United Airlines is once again facing accusations of kicking an Asian American passenger unfairly from a flight in another apparent overbooking incident, reports Forbes.
It happened to a man who United seated in a seat that turned out to be double booked. The incident which happened in June is being compared to what happened to David Dao in 2017 when security dragged him off the plane in favor of a crew member.
Jessie Au, 68, and her husband M.G. (“Guill”) Wientjes, 66, say they were already seated when 20 minutes later, another passenger arrived with a ticket for her husband’s seat.
Au told Yahoo Lifestyle that a flight attendant grabbed all three tickets and took them to the back of the plane to sort out. When that employee returned, she claimed that Au never gave her her boarding pass.
“‘Get out of that seat now”’ Au claimed the flight attendant said to her in an email to United. She told United its employee said it with “a tone one should not even use to talk to a dog.”
“The flight attendant and gate agent both yelled at us. We were traumatized. You could hear them screaming throughout the plane. “Don’t touch me! You are coming out! I’m going to kick you off the plane,” Au said to Forbes.
In a statement, United said “At United, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism. Following this issue, we reached out to our customers and our team to find out what happened.” Sources at United told Forbes it originally talked to the couple about the incident in July.
An internal United panel has found Au to be “belligerent” and “physically threatening.”
“Being removed from our flight, in addition to being delayed, was humiliating and hurtful,” say the Wientjes. “The CEO and President of UA have repeatedly vowed to improve their service and make passengers feel good (since the David Dao incident). We would like them to live up to their words and revise their policy and procedures so that what happened to us cannot happen to other passengers.”
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