As a result of bad weather Wednesday’s Tel Aviv – Newark flight diverted to Cleveland, which is no longer a United hub.
After around two hours on the tarmac, and clearing immigration, passengers were eventually met with pizza United had ordered. That’s great as far as it goes, but a Tel Aviv flight is likely to have plenty of passengers who keep kosher. United hadn’t done anything for them.
Dan Eleff of Dan’s Deals is from Cleveland, knew about the delay, and brought kosher snacks to the airport.
Any readers onboard UA85 from TLV-EWR diverted to CLE? Are passengers being let off the plane? Please share what's going on!
— DansDeals (@DansDeals) August 1, 2019
[Dan] drove to Trader Joe’s, loaded up on kosher snacks, called his friend, Dr. Shmulie Margolin, who picked up more food, and they headed to Hopkins.
“We got to the airport at 9:55,” said Eleff, — five minutes before TSA was shutting its security checkpoints for the evening.
Dan went to United for a gate pass so he could bring the snacks through security. United refused. (By the way, he’s a lifetime United Club member, they no longer offer gate passes for club members either. I also think he’s a lifetime Global Services member as well which was no help.)
I told her that there were dozens of hungry passengers on the diverted flight who only ate kosher food and that I had kosher food for them, but the agent refused to help. Getting worked up I implored her that it was United that diverted these now hungry passengers and that she ought to be helping me, but she threw her hands up and asked me to step away from the counter. I asked for a supervisor but she emphatically said that I could not speak to one.
According to United “gate passes are issued only for non-passengers who are assisting travelers, including unaccompanied minors, travelers with disabilities and others.” It sure seems to me that Dan Eleff qualified as a (1) non-passenger who was (2) assisting travelers, and passengers in need of food constitue (3) others.
While passengers had been instructed not to leave security – because the plane was expected to eventually leave again and security would be closing (it was eventually on the ground nearly 8 hours), one passenger did go landside to meet family inside the terminal. Boarding pass in hand she “escort[ed] all the food through the security checkpoint.”
Ultimately the plane took off from Cleveland after 2 a.m. and arrived back at Newark at 4 a.m. Thanks to Dan – and no thanks to United – passengers on board the Tel Aviv inbound who keep kosher were able to eat during the delay.
I have to defend United here.
I don’t think expecting United to meet your specialized dietary needs during a diversion is realistic and I don’t think giving a gate pass to some random guy who says he is there to feed passengers despite having no direct connection to them is realistic either.
Of course if it were some Muslim wearing a hijab bring halal food, United would be more than happy to assist.
A Global Services member and lifetime club member offering packaged food for a dietary need United isn’t meeting and it is reasonable not to offer a gate pass that would still subject him to security screening?
@Sal
I actually called UA Global Services on the way to the airport and they tried to reach UA staff in CLE but nobody answered their repeated calls. They told me I should be able to get a gate pass at the airport.
I certainly don’t expect UA to provide kosher meals for a diverted flight, but UA also knew that at least 50 people on that flight, including kids, who ordered kosher meals. I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to try to help me get some food to them, at no cost to UA, during a lengthy diversion.
And Ivy races to a huge lead in the “making inane statements based on his biases” competition…
Not long ago UA used to give gate passes to lounge members, this is actually an image of that policy in their internal systems: http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz137/adnami/GGCheckpointLine53.jpg
That was discontinued a couple of years ago when they started restricting lounge access to people with flights for that day only, so I lost that avenue of accessing the gate area.
Of course starting in November UA will only passengers flying *A to access their lounge. Delta relented and is allowing lifetime club members to access their lounges no matter what airline they’re flying. But United is taking a hardline and saying that they won’t allow lifetime club members to have lounge access when they’re not flying *A.
Once again proving that UA doesn’t care about lifetime contracts, loyal passengers, and that they will only copy DL when it benefits their bottom line.
@Dan
Put yourself in that agents position. Some random guy shows up unannounced and says here is here to feed diverted passengers Kosher food. He does not personally know any of them. How does he/she know you are not some nutjob here to poison a bunch of Jews?
