Airline offers passenger $13,000 travel credit to give up her seat
A woman has been offered US$10,000 ($13,000) to give up her seat on an overbooked United Airlines flight from Washington, DC to Austin, Texas, where she was travelling for a hen’s weekend.
Allison Preiss took to Twitter to vent her anger at her treatment by the airline, who initially offered US$1,000 ($1,300) worth of travel credit to anyone who voluntarily gave up their seat.
“If nobody bites, they will kick off the lowest fare passenger by pulling them out of the boarding line,” Preiss wrote. “For a flight that THEY oversold. Unreal.”
In a surprising turn of events, Preiss revealed that she was in fact the lowest fare passenger, leading the airline to kick her off the flight. “They can’t board me on this plane because there is a broken seat.”
After being removed from the flight, Preiss claims United “tried to get me to sign a document that says I volunteered my seat on this plane when I was involuntarily denied boarding,” a move she describes as “sketchy”.
But the story gets even crazier.
“They really do not want to give me cash,” Preiss wrote. “They just offered me $10,000 in travel credit. TEN THOUSAND.”
She also alleges that United denied her access to the lounge for the inconvenience, instead offering her two $10 vouchers at Pizza Hut.
“On the upside, I wasn’t physically dragged off the plane and my dog wasn’t killed on board, so I’ve got that going for me... which is nice,” Preiss remarked, referring to the April 2017 incident in which Dr David Dao was physically dragged off a flight, as well as the recent tragedy in which a dog passed away after being placed in the overhead compartment.
Image credit: Allison Preiss/Twitter.