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[Enzom21]

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Shirley Yamauchi, a middle school teacher from Hawaii, was bound for a teacher's conference in Boston last week, she told Hawaii News Now. Her traveling companion was 27-month-old Taizo, whose ticket she said cost as much as hers - nearly $1,000.

"I told him, I bought both of these seats," she told the station. "The flight attendant came by, shrugs and says, 'flight's full.'"

A United spokesman told The Washington Post that Taizo's boarding pass had been improperly scanned and that because the toddler wasn't logged in to the system, his seat was released to a standby passenger.

I am calling bullshit on their excuse, with security being what it is, they wouldn't let a passenger on with an improperly scanned ticket. They clearly bumped the kid and sold the seat.

 

[Messofanego]

Give her the $1000 back, United.

You'd think United would be at their best behaviour after all these bad news stories 😂

 

[hirokazu]

Damn, that bullshit excuse.

 

[red731]

United stay losing.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

United continues to be shit. Improperly scanned? They have fucking numbers that can be manually entered in if the barcode can't be scanned

 

[teiresias]

I mean it's possible to get on a flight without having your boarding pass scanned properly. It happened to me once and they came on the flight to check. The gate agent was being distracted by someone talking to them and two gates were so close I couldn't tell if I was hearing the scanning beep from the gate I was entering or the other one.

Still, you think they'd physically verify before giving away the seat.

 

[Ladekabel]

Did she get her money back?

 

[sturgboski]

Aren't you not supposed to hold the toddler on the flight and are required to have the extra seat or am I not remembering the pre flight videos correctly?

 

[DoubleYou]

The friendly skies

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Bunch of bastards. You'd think after their bad PR a few months ago they'd be making sure they're treating passengers better to ensure shit like this doesn't happen.

 

[p2535748]

Aren't you not supposed to hold the toddler on the flight and are required to have the extra seat or am I not remembering the pre flight videos correctly?

Depends on the age. For young kids, you can have them as a "lap infant", while older kids require a seat. I'm fairly certain, though, that lap infant ends at 2, so this kid's too old for that anyway.

Also, I can buy they screwed up the scanning of the ticket, but how that possibly means that they can forces the mom to give up a seat is nuts. When it happened, they should just have said "oh crap, seat's taken", and walked the standby guy back off the plane.

 

[velociraptor]

keep winning united

the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Try this stunt with an adult passenger next time, I'd like to see what happens.

 

[sikkinixx]

I can't believe airlines are allowed to be so shitty.

 

[Skellig Gra]

So many issues with this story. It's illegal for anyone over 2 to sit on a parents lap so they shouldn't have even kept them on the plane. It's also strange how they didn't just make the standby person get off the plane, it's not like they were in the air already. The story's account of how the flight attendant just shrugged and said "flights full" is either a huge embellishment or that flight attendant is a sociopath.

 

[bjork]

She needs refunded and then some, that's shitty.

I haven't flown in close to 10 years, and every story like this makes me glad for that.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Try this stunt with an adult passenger next time, I'd like to see what would happen.

I think we know what happens. The Air Marshals drag you off the plane.

 

[Enzom21]

Aren't you not supposed to hold the toddler on the flight and are required to have the extra seat or am I not remembering the pre flight videos correctly?

"No other flight attendants asked Yamauchi about the seating arrangement for the remainder of the flight, despite the fact that it violated United’s own “traveling with children” policy. The FAA also strongly advises against allowing children to sit on an adult’s lap during flights because “arms aren’t capable of holding your child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence.”

 

[Link]

Try this stunt with an adult passenger next time, I'd like to see what happens.

We already saw it. Didn't change anything.

 

[Jotaka]

Asians decedents usually don't speak up against this kind of bullshit... Not this time

 

[Ascenion]

27 month old? .....gtfo kid is 2 years old. Say the 2 year old.....fucks sake

 

[Skellig Gra]

27 month old? .....gtfo kid is 2 years old. Say the 2 year old.....fucks sake

That's your takeaway from the story?

 

[NeOak]

Fly the Friendly Skies... On your mom's lap.

Seriously, fuck United.

 

[Akuun]

Why would anyone fly United anymore? Their staff don't even seem to give a shit about causing another incident, even after the repeated clusterfucks this year.

 

[ExplodingKetchup]

man I would've made such a scene. $1000 for a seat and they don't do anything? Fuck that

 

[Stop It]

27 month old? .....gtfo kid is 2 years old. Say the 2 year old.....fucks sake

It's key because after 24 months, you're not meant to hold a child on your lap during a flight and instead purchase a seat.

Which this parent did, only to be screwed over. United should be hauled in front of the authorities for breaking FAA rules. And refund the parent in full for the seat taken away and theirs.

 

[Bluenoser]

Did she get her money back?

Yes, she will along with travel vouchers. Still not enough, IMO. United is awful.

 

[99Luffy]

So United announces a new policy of offering up to $10000 for overbooked flights.. They get around it by lying and saying the ticket was improperly scanned.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

How can literally every single air service have daily news coming out about how shit they treat their customers?

 

[The Jackdog]

How can literally every single air service have daily news coming out about how shit they treat their customers?

what else you gonna do? teleport?

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Give her the $1000 back, United.

You'd think United would be at their best behaviour after all these bad news stories 😂

Have people stopped using them?

 

[emag]

man I would've made such a scene. $1000 for a seat and they don't do anything? Fuck that

Mom's of Asian ethnicity.

She told Hawaii News Now that she considered protesting, but was scared to make a scene. "I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news. The violence. Teeth being knocked out," she said.
...
"I didn't want those things to happen to me," Yamauchi told Hawaii News Now, referring to Dao's dragging.