That would get a resounding no from me.
Gary: dont be a schmuck.
I realize I will be attacked for stating the obvious here- all Dan was doing was PR for his business. FACT.
Package it any way you want, this dramatic “humanitarian relief” mission was a PR stunt. Evidenced by the fact that we’re reading about it (hint: we’d be reading about it even if UA had bowed to entitled Dan).
Wow. Just wow. Sal – United didn’t have to do anything except give a guy a gate pass. The snacks were going to go thru TSA screening. What a slap in the face.
@Gary C
If they get poisoned who is gonna get blamed? – UA is.
Cue crying mother “Why did United give him a gate pass? None of his would have happened if UA had done their job and restricted access to the checkpoint. Sob.”
Sal, it was packaged food.
@abby At the end of the day, you can look at everything in life through glasses that only see ulterior motives or you can see the positive in life.
I flew on UA85 with my wife and 3 kids in June and it was not an easy flight for us or our infant. If I were diverted somewhere with the family without access to kosher food we’d be miserable. That was what was going through my head when I saw UA85 diverting to CLE.
But yes, I’m a blogger and wrote about the experience as I do for much of my travel. That doesn’t mean I took the United Island Hopper or chartered a kosher cruise to Antarctica solely a PR stunt, they were things I wanted to do and they were things I wrote about as one does when they have a blog.
There was nobody more surprised than me to see the story on the front cover of Cleveland’s primary newspaper yesterday. All I did was bring a couple hundred bucks of food to the airport when I knew there were hungry people there. But clearly this story resonated with people.
@Sal .
Yup, random dude who looks like a Rabbi (Yarmulka, beard, tzitzes, the works) with UA Global Services+Lifetime Club membership has several cases of sealed food from Trader Joe’s and is asking for a gate pass to help out diverted UA passengers.
Clearly trying to poison everyone.
Wow, these comments illustrate what a truly depressing world we now live in. It’s bad enough we have had not one but two (!!!) mass shootings in less than 24 hours, and I read a travel blog for some much-needed mental escape, only to find that even here, people are attacking one another. Why? Because one guy decided to step up and help a bunch of other people and some folks feel that he should have minded his own business and left them to fend for themselves. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course, but maybe for a change, it would be nice to celebrate the positive things instead of questioning his motives and sniping. Just sayin.
Knowing dan He did not do it for publicity
Dan Ellef,
BRAVO to you! At least you showed thoughtfulness and heart!
@ Gary — Was there no way for these passengers to buy kosher food in the terminal?
@Gene The stores in the terminal were closed by the time they cleared customs.
Yeah, the guy that was well known at United had just figured out a way to poison packaged food and had been waiting years just for a flight from a Tel Aviv to be stranded in Cleveland.
I think this speaks to a culture problem at United…no incentive do something out of the ordinary that could result in a positive customer experience.
So, United is back in the abuse business, eh? What a waste of funding all that BS PR from the time the doctor was attacked aboard at ORD.
Two questions come to mind:
1) Was that ticket counter person employed by US, or, just a lower paid outsourced person who would have no interest, or training, in representing UA in a positive light?
2) As every U.S. airport I have been around since 9/11 has city police actively patrolling, why couldn’t UA, or somebody, contact CPD to accompany the food deliveries?
Well done, Dan!
@Mark
1. It was a UA (non-outsourced) employee.
2. A local Jewish humanitarian origination did contact the Cleveland Police Dept and tried to work through the official channels over the phone, but were told that they were not able to help get food through unless there were passengers that were claiming to be in distress.
I figured I’d have better luck at the airport and luckily find a way to get the food through.
Dan amd i don’t see eye to eye on everything but he was doing a mitzvah. I’m not saying that needs praise, Jewish charity doesn’t. But I don’t see the basis to criticize him here.
Would you accept food from a stranger on an airplane?
Dan-thanks for the clarification. It just makes this story more pathetic; despite your unselfish effort.
