An impatient first class passenger who shoved past a woman much smaller than him because he thought she was not entitled to board a United Airlines flight before him deserved to be thrown off. Kudos to the flight crew for not tolerating such boorish behavior.
First Class Jerk Shoved Woman In Front Of Him Because He (Wrongly) Thought She Was Boarding Too Early…Then United Airlines Flight Crew Threw Him Off
A Global Services member (United’s top-tier) shares what happened on the popular United reddit subthread.
His sister had just gotten married so he treated her and his new brother-in-law to a first class trip for their honeymoon. As it turned out, the Global Services member and his family wound up on the same flight as his sister from Houston to Florida.
Global Services and 1K members of United’s MileagePlus program are invited to preboard ahead of other passengers, including first class passengers. Family members and other companions are allowed to board with Global Services, even if they have lower or no status.
The sister did this and this causes the boarding pass reader to triple beep (i.e., you’re boarding too early), but it’s not a problem when you verbalize to the gate agent that you are traveling with the Global Services member….or at least it should not be. But it was a problem for one impatient passenger waiting to board who had either 1K or Global services status:
When my sister went to scan her boarding pass, a man behind her said “you shouldn’t be here, I have priority”. She replied with “you know, it pays to be kind sometimes”. The man said “how’s this for being kind?” and proceeded to bump into her, knocking her off balance. This man was about three times the size of my sister.
She told us what happened once we got to our seats since she was behind us so we didn’t see this as it happened. She swapped seats with her husband so she wouldn’t be in the aisle while that man walked past.
The Global Services passenger told a flight attendant what happened:
A few minutes later, a FA asked her about what happened and whether she felt safe on the plane with that man on board. She didn’t jump to say she felt unsafe, but she gave an honest recount of what happened. The FA said that was all she needed to hear and said she would discuss with the pilots.
Moments later, the passnger was removed:
Shortly after, the GA approached the man a few rows behind us and told him that he could either get off the plane or they would make him get off the plane. He stood up, grabbed his bag, and walked off as we heard an applause from behind us.
Now I suppose this could be another make-believe story…that happens on the internet…but I’ve got my own shoving story coming up soon (on Air India of all carriers…and it does not involve wheelchairs) and I’ve seen a lot of it…so I tend to think this really happened and even if this specific story did not occur, I can imagine this same situation playing out.
I do agree with View From The Wing that “shoving was just an act of rage against someone he didn’t feel deserved to get on ahead of him, even though he was disadvantaged in no way at all.” Why? Because he was also preboarding ahead of Group 1, there was no chance the overhead bins would be full (which is a big advantage to being a 1K or GS on United).
Even if she took “his” overhead space, there is no justification for pushing someone, especially in the malicious manner in which it was done here. It’s just disgusting behavior and if it were me in charge I would give him one warning and if something like this ever happens again he is permanently banned from flying United Airlines.
CONCLUSION
Kudos to United Airlines for holding a jerk accountable for shoving past a woman who had every right to board before him. Such uncouth behavior is never justified and really folks, we are all getting into a confined metal tube and going to the same place. Waiting a few seconds longer to board really should not be a problem.
What I read, is that a UA flight attendant took the word of one person over another. Whereas the gate agent observed or didn’t observe the suspect behavior and did nothing. I have often said some GS don’t really know all the “rules of flying” as they are invited to the status and really do NOT always earn it. This example – just reinforces my opinion. If I am bringing a guest(s) to accompany my boarding status… I usually go first and hold back to make sure all my guests get through. It’s like holding open the door, -a courtesy this GS didn’t show his accompanying guests.
If the offender was GS and UA pulled him off the plane, that’d be a first!
Off topic – how odd is it that families with children under 2 board before 1Ks.
“Whereas the gate agent observed or didn’t observe the suspect behavior and did nothing”
This does stand out. I had the same reaction when reading the story. If it is true, then why didn’t the gate agent intervene? Unless it happened on the jet bridge, which would still have had some witnesses though…
There is the possibility the deplaned pax experienced a Pavlovian response to the triple beep triggering the shoving impulse. Schools teach humans descend from animals after all.
I’m a UA 1K and it is frustrating to see some folks play dumb or feign injury just to be able to board sooner. More times than not, the GA redirects the ones playing dumb they need to wait for their group to be called.
The ones that get me a bit peeved are the miraculous cures of the lame brought on by Our Lady Of The Jet Bridge.
None of these would justify physical violence, good job UA pulling the jack *** off the flight.
Maybe you missed the main message here: entitled man pushes someone out of his way!
“Because he was also preboarding ahead of Group 1, there was no chance the overhead bins would be full”
A nice theory but not necessarily the case in reality. As a parallel situation, I was boarding an AA regional flight several weeks ago and I was third in line with my one bag (zero other items) that absolutely would not fit under the seat. The two passengers in front of me were the entitled types who try to – and succeed in this case – board with three bags each. I ended up stowing my bag, which had cash and valuables, back in economy because of the entitled jerks who boarded before me. I was extremely reluctant to leave my bag there but choices were limited.
My lesson from this was to not let people who should be checking bags but don’t by inconveniencing others get ahead of me for boarding. I don’t know how well the analogy works with your post but not boarding at the very beginning can be highly detrimental if you’re traveling with people who think that rules don’t apply to them. Perhaps the supposedly shoved woman had a similarly vast amount of baggage?
You can never predict two things; the stock market and human behavior.
I remember when people didn’t feel the need to board first. I was flying from Rome to NY in the 80s. It was might first time overseas and there was an issue at the gate and people were crowding the gate. There was a guy, who was an experienced travler, that was also standing by the gate seeing what was happening. He said he usually would just wait until everybody boarded and then he would board, but he wanted to know what was going on. There was no rush to get on the plane back then because people didn’t bring all of the carry-ons with them. Now everyone has to rush to get on and sit there.
People have lost their minds. They see everyone as a competitor for resources whether it’s a spot in line, a seat in a theater, or a cup at Starbucks. Businesses don’t do society any favors by creating a class system with minimal enforcement while also unnecessarily limiting resources.
We are de-evolving at a painfully noticeable rate.
I once knew and old man who would walk to the head of the line pretending he was lost and confused so the gate agents would lead him to his seat before others. Then he was elected President!
He hasn’t been pretending for a long time….
Hmmm, interesting. I thought Trump only flew private…
Boarding behavior is getting worse.
Walking down the jetway, I was shoved, hard, by a woman racing to the front of the group. We were both seated in first class. I am tall, she was tiny (and at least 30 years older than me) but with her giant backpack, she packed a wallop. I didn’t fall down becuase she body checked me into the wall.
It never crossed my mind to tell a FA.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people in a priority boarding queue assume that they and no one else is entitled to be there. I was recently punched in the back by a lady at ATH who told me to move out of her way as she was travelling in business class. She was quite short so I quite literally looked down my nose at her and said I was too and did she have a gold card as well. She was less than amused and still tried to push past me but my rugby player build comes in useful sometimes and she had to remain behind me 😉
Probably the GA advised the FA of the encounter at the gate. The GA would have notified the flight crew.