United Airlines gives 2-year-old's seat away to standby passenger


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United Airlines requires children over the age of 2 to have their own tickets and occupy their own seats, but that didn’t stop the airline from allowing a 27-month-old child from sitting in his mother’s lap after they accidentally oversold his spot.

 

Shirley Yamauchi says she and her son Taizo had boarded their flight from Houston to Boston on June 29 — the final leg of an 18-hour flight from Hawaii — when a standy passenger approached and claimed Taizo was in his seat.

 

"I told him that I bought both of these tickets and he tells me that he got the ticket on standby. Then he proceeds to sit in the center,” Yamauchi told Hawaii News Now.

 

Yamuachi says she tried to inform a flight attendant about Taizo’s seat, but the woman claimed she couldn’t do anything about it, seeing as the flight was full.

 

Not wanting to cause a scene — or worse, instigate an incident like the one that befell the elderly United passenger who refused to give up his seat on in April — Yamuachi sat Taizo on her lap and kept her mouth shut until she reached Boston.

 

"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 told Hawaii News Now.

 

Upon reaching Boston, Yamauchi was told to call a United hotline to explain the situation. But when she finally got through and asked for a refund, she was told that United would need to cancel her return trip to Hawaii in order to do so, reports KITV.

 

More....

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/07/05/united-airlines-gives-2-year-olds-seat-away-to-standby-passenger.html

 

 

United really needs to get their ###### together.

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OK, from the article United says that the son's ticket was not scanned properly at the gate... how the hell do you improperly scan a ticket? United is just churning out more and more excuses as to why they messed up, but offer nothing in the way of a solution to the problems..

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9 hours ago, DocM said:

Clearly, customer service is even lower than a tertiary priority. Perhaps not even in the Top Ten.

They're not customers, they're cattle.  Mooooove along little dogie...  :angry:

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Actually this posed a safety hazard. The child seat belt is designed up to 24 months, so united were very much on illegal territory during this. If there had been some sort of accident and harm befallen the child, that cabin crew and the airline may have very well found themselves up on manslaughter charges. Children over 2 aren't just 'allowed' their own seat - they are required it by law.

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