Sep 12, 2019, 07:29pm

United Airlines Kicks Retired Professors Off Late-Night Flight

Michael Goldstein Contributor
Travel

A married couple, Jessie Au, 68, and her husband M.G. (“Guill”) Wientjes, 66, both PhDs, were kicked off a late-night United flight from Washington, DC to Los Angeles earlier this summer.

To add insult to injury, Au, a 5’3” grandmother, says an internal United committee called her “belligerent” and “threatening” after she stood up for her rights as a passenger. Although not physically beaten or dragged, Dr. Au says the intimidating experience reminded her of the treatment Dr. David Dao received in a notorious United incident in 2017.

(Full disclosure: I own stock in American, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.)

The incident apparently began when Dr. M. G. Wientjes and another passenger were issued boarding passes with duplicate seat assignments. While trying to sort out the mess, the couple says a flight attendant dropped Wientjes’ boarding pass several rows back, then denied they had ever given it to her. Although the pass was ultimately returned to the Wientjes, they say by that time the situation had become confrontational, with the flight attendant screaming “You’re coming out.”

I contacted United Airlines multiple times to hear their side of the story, but did not receive an on-the-record response before publication. On September 13, we received the following statement from a United spokesperson. "At United, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism. Following this issue, we reached out to our customers and our team to find out what happened." Sources within the airline also note that they spoke to the Wientjes in July to talk through the incident.

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