liveon777

I don't often post on the UA forum, but something I witnessed today just floored me.

I was on UA620 the 4pm from ORD-DCA this afternoon. It was running a bit behind schedule (considering the 3 something flight was still at the gate at 4pm). Finally, the GA announced it was time to board, and to expedite, she announced all UGS, First Class, and *A Golds could board first (though I think it pretty much goes this way on most flights). As a *Gold and US CP, I got in line, about 20 people deep. A younger guy, maybe 25, hopped in line with the rest of us. An older guy (no, I don't mean elderly, just older than the first guy), immediately proceeds to grab him by the shoulder and say "They announced Global Services, not you" very loudly. Two other travellers moved a bit closer to stave off any conflict, I was one.
The younger man turned around and looked at the man with a "huh? this is weird" look and proceed to turn around toward the gate. The older man then grabbed him by the shoulder again and pulled him backward towards him. That is when a couple of us stepped up and got between them.
The younger man stated, "They called First Class, UGS and Star Alliance Gold all at the same time, and I got bumped from an earlier flight".
The older man said, "Well I'm UGS and I've been bumped before". The younger man kepped his mouth shut.

Funny thing was, as we boarded, older guy was seated in 7D, younger guy was in 1D, as in First Class. I got a very big laugh out of this, and said so to the younger guy. He just winked. Pretty funny stuff.

izzik

I'm surprised the younger guy didn't smack the old guy around the second time.

superEGO

assumption is the mother of all f______

wundagirl1

I guess some people are high overwhelmed by their UA Status

plat

I don't understand the parts about being bumped.

Glad to hear the old guy sat in the back. Sheesh.

bmwsociety2

I bet he's not UGS, a UGS wanna be........

Last christmas KOA/SFO, four of us were in paid F, the GA announced First class only to board the plane.

I believe most people does not seem to care or know what First class, UGS,1K,1P,2P or seating number........ mean? Anyways, they were 2 lines rushing to board the plane so we didn't know which line to be in, so we form a new line and one lady (passenger) told us "This is for first class only" After the seat belt sign went on and about to depart we saw her sitting back in coach.

PS; Sometime we can see how rude people are these day rushing to get off the plane like they just won a lottery.

BenjaminNYC

What an a-hole!

worldtrav

Was he asking for milk and pillows

wimpypipsqueak

People like this should have their status removed.

liveon777

Surprisingly no, but wow was he giving the death stare at the younger guy as he grabbed his overhead. I was REALLY hoping to run into the older guy downstairs in the taxi line.

Several of my coworkers are UGS, and they certainly deserve it for what they $pend and the time they put in to being in the air. I wish US had such a program But, anyway, cheers to E+. Also, I have opted to buy an upgrade now and then and thing UA's FC is pretty nice, just disappointed that there are only 2 rows on A319s on my routes. Must make it difficult to get upgrades.

Now, if they would only make it so that a US CP doesn't have to buy a ticket on UA.com and then play the lottery phone game just to not get a middle seat, back row, no recline situation.
Honestly, the whole phone system at UA needs a major overhaul, that "voice recgonition" thing is horrible. I usually just bypass it and say "agent" as soon as I can.

Anyway, I really wish I had a camera. Would love to have taped the situation and get this guy booted from airline travel. To top it off, he took a solid couple of minutes to gather his things and exit while the rest of us watched an waited. As he stood in the aisle.

I really am surprised nobody socked him one.

UNITED959

Hmmm...25 vs.45? I'd say let's drop the status and our carry-ons, and see who wins then??

Seriously, that guy is more worthless than a bucket of dogsh*t. Cool of you to acknowledge the situation and bring it to the attention of the nice guy. ^

777-DCA

I think it's great that you and someone else got in the middle of it before it got too bad. I agree with what has been said -- the older guy is probably a UGS-wannabe. If he is truly UGS, I doubt he would be sitting in economy.

itsme

Had they done so, there would have been one helluva situation. What do you imagine UA would have done had that happened before boarding, or worse still on the plane? I don't think the outcome would have been happy for anyone even remotely caught up in such an incident.

A few days ago, the Washington Post ran an article about why one ought not argue with FAs. The message was that airlines were unlikely to side with passengers against FAs, and passengers might find themselves put off flights or banned by the airline altogether, though they thought their conduct was within bounds. Not the circumstances in which to test the limits of tolerance, I think.

wimpypipsqueak

It happens, and could explain why he was in the mood he was in. Doesn't excuse it though.

The nice thing about UGS is that you never need to bring status up. If someone else does (and it happens now and then ) then you can just say "You dont want to know".

PremEx

Sadly, this type of story and more like it is why many United front line personnel refer privately to many a Global, as a "Globhole."