United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

fountainhall

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Post by fountainhall »

Smiles wrote:I've heard rumours that Donald Trump (himsel!) designed this aircraft from scratch.
OMG! Is there anything he is not brilliant at?
travelerjim

Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

Post by travelerjim »

Very little Fountainhall...
Indeed as you stated. Trump is brilliant!

He partnered with the inventor of the internet Al Gore
Together they make Millions $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Lol
Tj
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Post by Gaybutton »

They're at it again . . .
________________________

United Airlines forces mom to give up toddler's seat she paid for

By Nancy Coleman, CNN

July 6, 2017

(CNN) Once again, United Airlines is dealing with a customer controversy.

Shirley Yamauchi said the airline gave away her 2-year-old son's seat on a recent flight, forcing him to sit in her lap for over three hours.
"He's 25 pounds. He's half my height," Yamauchi told CNN affiliate KHNL. "I was very uncomfortable ... I lost feeling in my legs and my left arm."

Yamauchi and the toddler were on the last leg of an 18-hour journey from Hawaii to Boston. When they stopped in Houston, a male standby passenger came on board with a ticket showing the same seat number as her son.

After a man was dragged off an overbooked United flight in April, Yamauchi said she didn't want to make a scene.

"I'm scared. I'm worried. I'm traveling with an infant," she told CNN affiliate KITV. "I didn't want to get hurt. I didn't want either of us to get hurt."

So the standby passenger sat down in the center seat. Yamauchi moved her son onto her lap in the window seat for the duration of the flight. United requires children who are 2 or older to have a purchased ticket, and the airline clearly states on its website that they must "occupy a seat."
Yamauchi told KITV she paid $969 for her son's ticket.

United said in a statement they didn't scan the toddler's boarding pass properly, which is why the seemingly empty seat was given away to another passenger. They are giving Yamauchi a travel voucher and refunding her son's ticket.

"We deeply apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son," the airline wrote. "We are also working with our gate staff to prevent this from happening again."
The Federal Aviation Administration says keeping a child in a parent's lap is not a safe option.

"Your arms aren't capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence," according to FAA guidelines.

In recent months, United Airlines also has apologized for falsely accusing a male passenger of fondling his child and been sued by another passenger who said he was shoved to the floor by a United employee in 2015.

Story and video: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/06/us/un ... index.html
____________________________________________________

United Apologizes As Another Passenger Loses Seat, This One A Toddler

by Amy Held, NPR

July 6, 2017

United Airlines is apologizing once again for giving up a passenger's paid seat in another embarrassing incident for an airline that had promised to do better by customers.

Shirley Yamauchi told Hawaii News Now that she was headed to a teachers' conference in Boston last week and took her son along, paying nearly $1,000 for his ticket.

Things went smoothly on the first leg of the trip from Hawaii to Houston. But as they awaited takeoff to Boston, a passenger who had been on standby approached her, saying her son was in his seat.

Yamauchi said she alerted a flight attendant about the issue, but the woman just shrugged and said it was a full flight.

In a statement issued to NBC News, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said that the airline made a mistake.

"On a recent flight from Houston to Boston, we inaccurately scanned the boarding pass of Ms. Yamauchi's son. As a result, her son's seat appeared to be not checked in, and staff released his seat to another customer and Ms. Yamauchi held her son for the flight."

Yamauchi doesn't accept the explanation.

"I saw them zap both tickets. There was no issue, no problem," she told NBC News. "It just doesn't add up."

The incident also flew in the face of United's own policy requiring children older than 2 to have their own seat.

"I had to move my son onto my lap. He's 25 pounds. He's half my height. I was very uncomfortable. My hand, my left arm was smashed up against the wall. I lost feeling in my legs and left arm," Yamauchi told Hawaii News Now.

But despite the physical discomfort of the 3 1/2-hour flight, Yamauchi told the station that she didn't fight for her son's seat out of fear of retaliation.

"I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news. The violence. Teeth getting knocked out. I'm Asian. I'm scared and I felt uncomfortable. I didn't want those things to happen to me," she said.

Three months ago Dr. David Dao, who is also Asian-American, was dragged from his seat on a United flight, after refusing to give it up to airline staff. Video of the incident went viral and spurred an international outcry. His lawyer said he suffered a concussion and a broken nose and teeth in the altercation.

The publicity nightmare spurred United to apologize and announce a series of changes, including a commitment to "not require customers seated on the plane to give up their seat involuntarily unless safety or security is at risk."

Airlines are still legally allowed to overbook flights.

Dao received a settlement from the airline, the terms of which are secret.

Guerin told NPR in a statement that the airline is reviewing the details of the incident. "This should not have happened. We sincerely apologize to Ms. Yamauchi and her son, and we are refunding their tickets and providing additional compensation," he said.