Gary-you are correct; in the face of such strident stupidity at CLE, we cannot take away from Dan the mitzvah he performed.
Jr…depending on the situation, yes. In this situation–if was kosher and I hadn’t eaten since I was stuck for an extended period with no access to food, I almost certainly would.
PS On television, I saw lots of people in El Paso yesterday waiting in lines to donate blood that took pizza from strangers that had brought it to thank them for their donation.
So here’s the real question, why divert a 787 to CLE over IAD?
Weather was clear in both locations.
UA had to wait 8 hours to get new 787 pilots to CLE.
Dan says:
August 4, 2019 at 4:33 pm
@Sal .
Yup, random dude who looks like a Rabbi (Yarmulka, beard, tzitzes, the works) with UA Global Services+Lifetime Club membership has several cases of sealed food from Trader Joe’s and is asking for a gate pass to help out diverted UA passengers.
why oh why do I get the feeling that you brag about being a GS, yet didnt get it from BIS or that your company gets x # of GS due to the $$$ it spends on UA. Which makes it a non-starter yes the UA agent probably had no idea you werent a real GS by earning it
ive been on flights alot longer then the time they spent in CLE where my special meal wasnt loaded = not being able to eat anything
Well if all the stores were closed that must mean that those who dont keep kosher werent able to get anything to eat either, how many of them died?
All that said trying to get the folks you knew some type of food is a nice thing, had no one from your site been on board would you still have done it?
Hurrah for Dan, I followed all of this live on the blog and am very proud of you and what you do for the Jewish (and non Jewish like myself). And what a great surprise to get a newspaper headline too! Kudos.
The “chosen people” stick together whether Gary or I assume Dan. Unfortunately very often it is at the expense of everyone else who are manipulated by the disproportionate presence of Jews controlling 50% of Hollywood, finance, the education system and etc. yet being 3% of the population. Of course they look out for their own but make life difficult for all the rest and live a certain way but work so that everyone else is not afforded the same opportunity.
@sal
Get some help. how would he poison the food going through security and if that was the reason they didn’t cooperate it was never said that was the issue instead of covering for United look around with the drunk pilots kicking a passenger out of business etc. The logic based of their recent conduct is they do nothing to help when they put their passengers in bad situations
@Ivy
Are you honestly suggesting that Muslims get special treatment? LOL
@Jackson Roger All I can say is “wow.” Tell me how exactly I, as a Jew, “make life difficult for all the rest” and what is the “certain way” that I live?
What the he’ll is a mitzvah??
Mitzvah means good deed in Yiddish.
@Noah
1. Not bragging, but explaining that I’m a known traveler to UA. They tried to reach CLE, but nobody at the desk would pick up the phone at the time of the evening.
2. If you read the article you would know that UA bought (non-kosher) pizza for the passengers.
3. It’s normal to assume your airline will forget you kosher meal and plan for that. It’s not normal to plan for a diversion that will turn a 12 hour flight into a 24 hour ordeal.
4. I was able to ascertain that passengers were being cleared through customs (something not a given as it’s only staffed for a few flights a week in CLE) and that there were dozens of kosher eating passengers including kids who would be hungry. Luckily I was able to buy food and get it there in the nick of time.
Nobody is going to starve to death If they miss dinner (if they were they could eat non-kosher food) but my thought was that if I was diverted to an unfamiliar city for an indeterminate amount of time, I’d appreciate having food I could eat.
They tried to reach CLE, but nobody at the desk would pick up the phone at the time of the evening.
I think this is the real story here, and it reminds me of the recent kid-put-on-the-wrong-plane story. United can’t actually reach their own employees at an airport? There are so many situations — many more serious than this one, like “you are putting my child on the wrong plane, please fix the problem” — in which I would think that’s an basic requirement for providing customer service.
I was able to ascertain that passengers were being cleared through customs (something not a given as it’s only staffed for a few flights a week in CLE)
What’s the setup at Cleveland whereby you can pass customs but not exit the security perimeter? I would have thought Dan could have reached the passengers directly at that point.
