United Airlines removes engaged couple traveling to wedding from plane

[webfact]

United Airlines removes engaged couple traveling to wedding from plane

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO - A United Airlines Boeing 787 taxis as a United Airlines Boeing 767 lands at San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, U.S. on February 7, 2015. REUTERS/Louis Nastro/File Photo

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An engaged couple flying on United Airlines from Houston, Texas, to their wedding in Costa Rica were removed by a federal law enforcement officer from the flight on Saturday amid disputed circumstances, according to media reports.

 

The removal comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the airline's approach to customer service after a video emerged a week ago showing security officers dragging a bloodied passenger off an overbooked United Express flight in Chicago.

 

United said the couple repeatedly tried to sit in more expensive seats for which they had not paid and would not follow flight crew instructions, according to the KHOU 11 New channel in Houston.

 

United, owned by United Continental Holdings Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday evening.

 

Michael Hohl and his fiancée, Amber Maxwell, gave a different account. Hohl said he and Maxwell found another passenger sleeping sprawled across their seats after they were the last to board the flight, according to an interview with KHOU.

 

Soon after moving to other, empty seats in the economy cabin a few rows up, flight crew denied their request to pay a supplement for the seats, which United sells as "economy plus", and told them to move back to their original seats, Hohl said.

 

"We thought not a big deal, it's not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat," Hohl told KHOU. "We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat."

 

They then cooperated with an officer from the U.S. Marshals Service who boarded and told them they had to get off the plane, Hohl said.

 

The couple were rebooked on a flight on Sunday, KHOU reported.

 

Dr. David Dao, the 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor who was seen in video being dragged off a United flight a week ago, will likely sue the airline, his attorney said on Thursday.

 

After the incident triggered international outrage, United Chief Executive Oscar Munoz apologized to Dao, his family and its customers, saying the carrier would no longer use law enforcement officers to remove passengers from overbooked flights.

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-17

[Kerryd]

Uh huh.

Sounds like some BS there.

If a passenger was sleeping on your seats, you would have woken him, or had the cabin crew do it. Besides I highly doubt the cabin crew would have let some passenger sprawl across 3 seats while the plane was still boarding and prior to take off.

 

Instead they decided to go sit in seats that cost more. So what happened after the crew told them to go back to their original seats ? Notice how that part is left out of their story. I highly doubt they went back to their original seats, saw a passenger still sleeping in them and refused to have the cabin crew wake him.

They did something that caused the crew to contact security and have them taken off the plane. Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to scam better seats by paying for the cheapest possible and then trying to sneak into better seats later on.

I had it happen to me in Business Class one time. I boarded the plane and found someone in my seat. I spoke to the cabin crew, they checked the guy's ticket and sure enough, he was supposed to be 30 rows back in Economy class. There was no way it was a mistake (he'd even left his carry-on back where he was supposed to be sitting).

[colinneil]

If passengers do not follow legitimate instructions from cabin crew they deserve to be thrown off the flight.  Somebody in your seat, you ask them to move or speak with cabin crew to get them to do it.  No way was anybody sprawled over seats before take off cabin crew would not allow that to happen.

[Rob13]

8 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

If a passenger was sleeping on your seats, you would have woken him, or had the cabin crew do it. Besides I highly doubt the cabin crew would have let some passenger sprawl across 3 seats while the plane was still boarding and prior to take off.

 

 

Yeah, somebody's making up stories. I'm with

 the cabin crew on this one.

[Credo]

I suspect that a lot of people are going to be giving UA a run for their money for a while.   

 

 

[darksidedog]

I have changed my seats many times when traveling long haul and the plane wasn't full.

I have never been asked by the crew to not do so, even when I am stretched out across four seats for a sleep..

At a time when they are under public scrutiny, I would have thought United could have done a far better job of resolving this issue.

[khwaibah]

Bull shyt headline. UAL did not remove anyone They were remove by the FED's

 

"An engaged couple flying on United Airlines from Houston, Texas, to their wedding in Costa Rica were removed by a federal law enforcement officer from the flight on Saturday amid disputed circumstances, according to media reports."

 

More fake news.

 

[USPatriot]

United is offering red eye flights and the new black eye flight

[thaihome]

43 minutes ago, khwaibah said:

Bull shyt headline. UAL did not remove anyone They were remove by the FED's

 

"An engaged couple flying on United Airlines from Houston, Texas, to their wedding in Costa Rica were removed by a federal law enforcement officer from the flight on Saturday amid disputed circumstances, according to media reports."

 

More fake news.

 

Agree the headline is somewhat misleading, should have read "United Airlines requests that engaged couple traveling to wedding be removed from from plane".

 

Calling it "fake news" for the difference in requests to remove and remove alone is a bit much. 

 

What this case does highlight is the power airline staff have over the paying customers.  We have no idea of what the actual exchange consisted of that caused the staff to call the Feds in to remove the passengers. 

 

My personal experience is some staff will get to that point within seconds giving me the impression they are rather full of themselves and the post 9/11 power to bully people given to them under the guise of security.  Most of them seem to be pretty much normal people. 

