Senator Ted Cruz (R – TX) remains in a lot of hot water, even if his house doesn’t have any, for his trip to Cancun in the midst a major crisis in Texas. Much of the information about his travel was public knowledge, but United Airlines is investigating a data leak that revealed one piece of information that only a United employee would have had access to.
United Airlines Investigates Employee Data Leak On Ted Cruz Cancun Trip
On Wednesday, Cruz flew to Cancun with his wife Heidi and children. Texas was in the midst of a major storm which knocked out power and water for millions of Texans. Once others caught on about to the Cruz, trip, the Senator was pilloried in headlines around the world for his ill-advised trip.
At first, Cruz said he was just going to escort his daughters (it isn’t clear why Heidi could not do it herself, but let’s say for argument’s sake that Ted has elite status and his presence allowed free upgrades, lounge access, and potential upgrades for his family.
“With school canceled for the week, our girls asked us to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas.”
Well, turns out that was not the whole truth. A United employee leaked that Cruz was originally scheduled to return to Houston on Saturday but changed his return to Thursday.
Don’t read too much into reports that he “missed” his upgrade on the return, even though the following screenshot has been circulating:
Here’s the upgrade list for this afternoon’s flight from Cancun to Houston.
Looks like @tedcruz is on his way back, @danpfeiffer. He’s just narrowly missing the upgrade list
That’s assuming that “cru, r” is him. And I do. pic.twitter.com/CqfKa5rJfG
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 18, 2021
The flight went out with only 19/20 seats taken in the forward cabin with Cruz the lone passenger still on the upgrade list. In other words, he turned down the upgrade, likely to avoid another round of headlines that “Ted Cruz flies first class while Texans freeze.”
Back in Texas, he made media rounds addressing his trip and ultimately offered an apology for his lapse in judgment.
But per Politico, United Airlines is investigating how information about Cruz’s changed flight plans was leaked. A spokesperson confirmed:
“It’s against United’s policies to share personal information about our customers and we are investigating this incident.”
Such information would only be accessible by a United Airlines employee who had access to United’s reservation system and could pull up Cruz’s ticket, sift through its history, and see the change.
Sara Nelson, the powerful head of the Association of Flight Attendants, has taken responsibility for the leak but warned United to “drop it”:
Perspective: whoever the “leak” is, she/he/they have over 10k @united colleagues & families in TX who are freezing while their US Senator skips town & then tries to lie about it. @tedcruz is not a “customer,” he’s a public servant who has lied too many times. WE’RE ALL THE LEAK. https://t.co/NDs6935xim
— Sara Nelson (@FlyingWithSara) February 20, 2021
If Sara Nelson wants to confess this, she should be fired. Her leak does serve the public in the sense that it betters helps residents of Texas to hold their junior Senator accountable. But that does not justify her or any United employee breaking United’s contractually-agreed privacy policies to serve the public good. The employee who chose to leak this information should be willing to suffer the consequences for doing so, for leaking passenger data sets a dangerous precedent.
I suspect one problem will be that dozens of employees likely accessed Cruz’s record, perhaps many just out of curiosity. It will be difficult to pinpoint which employee leaked this information.
CONCLUSION
It’s very unfortunate Cruz tried to hide the fact that this was not a trip to escort his daughters but a four-day trip that was only changed after public scrutiny. At the same time, commending data leaks is a dangerous game. Personal information, even for a sitting U.S. Senator, should not just be leaked to the press.
You just don’t get it. Leaks that can be used as fodder to damage conservatives are totally acceptable in today’s culture. The United person that leaked this is probably now eligible for a high paying job in the Biden admin. Expecting people to equally apply the rules smacks of white supremacy actually.
Aren’t you guys deeply troubled by how easy it was for him to lie? Why changing the focus of narrative?
Principles? I think the head of the flight attendants association is right here. there are principles and there are Principles.
Say focused
Disagree. Condemning the leak is not defending Cruz. Cruz should be held accountable for his poor choice and I know he will be.
Matthew — I hope you are right that Cruz *is* held accountable. Your article verged close to defending him. Let’s hope all the lies finally catch up to this miserable putz.
Depends what you mean by being held accountable. He won’t be on a ballot again until 2024. This will likely be ancient history by then.
For crying out loud! What was he supposed to do – he had the where with all yo get his family out if Texas – good for him! How was he supposed to het power and water? The Texas governor was responsible for taking care of citizens.
If there was even half of the coverage to the Cuomo Covid nightmare as there is to this bone head move. The hypocrisy and the constant failure to report what is really important , is the danger to this country.
Defund the media is
LOL please. As if he will be held to account.
Yeah. A Republican being held to account. Someone who attempted a coup wasn’t held to account. But Cruz will. Lol
A coup? Did you actually worry for a second that Trump wouldn’t leave office on January 20? Hysterical reactions like yours disrespect those who actually have had to endure political upheavals and real danger from malevolent politicians.
Ah of course. You swoop in with your low grade ad hominem attacks as you have nothing of substance to say.
Just like the orange skinned dotard you claim not to worship.
Thanks for playing
747always and UA-TDS have similar commenting styles. Both demonstrate a tenuous command of English but like to use words they clearly don’t know the meanings of. What is it with leftists? “Thanks for playing.” So dismissive!
At least unlike our friend @cargocult we dont love dictators and if we did we would have the gumption to say so.
Also, unlike our friend @cargocult we dont devolve into ad hominems as we can actually articulate our thoughts. Please dont be a cultist like him. Try using your brain.
