Reader Marc and his wife went on a 10-day trip from Anchorage to Quito, Ecuador. Sadly, Marc’s wife broke her leg on the first day of the trip. Ouch! It had to be immobilized and elevated for the return trip. Marc writes:
Our flights via Continental went fine; everyone both on and off the plane was solicitous and helpful. Our bulkhead seats, while not perfect, provided enough legroom to keep her leg straight.
When we got to the gate in Denver, the agent refused to change our seats, instead summoning an “SD”, apparently some kind of manager, at my insistence. Scott (“With two t’s. Make sure you get it right,” he snidely instructed me as I wrote down his name) was pompous, arrogant, and entirely unhelpful. He claimed the flight was full and refused to do anything but put us on a different flight, if there even was one. At this point my wife was exhausted and sobbing, which affected him not a bit. Finally, another supervisor “found” her a bulkhead seat, but United sells these seats as “Premium Coach” or somesuch, so I had to fork over $54 to seat her there. He then miraculously “found” me another seat next to her and ahem, generously waived the fee for my seat. When we boarded the plane, there was still insufficient leg room for her, which was slightly alleviated by angling her leg into my seat space.
Turns out that the flight was only 60% full, but United refused to move anyone to give someone with a freshly broken leg a bit more room. Read Marc’s email inside.
Marc writes:
My wife broke her leg April 5, our first day of a ten-day trip from Anchorage to Quito, Ecuador. Her leg was placed in a restraining device that kept it straight, and she was instructed to keep it elevated as much as possible.
I called Continental Airlines soon after to arrange bulkhead seats for our return trip, and I was told all would be changed. Our return trip consisted of three segments: Quito-Houston, Houston – Denver, and Denver – Anchorage, on April 14. But when they printed our boarding passes in Quito, the Denver-Anchorage segment still had us in our original seats. I didn’t realize when I called (my omission), and nobody told me, that the final segment was on United. The Continental agent in Quito informed us that she was unable to change our seats for the United flight, and that we could do that upon our arrival at the United gate in Denver.
Our flights via Continental went fine; everyone both on and off the plane was solicitous and helpful. Our bulkhead seats, while not perfect, provided enough legroom to keep her leg straight.
When we got to the gate in Denver, the agent refused to change our seats, instead summoning an “SD”, apparently some kind of manager, at my insistence. Scott (“With two t’s. Make sure you get it right,” he snidely instructed me as I wrote down his name) was pompous, arrogant, and entirely unhelpful. He claimed the flight was full and refused to do anything but put us on a different flight, if there even was one. At this point my wife was exhausted and sobbing, which affected him not a bit. Finally, another supervisor “found” her a bulkhead seat, but United sells these seats as “Premium Coach” or somesuch, so I had to fork over $54 to seat her there. He then miraculously “found” me another seat next to her and ahem, generously waived the fee for my seat. When we boarded the plane, there was still insufficient leg room for her, which was slightly alleviated by angling her leg into my seat space.
It turns out the plane was only about 60-70% full (our six bulkhead seats had only two others sitting in them), and they could have easily given my wife an entire row to use by only moving one or two people. It would have cost United not a penny, and it would have earned our eternal goodwill.
The final insult came from the flight attendant, who insisted that she not use her backpack to prop up her leg during takeoff and threatened to call the captain if we did not comply. We did; she and I spent the next fifteen minutes holding her leg up with her hands.
United Airlines broke no regulations, except for an unwritten one: treat people with kindness and compassion. Were this an isolated incident involving only one rude employee, I could write it off as such. But the behavior we encountered was pervasive; a indication of a culture of indifference, if not outright hostility, to the traveling public. I have flown many different airlines, and I have never encountered behavior like this. Furthermore, this was not the first incident of this nature I have had with United. I don’t know why or how this corporate culture evolved, but I can only hope that if it doesn’t change, the traveling public will go elsewhere, and United will be forced to change its culture or go bankrupt.
