Woman blasts United after Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee gets her first class seat
Airline apologizes for mixup, claims passenger canceled flight after delay
Airline apologizes for mixup, claims passenger canceled flight after delay
United Airlines has apologized after a passenger claimed that the airline took her seat from her and gave it to Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
The woman, Jean-Marie Simon, used 140,000 miles on Dec. 3 to buy herself first-class tickets from Washington D.C. to Guatemala and then back to Houston. However, when she arrived at the end of her journey, the gate attendant on her final flight scanned her ticket and told her she was not in the system.
Apparently, the airline’s system said that Simon cancelled her flight after it had been delayed. However, Simon claims that she did no such thing.
The airline gave her a seat in economy as well as a $500 voucher. But when she boarded the flight, she saw that Lee had taken her seat and took a picture of the elected representative in the seat.
United Airlines and Rep. Lee respond
After Simon’s story went viral on social media, United Airlines released a statement. In that statement, the airline claimed that they did not bump her for Lee but simply proceeded with normal procedures in the course of seating.
“After thoroughly examining our electronic records, we found that upon receiving a notification that Flight 788 was delayed due to weather, the customer appears to have canceled her flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. within the United mobile app. As part of the normal pre-boarding process, gate agents began clearing standby and upgrade customers, including the first customer on the waitlist for an upgrade,” they said in the statement.
In a statement of her own, Lee defended herself against accusations that she stole the seat.
“I asked for nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary and received nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary. Since this was not any fault of mine, the way the individual continued to act appeared to be, upon reflection, because I was an African American woman, seemingly an easy target along with the African American flight attendant who was very, very nice,” she wrote.
“This saddens me, especially at this time of year given all of the things we have to work on to help people. But in the spirit of this season and out of the sincerity of my heart, if it is perceived that I had anything to do with this, I am kind enough to simply say sorry.”
Simon has since demanded an apology from the airline.
