United Airlines
removes engaged couple travelling to wedding from plane
| April 17, 2017
United said the couple repeatedly tried to sit
in more expensive seats for which they had not paid and would not follow flight
crew instructions.
HOUSTON:
An engaged couple flying on United Airlines from Houston, Texas, to their
wedding in Costa Rica were removed by a federal law enforcement officer from
the flight on Saturday amid disputed circumstances, according to media reports.
The
removal comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the airline’s approach to
customer service after a video emerged a week ago showing security officers
dragging a bloodied passenger off an overbooked United Express flight in
Chicago.
United
said the couple repeatedly tried to sit in more expensive seats for which they
had not paid and would not follow flight crew instructions, according to the
KHOU 11 New channel in Houston.
United,
owned by United Continental Holdings Inc, did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Sunday evening.
Michael
Hohl and his fiancée, Amber Maxwell, gave a different account. Hohl said he and
Maxwell found another passenger sleeping sprawled across their seats after they
were the last to board the flight, according to an interview with KHOU.
Soon
after moving to other, empty seats in the economy cabin a few rows up, flight
crew denied their request to pay a supplement for the seats, which United sells
as “economy plus”, and told them to move back to their original seats, Hohl
said.
“We
thought not a big deal, it’s not like we are trying to jump up into a
first-class seat,” Hohl told KHOU. “We were simply in an economy row a few rows
above our economy seat.”
They
then cooperated with an officer from the US Marshals Service who boarded and
told them they had to get off the plane, Hohl said.
The
couple were rebooked on a flight on Sunday, KHOU reported.
Dr.
David Dao, the 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor who was seen in video
being dragged off a United flight a week ago, will likely sue the airline, his
attorney said on Thursday.
After
the incident triggered international outrage, United chief executive Oscar
Munoz apologised to Dao, his family and its customers, saying the carrier would
no longer use law enforcement officers to remove passengers from overbooked
flights.
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