Marc
Why was United so mean? Maybe they see lots of broken legs in Denver. You know, because of the skiing? Or maybe they thought she was willing to break her own leg for a free “Premium Coach” upgrade? Sneaky! —MEGHANN MARCO
(Photo:Drewski2112)
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@bearymore: I think Nintendo’s suppliers recently got the snack box contract, which explains the severe shortage…
Honestly, I’ve never seen a problem like that on the plane. Maybe one of the 3 or 4 options will sell out, but that’s not a big deal.
Thank goodness the other steward overheard you.
Buran, I’m not sure how many different posters can tell you before it sinks in: a broken leg is not a disability!!
If I break my leg, I am not entitled to park in the free handicapped parking on my city street. It does not entitle me to a guide dog. According to the EEOC , it doesn’t even entitle you to workplace accommodation by your employer!
From http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/adaqa1.html:
Q. Who is protected against employment discrimination?
A. Employment discrimination is prohibited against “qualified individuals with disabilities.”
The ADA defines an “individual with a disability” as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.
The first part of the definition makes clear that the ADA applies to persons who have substantial, as distinct from minor, impairments, and that these must be impairments that limit major life activities such as seeing, hearing, speaking, walking, breathing, performing manual tasks, learning, caring for oneself, and working. An individual with epilepsy, paralysis, a substantial hearing or visual impairment, mental retardation, or a learning disability would be covered, but an individual with a minor, nonchronic condition of short duration, such as a sprain, infection, or broken limb, generally would not be covered.
See? So United did nothing wrong, and you know the next time my back hurts maybe I’ll ask them to put me in business class free just because I’m entitled to it.
Economy Plus isn’t business class, no, but it is a separately fared class on United. Don’t like that they reserve these seats with extra legroom for loyal customers or those who pay more? Then don’t fly them! I don’t like Southwest’s open seating policy, so I don’t fly them. But I also don’t go around complaining that they “nickel and dimed” me or are too damn cheap to even have seating assignments. I make an informed decision, so I have no reason to knock them or any other company for adhering to a well-publicized, well documented policy of theirs.
Whether or not a broken leg is a disability under the ACAA (please see my comment above–the ADA doesn’t apply here) is really beside the point. United accommodated Marc’s wife. They didn’t deny her boarding, they didn’t refuse to upgrade her (after she paid the additional fare), they didn’t move her to the worst seat on the plane, etc. Even if her broken leg were considered a disability, the ACAA wouldn’t require the airline to bend over backwards to make her as comfortable as possible.
This is a customer service issue, not a legal issue. As customer service goes, United was pretty crappy. But they did nothing unlawful.
British Airways upgraded me on a whim–coach from New York to London became business class because I told the crew I hadn’t slept the night before (very, very true unfortunately) and I had to present a paper for a conference when I arrived.
@formergr: I guess you missed the part where I said that you can always sue and make your case that the law needs to be amended, huh? Don’t get all uprighteous on people if you don’t take into account everything they say. If we never changed laws when they needed to be changed we’d still be in the Dark Ages. Go ask your civics teacher about it, huh?
@Buran: That’s not the way the law works. Checks and balances ring a bell? Judges interpret legislation; legislators enact it. If you want a statute amended, write your congressperson.
@not_seth_brundle: Are we talking about the same country here?
The last time I flew United, I was seated in the row just behind the Economy Plus section. The woman next to me ended up with the man in front of her in her lap because he reclined his seat. She asked the flight attendant if she could just move up a row where there were plenty of empty seats.
You’d have thought she asked for a solid gold pillow and blanket. The flight attendant was incredibly rude, and told her she could not move there because those were Economy Plus seats and she would have to pay $50 to upgrade… but not on the plane, she’d have to do it at the gate.
I pointed out to the flight attendant that it was pointless to enforce this now that we were in the air, and those seats were NOT going to generate any revenue at all unless they were planning on picking up passengers in midair. He barked at us that people were not allowed to change seats.