 

TH 

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by thaihome

[SiamBeast]

As much as I hate them for throwing that doctor out, I think that this couple should have asked the passenger to move from the seat. Nobody has enough time to board the plane in all the chaos, and fall asleep on the wrong seat in under 2 minutes. I call BS.

[DipStick]

5 minutes ago, USPatriot said:

United is offering red eye flights and the new black eye flight

And they have just been voted the.no 1 US airline for Vietnamese  Takeaway

[stevenl]

Dont know exactly what happened here, seems to be not as clear an airline fault as the other case, but it is not good timing for UA.

[Pui]

3 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I have changed my seats many times when traveling long haul and the plane wasn't full.

I have never been asked by the crew to not do so, even when I am stretched out across four seats for a sleep..

At a time when they are under public scrutiny, I would have thought United could have done a far better job of resolving this issue.

Presumably you moved within your booked seating class and didn't decide to upgrade yourself (like these two love birds)? They had moved into economy plus and fallen asleep, thats the difference.
Sound like a couple of chancers to me. You don't just upgrade yourself on a plane based on there being avaible seating in the more expensive seats. No, nobody does that!

 

Edited April 17, 2017 by Pui

[quandow]

Someone (or perhaps EVERYONE here) is telling porky pies!

[Mickmouse1]

I frown upon both accounts of events.

However, we must stand UTD and indeed give United Disintegrating System AL run for their actions?

[kiniyow]

There in the Spot light..Easy Money--Make a scene and Lawyer up

[Dustdevil]

Next we'll find out the couple is Latino and the world will accuse UA of racism again.

[balo]

Incidents like this happens all over the world , in all major airlines.  Now we will read stupid stories like this only about United .  All the other airliners can relax and do whatever they want.   Well I guess they asked for the attention. 

 

 

 

 

 

[speckio]

you guys realize this happened over 2 years ago right??

[speckio]

kind of makes me angry that this is a story at all!!!  completely different situation from what happened to Dr Dao.

[ballpoint]

11 minutes ago, speckio said:

you guys realize this happened over 2 years ago right??

The photo of the planes is from 2 years ago. This incident happened last Saturday.

[stevenl]

12 minutes ago, speckio said:

you guys realize this happened over 2 years ago right??

The photo was taken 2+ years ago, but the event happened Saturday 14 April.

[ballpoint]

But what did they do with their scorpions? 

[ballpoint]

5 minutes ago, canthai55 said:

You do realize that you are many many times more likely to be killed or injured on the drive to the airport than on the subsequent flight - do you ?

You do realise that if you don't fly you will not be driving to the airport, so avoid that risk too?

[midas]

6 hours ago, Credo said:

I suspect that a lot of people are going to be giving UA a run for their money for a while.   

 

 

Yes you can certainly say that again

 

United Airlines passenger 'stung by scorpion' on flight

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39599999

[55Jay]

United's been rolling the dice for a long time wrt passenger treatment.  They finally got caught, and now they are the flavor of the month in the media.  Anything United is "news" for a while because the media is desperate as well as sorely lacking in talent and originality.

 

I was all over the Dao event and threads,  but this one, and the scorpion.... not newsworthy at all, just desperate journo-boobs bottom feeding for content.

[hawker9000]

7 hours ago, darksidedog said:

I have changed my seats many times when traveling long haul and the plane wasn't full.

I have never been asked by the crew to not do so, even when I am stretched out across four seats for a sleep..

At a time when they are under public scrutiny, I would have thought United could have done a far better job of resolving this issue.

Probably BS.  Changing seats is one thing.  Upgrading yourself by doing so is another.  'Have seen crew sending folks back to Economy after trying to sit in Premium Economy as well as just the preferred seating (which costs extra) a number of times.

 

Some will now try to leverage the incident with the dragged-off doc to justify all kinds of crap.  Invite this lovely couple over for dinner, and you might want to keep an eye on the silverware.

Edited April 17, 2017 by hawker9000

[Classic Ray]

Common sense seems to be entirely lacking among the staff and passengers. When I fly, the staff insist you sit in the allocated seat for takeoff and landing, but if you want to sit later with friends elsewhere or stretch out in an unoccupied row in your fare section, no one cares. Sneaking into a higher class/cost section is resisted globally, as it should be. Get what you pay for, unless upgraded to suit the airline. Simple.

[thaihome]

1 hour ago, hawker9000 said:

Probably BS.  Changing seats is one thing.  Upgrading yourself by doing so is another.  'Have seen crew sending folks back to Economy after trying to sit in Premium Economy as well as just the preferred seating (which costs extra) a number of times.

 

Some will now try to leverage the incident with the dragged-off doc to justify all kinds of crap.  Invite this lovely couple over for dinner, and you might want to keep an eye on the silverware.

The issue is not about the attempted seat jumping.

 

The issue is what point did the exchange with the crew require the couple tobe escorted off the plane and detained by federal authorities , only to be released in a few hours with no charges.

TH 

[thaihome]

16 minutes ago, foxboy said:

I'm even more confused after reading that. My version came from a pilot (although not involved with that particular flight) maybe the truth lies somewhere in-between 

Interesting that a eyewitness account, reported in a reputable outlet, confuses you because it conflicts with an unsubstantiated rumor passed on to you by a "pilot"

TH