A newly-engaged woman has slammed United Airlines by claiming that their staff forced her fiancé to leave his first-class seat and move to the premium economy so that a crew member could rest on his seat.
Taking to her TikTok account, Danielle Schwab, username @watergirl8296, said she and her fiancé booked a flight from London Heathrow to Chicago via United Airlines and purchased first-class tickets ‘ahead of time.’
However, during the flight, her fiancé, Mikey, was asked to move to the coach so that a crew member could take his seat.
“I’m recording this right now because we are on United Airlines going from Heathrow to Chicago. We’re in first class and we booked these seats fair and square and all of a sudden my fiance – we just got engaged – just got moved to coach,” said Danielle.
“They bumped him because they wanted part of the crew to sit in first class instead. I understand that the crew works really hard, however we booked these seats ahead of time and this is not fair, this is not customer service, this is ridiculous.”
The clip has been viewed by over 8 million people on TikTok and received more than 28,000 comments, all in favor of the TikToker and her fiancé. In the comment section, many people asked Danielle to ask for a full refund on the ticket.
“Did you book them and pay for first class or was this an upgrade? They can’t just move you if you paid for first class,” one asked.
“I flew united recently on fully booked flights and saw 3 pilots in first class… I wondered about that… interesting, never saw it on other carriers,” a second said.
“Get refunded the entire ticket. What did they offer you? They didn’t just do that without an offer. Come on…” a third added.
“It was a pilot, and it’s required crew rest area. He was probably in seat 1a. Probably an extra pilot on a training flight. You can be compensated,” a fourth commented.
In a follow-up video, Danielle and her husband-to-be, Mikey, shared more details about the flight fiasco.
“After we took off we were just asking everyone what was going on and why did this happen,” she explained. “So basically, from what we were told, flight attendants take turns taking naps along the back of the plane… but that wasn’t an option.”
“What they did instead was they went ahead and booted people out of first class, including Mikey. The flight attendants were saying that’s not supposed to happen, that’s not something that is common practice, because usually they are supposed to put the plane out of service if they don’t have enough seats [for the crew].”
She continued: “That’s why I was thanking the flight attendants because it wasn’t their fault because that is something that doesn’t usually happen.”
Meanwhile, Mikey claimed that when they got off the plane, they were met with a very energetic customer service guy who handed them his card and asked them to contact him. However, he did not upgrade their next flight at all.
“There’s no way I’m paying for first class, which can range up to thousands! And then get booted to economy. No way in hell,” one used said.
“Not okay! Airlines need to stop treating people like anything other than the people who pay their salary when we fly,” said another.
“This is unacceptable. They should’ve switched flights or canceled people who booked last minute not people that booked ahead of time,” a third wrote
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: TikTok
Just one more reason UAL CEO Kirby should be fired. When there’s a pattern of behavior, it starts from the top.