carrier rules on a plane. Tiktok is full of complaints from people who flew one way with their pet but were refused on the return. Consider that you are not alone encountering this problem and not singled out for your looks or race.

You were treated unprofessionally, even rudely. That is a totally valid complaint and should be relayed to United succinctly and without embellishment. If you are not clear what the employee said, don't fill in the parts where you are not exactly sure what they said. It will only detract from the weight of your argument, make it less believable and easier for the employee to deny. The complaint should be acknowledged by United but no company will disclose if they took disciplinary action. Don't look for that type of feedback.

The third is you feel wronged and want recompense. After the complaint is filed you're done. You cannot do any more unless you want to go to court. Stuff happens in life, not all of it is fair or right. There comes a point where you need to forgive and forget or you risk carrying the burden of hard feelings like an anchor for another 3-4 years. What happened is unfortunate but at least an anomaly. If this ocurred on a regular basis UA would not be in business. So put it behind you and get on with life.

Congratulations on your eventual successful proposal and wish you smoother travels!

Not me. I would have assumed the story would be the same.

appreciate the OP coming back and filling the holes.

but given that it’s 3 years old, probably time to move on.

I could see someone capable of intimidating me when we sent our dog to our Maui house. She wasn’t Happy in a crate to begin with.


So, the OP made an effort, the agent made a judgement call and he lost. All of the drama aside, and I couldn’t care less how attractive your wife is, but you lost me as well with your specific details that wasn’t relevant.

It reads like a horrible, believable, and unnecessary situation.

And one we should move on from.

Before we move on:

No one has mentioned the operative word? EWR? They're pretty notorious for horrible employees and bad customer service. I mean, before merger I remember stories here about CO gate employees slugging customers.

well, actually post 72... but point made!

When it doubt, it's usually EWR - and this goes back before the UA/CO merger, to CO, and even back further to People's Express - who must of have thought long and hard about establishing a hub where they could find and hire the surliest, rudest agents in the country. Now coming here from a long history with Continental, I've had some great agents at EWR and some really bad ones - but when they are bad, it's almost a new category of bad, so reading the OP's description of the events, I could easily see it happening.

However, not sure what the options are to remedy at this late date. Sympathy from leadership is highly unlikely.

Now that I don’t work for a NYC company I will never fly via EWR, ever. I will never transit via EWR as well.