Hospitals in California have fired employees for looking up medical records of celebrities.
Actress Farrah Fawcett was a TV star in the 1980’s and later had anal cancer (often happens because of anal sex with someone with HPV hence the reason teens get HPV vaccine now).
While in the hospital near death, some nurses that were not taking care of the actress looked up her records and were fired. They may not have been the ones that leaked the info. Anyway, that info was silly to lose your job over, things like her temperature that day.
Could somebody have been searching the upgrade lists of every CUN-IAH flight and at some time Thursday morning noticed CRU, R disappearing on Saturday’s flight and re-appear on Thursday’s flight? The UA app allows you to see far into the future by changing the clock on your device…
Leave the guy alone. Poor judgement but he had all the right to travel. His money, his family, his decision. Again, terrible judgment and decision but the guy like many Texans had no heat, no water, etc… I know many friends from Texas that got away of the place. Again, although a bad decision it is way better than other politicians that enforced lockdowns on an entire population to then take advantage themselves, traveling when they mandated no travel, having hair done when nobody was allowed, having fancy dinners when nobody was allowed. He did not break any rules other than making a stupid decision. But not that him staying there would make people’s houses warmer, water come out of faucets, lights turn on. As for United, they should find and fire anyone that leaked info. It is disgusting.
Could not have said it better myself. Thank you for being and staying informed
Awww. Poor ickle Cruz. How dare anyone criticise the little coward who supported an insurrection and attempted coup.
How dare anyone hold him to account for running away while the people who voted for him are freezing.
Keep calling the Capitol riots an insurrection and attempted coup. It will make it true, just like anything else CNN says. Cuomie, you’re doing a heck of a job!
I have no love for Ted Cruz and it is obviously not a good move for a politician to leave his constituency during an emergency. It is far from being criminal, however. Revealing Cruz’s travel details was clearly a breach of privacy and against United policy. This offense pales in comparison to the violations of Trump’s privacy, which liberal media outlets were happily complicit in publicizing. Revealing his tax and health records were criminal acts. Of course, liberals don’t seem to care if crimes are committed against their political opponents and head Twit Jack Dorsey didn’t lift a finger to stop the spread of the illicitly obtained information. Surely a bail fund will be gathered if anyone actually gets charged for those violations.
Go troll someone else dear @cargocult. You’ve proved your fascination with Orange Skin boy.
747always swallows the DNC line without a second thought. Of course, anyone who doesn’t agree with his delusions must be a troll who loves Trump. How does one get to be so astute and perceptive?
@cargocult always swallows the Trumpist line without a single thought. After all his brain can not function as a stand alone organ. It needs to be told what to think.
And @cargocult is a troll and a Trumpist. But like its cult leader, the orange skinned dotard, it lacks courage to admit it.
I think what Senator Cruz did was stupid and irresponsible having said that the fact that an employee went into the system obtained the information and purposely leaked the information that person needs to be fired. we all know that virtually anything can be found on the internet however we as a passenger on an airline have sense of privacy. I say find the person and free them, then we can move on.
Wow. Cuomo’s personal responsibility for the deaths of thousands of seniors in NY senior care centers due to his draconian enforcement of his covid policies is nothing (literally nothing since our virtuous moral compass guide on the left has barely blinked at that story) compared to what Cruz has done here: he flew his kid down to Mexico. Sure he’s not responsible for hurting anyone, let alone killing anyone, but, but, he’s a…CONSERVATIVE!!!! This whole thing has been a devastating national nightmare to all moral people everywhere. Sincerely hope we can recover from this. My heart goes out to you all that have been so obviously traumatized by such an outrageous instance of completely unacceptable travel. Cruz could have been going door to door in Texas and helping people insulate pipes or something useful instead. Cruz should be impeached. And to think this could all have been avoided if he he’d just been a democrat. Then we could have all not even noticed it and wouldn’t have all had to dutifully regurgitate the latest CNN conservative outrage story, oops, I mean wouldn’t have had to profess so much feigned moral outrage. rofl
“Travel blogs”. So much for “live and let’s fly” (unless you’re a conservative) eh? Am I rite? rofl even more.
Perfect post. If he was a Democrat these would not even be news because the trash media would not allow it to become news.
I’d be reporting it…
You know what media I am talking about. Your blog is not trashy media. Seriously, the guy might have shot himself on the foot politically but he hasn’t done anything wrong, unconstitutional, criminal, etc… He travelled with his wife and two girls to Mexico because his house did not have heat, electricity and water. He paid for his tickets and hotel with his own money. Many of my friends from Texas did the same.
Assuming “many of your friends” aren’t elected by the people to be representatives of Texas? Yeah, there’s a bit of difference.
@UA-NYC: You are blind. Let the people that elected him decide in 2024 if they want to elect him again. Other than that, the guy didn’t do anything wrong. He was elected to represent them in DC. Not to fix their water pipes because they were cracking from the cold.
Matt’s ( and I don’t always agree with him) is emblematic of whats going on around us, travel bloggers are having a problem finding something to write about or lose their “place” in travel life. Then there are others flaunting the virus and traveling posting look at me pictures another irresponsible act.
Again what Cruz did was stupid and irresponsible but what the employee did at United was even worst. They should be found and terminated. Now Matt along with many other bloggers/reporters are all over this, for better or worst.
For me Matt’s post was fairly neutral much less than some of his previous post.
I ❤️ Ted Cruz.
Said no one ever.
No comments on hear about United tacitly confirming that he did indeed change his flight by acknowledging a policy violation. Why didn’t United just say that their employee was lying??