Once again, United Airlines oversold a flight. But they definitely made up for it by offering a woman who had booked a seat, a whopping $10,000 for her to give up her seat.
But the woman, Alison Preiss, was not so impressed. She was meant to fly from Washington to Austin with United Airlines for a friend’s bachelorette party. She did not want to give up her seat and was reportedly kicked off the flight because she was the lowest paying customer. United Airlines apparently blamed their overbooking on a broken chair.
Alison was asked to sign a waiver that stated that she had voluntarily given up her seat, although this was not the case. They first offered her $1300 worth of travel credit but when she wouldn’t budge they upped it to the far more impressive $10,000. Preiss was further outraged when United Airlines refused to give her airport lounge passes, as she waited for her next flight. They did, however, give her vouchers for Pizza Hut for her to ward off her hunger. She reportedly refused to use these vouchers.
Like many frustrated customers, Preiss took to Twitter to voice her opinion and give updates during the entire ordeal. She started tweeting as soon as United announced that the flight had been overbooked – as if she knew that she would eventually be affected by it. Her tweets got increasingly angrier and cynical and she even made reference to United’s responsibility to the death of a dog on one of their flights earlier this month.
Preiss was further upset that her compensation was given to her in credit and not cash. United said that the credit was part of their policy for situations such as the one involving Alison Preiss. This year has not been a good one for United, as they have been in the media almost weekly for negative incidents and unhappy customers. Despite the negativity surrounding the airline, passengers continue to use the carrier in increasing amounts- largely due to their low prices and large number of flight options and availabilities.
