UNITED SAYS SOAR-Y
Apology to flier ‘booted for pol’
United Airlines has apologized to a passenger and issued her a $500 travel voucher after she accused the company of giving her first-class seat to a Texas congresswoman, a company spokesperson said Monday.
Jean-Marie Simon, 63, of Washington, DC, claimed she was sent to coach to make way for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, before a Dec. 18 flight.
Airline officials told reporters that their internal systems showed that Simon had canceled her trip following a weather delay, but Simon denied that.
A United spokesperson said the company had offered Simon the apology and voucher in an attempt to make things right. The private-school teacher claimed on Twitter that a “gate agent wanted originally to give me $300,” but she refused it. “I’ve seen people get twice that for voluntarily giving up seats on overbooked flights,” Simon tweeted Sunday. “When I asked for free meal/bev., gate agent said, ‘And I want a Mercedes Benz, but I’m not going to get it.’ ” Simon said she was able to get her voucher and the apology only by “insisting.” “United threatened to remove me from plane for taking photo [of Jackson Lee in the seat],” she tweeted. “United manager called me @ home: said United behavior at gate/on plane contra [sic] United training. Said taking photos is legal, andaid [sic] United will investigate to c who did this to me.” Simon had been on a flight from Houston to DC when she lost her seat last week. She had used 140,000 frequent-flier miles to purchase the ticket, along with another to Guatemala. “It was just so completely humiliating,” Simon told the Houston Chronicle of the incident. Jackson Lee, meanwhile, claims she did nothing wrong. “I asked for nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary and received nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary,” she said in a statement. “But in the spirit of this season and out of the sincerity of my heart, if it is perceived that I had anything to do with this, I am kind enough to simply say sorry.”