Happy Now? Impatient First Class Passenger Shoves Woman During Boarding, Gets Thrown Off United Airlines Flight

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.