 

[Enzom21]

How can literally every single air service have daily news coming out about how shit they treat their customers?

Because they know they have us by the balls. Where the fuck else are we going to go if we need to travel. Same thing with companies like Comcast.

 

[Skellig Gra]

How can literally every single air service have daily news coming out about how shit they treat their customers?

Do you realize how many people fly a day? It's millions. A chunk of people are bound to have a shitty experience. It's just getting more publicity now since that dude got the beat down on the plane.

Mom's of Asian ethnicity.

I wonder how much this had to play in the chain of events. If she was afraid of standing up for herself she might have just said "oh there was as mistake I guess its ok if the guy sits in my kids seat then". Now that doesn't excuse the fact that its illegal for anyone over 2 to not have a seat.

 

[Dali]

A United spokesman told The Post that the airline would compensate Yamauchi "as a goodwill gesture"...

Ummmm... paying someone what they are fucking owed is not a good will gesture. It's fixing your fuckup.

 

[Bluenoser]

How can literally every single air service have daily news coming out about how shit they treat their customers?

There's a story here in Canada about a musician's $4000 guitar broken at the neck, while there's no damage to the hard plastic case it was in at all. Air Canada offered $1500 to him for the inconvenience. He said it will cost $3000 in parts to repair, some of them having to come from Europe.

Bad PR doesn't seem to be a deterrent for these companies.

Do you realize how many people fly a day? It's millions. A chunk of people are bound to have a shitty experience. It's just getting more publicity now since that dude got the beat down on the plane.

.

The standard of service needs to be higher for airlines though. And policies need to be in place that are viewed universally as fair. If they had told the standby passenger that they made a mistake and that the flight was already sold out, he would have been pissed off, but that's the risk when you're on standby... you weren't even guaranteed a spot on the plane. The lady paid for her son's ticket, and was guaranteed a spot for him, until United made the wrong decision and took it away.

Its like they make their decisions based on the view of "common sense" by the employee handling it rather than strict written policies that are agreed on by all. Way too much of that horseshit going on, which is what sparks all of the outrage. If that seat wasn't taken by a 2 year old, the standby passenger would have got the boot.

 

[Isaac Otherworld]

Do you realize how many people fly a day? It's millions. A chunk of people are bound to have a shitty experience. It's just getting more publicity now since that dude got the beat down on the plane.

Yeah I realize a lot of people are going to have a bad experience because of the volume of people. But how many people are getting beat down by McDonalds staff and shit like this?

 

[VariantX]

Mom's of Asian ethnicity.

She made an assessment of what would happen based on how United showed their asses the last time an Asian guy complained about being wronged on a flight. Cant really blame her for that or not wanting to put her child through that either.

 

[Mr. Luchador]

Yeah I realize a lot of people are going to have a bad experience because of the volume of people. But how many people are getting beat down by McDonalds staff and shit like this?

Plenty but they were... luvin' it.

 

[Imperfected]

Ummmm... paying sonething what they are fucking owed is not a good will gesture. It's fixing your fuckup.

Hey, as a show of goodwill, we will return the money paid for a service we failed to provide.

It's a goodwill gesture because they won't normally do it without someone dragging them, obviously.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Yeah I realize a lot of people are going to have a bad experience because of the volume of people. But how many people are getting beat down by McDonalds staff and shit like this?

haha well at McDonalds its usually the employee getting the beatdown.

 

[Pagusas]

Ummmm... paying sonething what they are fucking owed is not a good will gesture. It's fixing your fuckup.

They call it a goodwill gesture because they are not admitting to doing anything wrong. I've delt with the same thing before. In order to accept this money, she'll have to sign something dissolving United of any wrong doing.

 

[Violence Jack]

I don't think Spirit airlines would even do something like this. Sue the shit out of them.

 

[sixteen-bit]

United is allergic to good press

 

[tbm24]

Would not have gotten that seat from me. Fuck United, 1 grand for a ticket, that presumably shows the seat number on it, fuck them.

 

[teruterubozu]

Give her the $1000 back, United.

You'd think United would be at their best behaviour after all these bad news stories 😂

United stock is at an all-time high despite all the negative press. Why should they give a fuck?

 

[Dali]

They call it a goodwill gesture because they are not admitting to doing anything wrong. I've delt with the same thing before. In order to accept this money, she'll have to sign something dissolving United of any wrong doing.

Why would she have to sign anything to get money rightfully owed to her? She was denied her seat. The child rode as a lap child which I think is free for domestic flights. They took $1000 of her money and didn't provide the service she paid for.

 

[Pagusas]

Why would she have to sign anything to get money rightfully owed to her? She was denied her seat. The child rode as a lap child which I think is free for domestic flights. They took $1000 of her money and didn't provide the service she paid for.

I'm not saying its right, I'm saying companies tend not to be in the business of admitting fault. They have lawyers for a reason, and she'll get more than just her money back. She'll get a "good will" package that includes probably double or triple her money back plus some flight vouchers in return for signing on the dotted line saying "United did nothing wrong, this matter is closed".

 

[Kodros]

Yamauchi said having to hold her son was an ordeal. "He's 25 pounds. He's half my height,” she told HawaiiNewsNow.com. “I was very uncomfortable. My hand, my left arm was smashed up against the wall. I lost feeling in my legs and left arm."

Holy crap, how tiny is this woman or how massive is this kid.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Holy crap, how tiny is this woman or how massive is this kid.

What? It's not crazy for him to be roughly half her height if she's shorter like most women.