Yamauchi told NBC News that she does not agree with the compensation. "It doesn't seem right or enough for pain and discomfort."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... -a-toddler
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Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

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thaiworthy

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Post by thaiworthy »

United apologizes: Flier's dog died after put in overhead bin

United Airlines is apologizing for the death of a passenger’s dog that a flight attendant reportedly insisted be stowed in an overhead bin during a Monday flight from Houston to New York.

United confirmed an incident involving the dog to USA TODAY and says it’s now looking into what led up to the episode.

“This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin,” United spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said in a statement to Today in the Sky. “We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again.”

The death occurred after a passenger reportedly brought the dog on board in a TSA-compliant pet carrier. But, after taking a seat, a United flight attendant is said to have insisted that the carrier -- and dog -- had to be stowed in an overhead bin. The dog is said to have been a French bulldog.

With some conditions, United and other airlines generally allow pets to be carried onboard provided they're in carriers that can fit under the seat in front of the owner.

The latest incident came to light after Maggie Gremminger, a woman who identified herself as a passenger on flight where the dog died, took to social media with tales of the incident. The story was first picked up by travel blogs like The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time.

Gremminger said the traveler with the dog protested the attendant’s order to put the pet carrier into the overhead bin, but that the attendant persisted.

“The passenger adamantly refused but the flight attendant went on with the instruction,” Gremminger wrote via Facebook. “At the end of the flight – the dog was found dead in the carrier. I am heart broken right now.”

It’s unclear whether the attendant was aware that the carrier contained a live animal, though accounts from other passengers cited by Gremminger say that it was communicated to the attendant that there was.

It’s also unclear how the dog died. Though overhead storage bins are not completely sealed, air may not flow as freely there.

United told CNBC that it will pay for a necropsy of the small dog and is refunding the tickets.

The incident comes as United has been under scrutiny for animals that have died on the carrier in recent years.

USA TODAY: United Airlines accounted for a third of animal deaths on U.S. flights in last 5 years | Mystery as world's-biggest-rabbit contender dies on United Airlines flight to O'Hare

In one recent high-profile incident, a giant 3-foot rabbit died while being transported in the cargo hold of a United flight from London to Chicago in April 2017.

United had 53 animals die on its flights from January 2012 through February 2017, according to the Transportation Department’s Air Travel Consumer Report. That compared with a total of 136 animals that died on all flights of airlines during the same period.

For the full year 2017, United accounted for 18 of 24 animal deaths on flights among the 17 airlines that reported to DOT. For comparison, American, Delta and Alaska each reported two deaths and none of the others had any. United also had 13 of 15 reported animals injured. United carried the most animals at 138,178, but nearly triple the average rate of incidents at 2.24 per 10,000 animals transported.

However, onboard animal deaths don't necessarily mean an airline was negligent, as revealed in summaries of department investigations.

Among the four deaths on United flights in January 2017, a Jan. 28 incident involving Hope, a 9-year-old cat, was suspected as heart failure, according to the department. Rocco, a dog, died on a flight Jan. 21 from a cardiac abnormality due to congenital heart disease, according to the medical exam. Two geckos were found dead upon arriving at Raleigh-Durham airport on Jan. 12, but no medical exam was performed.

The department requires passenger airlines to report any deaths, injuries or lost animals from flights with at least 60 seats.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/f ... 422293002/
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Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

Post by Gaybutton »

thaiworthy wrote:Flier's dog died after put in overhead bin
Fly the Friendly Skies of United

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Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

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Now if only they'd stuff their screaming kids in the overhead locker as well I'd make a point of flying with UA.
fountainhall

Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

Post by fountainhall »

This reminds me of an amusing story I heard ages ago. I don’t think I have posted it before - if so, apologies in advance.

An elderly lady was flying from San Francisco to Miami and was clearly agitated at check in.

“It’s my dog,” she explained. “He needs to travel with me in the cabin.” This not being allowed at that time, the check-in lady pointed out that her dog would be well looked after in a special section of the hold during the flight.

After a bit of fuss, the lady accepted the inevitable and handed over the dog carrier. Following a smooth flight, she waited at Miami for the dog to be brought to her. And waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. All manner of excuses were offered but that only added to her anxiety.

The problem of which she was not then aware was that when the baggage handlers went to collect the dog, they found it had died. In some panic, a supervisor was called who called an airline rep. One of the in-town offices was then called and ordered to buy a replacement dog and get it to the airport as fast as possible.

Eventually, the distraught lady was handed over her dog’s carrier with the new dog inside.

“What is this?” she all but screanmed. “You promised me - promised me faithfully - that you would look after my dog. This is not my dog!”

“But madam, of course it’s your dog. Can’t you see how heathy he is and how pleased he is to see you?”

“It’s not my fucking dog,” the lady shouted again. “My dog was dead!”
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Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

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fountainhall wrote:This reminds me of an amusing story I heard ages ago.
Your story is just crazy enough to be true.

And it immediately reminded me of this:

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Re: United Airlines - You're on my "I Don't Get It" list

Post by Gaybutton »

Unnnnnbelievable! Today yet another dog incident, courtesy United Airlines:

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