Travelers Say "I Will Never Fly United Again"—Here's Why
Passengers are speaking out about harrowing flight experiences with the carrier.
Flight prices are so expensive these days that most of us can't afford to get picky when it comes to the carriers we choose. But for some travelers, trouble with one major U.S. airline has them standing firm. Two TikTok users have taken to the app to share why they'll never fly with United Airlines again after harrowing experiences with the Chicago-based carrier.
RELATED: United Passengers Threaten Boycott Over New Boarding Rules.
The first TikTok was posted Dec. 18 by passenger LinMarie to her account @linmarietoolit. In this video, which has been viewed over 7 million times, LinMarie shares how a United Airlines worker refused to let her dog fly.
"My dog is six pounds … I always fly with him," she says, filming the experience.
According to LinMarie, she was not the only passenger being denied at the time. Another United traveler, who explained that they had just flown from Boston with their dog on a different flight with the carrier, was also told by the female employee that their pup could not go on the plane.
"Y'all they literally did not let me fly with my six-pound toy poodle," LinMarie explains at the end of her video. "Not only that, she told me I may not get refunded because I got a basic economy ticket, and it's non-refundable."
For LinMarie, that was the final straw with the carrier.
"I will NEVER FLY United Airlines," she captioned her TikTok. "And yes, the manager came and agreed with [the employee] and hardly even looked at my dog. Just sad."
But LinMarie is not the only passenger who has parted ways with United recently. In fact, her TikTok prompted others to share their negative experiences with the airline. Stitching LinMarie's original video that same day, traveler Jacqueline took to her own TikTok account @jac.rose8 to post a video telling others why she will "also never fly United" again.
"Let me tell you what they did to me a month ago so no one else with fly United either," she says to start her video, which has been viewed over 350,000 times.
As Jacqueline explains, she has cerebral palsy and uses a special transport wheelchair—which has smaller wheels than a normal wheelchair and cannot be pushed by the person using it. According to the traveler, United broke the wheelchair on her first flight.
"That wasn't terrible, it was just the arm rest," she says. "So first, they broke my wheelchair and didn't do anything to fix it. They didn't even apologize."
That was a blip in Jacquline's experience with United compared to what happened next. Jacqueline explains that when she went to ask for wheelchair assistance on her flight back with United, she was met with a concerning response from a female employee.
"The woman looks dead in my eyes and says, 'I'm sorry, we can't guarantee you someone to push you in a wheelchair,'" she recalls. "Now I fly a lot and alway use wheelchair service, and I have never once been told this—not once."
Still, Jacqueline says she got the employee to help her to the gate, but was then left there and told that she had to wait for someone else to help her get on the flight.
"I'm realizing no one's coming for me, and they're getting ready to board," Jacqueline continues. "So then they literally board all passengers with disabilities. No one's making eye contact with me."
While Jacqueline was waiting at the gate for help, the airline went ahead and moved on to military personnel and first class boarding.
"So they have not acknowledged that I am stuck in a wheelchair, can't move forward and should have already boarded," she says. "No one said anything to me. They're completely not making eye contact with me and they're just boarding around me."
RELATED: United Is Making It Harder to Get Help for Canceled Flights, Passengers Say.
Jacqueline says that eventually, other United passengers came to offer her help instead. According to the traveler, two people on her flight got her to her seat and even assisted in getting her bags on the plane—all while the United employees said nothing.
"I will never fly United again," Jacqueline says at the end of her video. "I've never been treated like that. I say fly Delta. As a disabled person, I always get the best care with them."
When Best Life reached out to United about the complaints from travelers, a spokesperson for the company said their top priority is to "provide a safe and comfortable journey for all our customers, especially those who require additional assistance or the use of a mobility aids like wheelchairs and scooters."
The spokesperson added, "Both independently and through our recent collaboration with the Department of Transportation, we are developing and delivering innovative solutions that improve accessibility and address some of the travel challenges encountered by customers who use wheelchairs. These are incremental steps towards developing a larger solution, and we have a lot of work to do. Imbedding accessibility into every decision will propel us forward and is the right thing to do—and when we make the travel experience more accessible for those who need it, we make it better for everyone."