Then, to add insult to injury, he went to the front and conferred with the purser, who then got on the PA and announced to the entire plane that passengers — on a flight with a large number of empty seats — were NOT allowed to change seats.
Makes me wonder what would have happened if the woman next to me simply moved without asking… terrorist threat? Land the plane and drag her off to prison?
formergr: Funny, if I did have a temporary disability like a broken leg, I could get a temporary disabled person parking placard here in California.
Last I checked, that does entitle me to park in the handicapped spaces.
Complain to the government at: AirConsumer@dot.gov
I was flying out of Seattle on United back on Jan. 2nd, 2006. Chicago had just been hit by a MAJOR snow storm, so after I got to the check-in desk (after standing in line for 1.5 hours), I asked the guy behind the desk if the flight was still on time. He assured me that it was, then asked if I wanted to upgrade to Economy Plus seats for the legroom. (I’m 6’3.) I paid the $30 for it and booked through security to my gate, only to discover that the flight WAS delayed for 4 hours and that they had moved the majority of my flight to other flights in the past hour. As all of the other flights were full, I was one of 11 people on the original flight when it finally left Seattle 7.5 hours late. I bitched to the CS counter at my gate and wrote a letter to United in an effort to get my upgrade money back, but needless to say they never even so much as humored the idea.
I’m never flying United again. SOBs can die in a fire.
Yeah, go all the way with this.
The supervisor was trying to cover his ass, but the right thing to do was to research the situation and if it needed upgrade them to the seats for free. There is no difference between coach and premium coach, the gasoline still costs the same, and the peanuts come in the same bags….
Mail the CEO, then if the CEO fails to remedy this, report it, and dot fly UA.
The supervisor and employees not only work for UA, but they represent them too, so don’t fly with them, if they hire employees that represent them so poorly.
And, you can also chargeback that additional amount if you paid by credit card.
If my wife broke her leg, $50 would be the least of my concerns. Yeah, it would be nice if they airline upgraded her for free, but it wouldn’t even occur to me to haggle over a few dollars.
The SD was a jerk, and that’s unfortunate. But he probably got that way from dealing with these kinds of “entitled” people day in, day out.
My husband was on a small flight in which there were only about two rows of first class seats. Needless to say, all the first class seats were all occupied. My husband had told me that he saw a man being wheeled onto the plane, with a broken leg. They could barely fit his wheelchair through the aisle to his seat. Since my husband was sitting in the very first row, he got up right away and offered the man his seat in first class.
No, the flight was not full. They could have put that man in the first seat, in first class and bumped another first class passenger off the flight to accomodate him. Should that man have felt entitled to the seat without paying for it? I don’t think so. Should my husband have felt obligated to give up his seat that he had purchased? I don’t think so either.
@Buran: Did the airline not accomodate the passenger in the end? What would you have considered reasonable? A two class upgrade from coach to first class? An upgrade to business-lite would be nice too but, I guess you could sue if they even put you in business because there simply just isn’t enough space for my whole leg to stretch out there either.
God forbid I’m blind one day… shall I too expect to be given a personal shouffer at no additional cost? Oh and, I have back and leg problems too so, please make sure that the shouffer comes in a comfortable and large Merceds S500. If these demands are not met, you are not accomodating to my needs.
Your litigous attitude is absolutely ridiculous and that is another reason why most Europeans dislike Americans.
In America, we spell “shouffer” as “chauffeur”.
Olivier writes:
“I just wanted to let you know that I just broke my leg as well. After calling United many times they could offer me a new ticket in business class for a small fee of $3500. Because the plane is fully booked, which probably isn’t the case, they couldn’t do anything else for me. I think United should have more compassion wit people that had an accident. I wouldn’t mind paying a little more but to have to buy an extra ticket in economy or a whole new seat in business. It’s just a little harsh.”