@Jackson Rogers True story bro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XrRyqses5U
@LarryInNYC
Customs in CLE is the worst in the nation. You need to clear customs, go through security, and then exit security again just to get to baggage claim.
It’s no wonder Continental’s flights to CDG and LHR failed.
They “improved” this recently for some flights where a bus takes all of the passengers from the post-customs area to the baggage claim as there is no walkway from there to the non-secure area.
This is America – corporate employees people are trained to blindly follow rules, and not to make exceptions that common sense would ordinarily dictate.
Someone shows up and asks for a gate pass – the training is not for the employee to decide if a gate pass is warranted taking all of the circumstances into account. The training is to follow the rule, whatever that rule is. Under the rules, bringing kosher food out to the gate because there is nothing for Orthodox Jews to eat in the airport is not one of the reasons under the rules to issue a gate pass.
From the perspective of an employee – they can follow the rules and know they will not get in trouble – or they can do something contrary to the rules and take the risk.
Anyone know if there are any TSA rules on when airlines can issue gate passes?
@dan
So UA purchased pizza Im happy to hear that, yet anyone who is Glutten Free, Low Sodium,Low fat etc etc werent taken care of, not only those who eat only kosher
Sorry but thats the price a person pays, Its getting out of hand where people are demanding that Hotels provide food according to their demands. When theres a free breakfast its not really free but each person can chose to eat anything that the hotel has provided , the hotel need not cater to each persons wishes. If a person doesnt want to eat or cant so be it
From the way you wrote things it seemed as if you expected UA to jump thru hoops for you since you have a GS designation or DYKWIA and when they didnt you couldnt believe it
Just a suggestion why not work it out now with the airport or TSA and not the carrier so should another flight get sent there (could be ElAl) the system will be in place to get the food thru
No ground level person (bottom of the ladder) will take upon themselves to OK something where it just might cost them their job
It took some doing when people were gonna be stuck in Moscow over a Shabbos for finally Lazar to pull off what he had to get them out or food in. Its just how things work, not saying its correct but its just how it is.
Usually when pizza is ordered its a Capt that does it and thats why it gets done even delivered to the plane sitting on the tarmac eg Delta in ATL. You just have to accept you are a no-body in the realm of things , I doubt Gary would have been any more successful unless he had Oscars # on his speed dial
What you did was a nice thing, Im surprised it eventually got thru
Distraught by the anti-Semitic bile that is posted here. What the heck is wrong with you people?
United should be ashamed that they cannot use initiative to help passengers even if it is at no cost to themselves, and that they have such poor communication channels with their outstations.
I highly doubt UA Global Services could not get anyone in CLE on the phone. It was probably more like “we don’t want to be the bad guy, so lets pretend to call and hope he takes the hint to not show up and put our colleagues in an awkward position”
“Sorry but thats the price a person pays, Its getting out of hand where people are demanding that Hotels provide food according to their demands.”
Maybe I missed it in the article…. was there some violent mob looting shuttered stores in search of kosher food?
It’s amazing how people take a simple kind act and trying to anti-semitize the crap out of it.
No one was going to die from hunger, everyone seemed to be behaving pretty well given the circumstances, and one guy saw what was going on and thought the stranded passengers would enjoy some kosher snacks.
But because this is about jews (particularly orthodox ones), the comments of course need to delve into Hollywood stereotypes, PR stunts, Jews only looking out for each other, DYKNWIA’s, and every other way to turn what happened into an anti-jewish screed for both Dan and the passengers
@Gene
The GS agent told me she tried calling 3 times and was distraught over not being able to reach anyone in CLE.
I don’t see why she would lie to me.
@Jackson Rogers and @protocol get right to their point; anti-semitism. You can assume that @protocol refers to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a nasty forgery that appeared in the last part of the 19th century and was used by numerous anti-semites to whip up the idiot masses against their Jewish neighbors. See The Prague Cemetery (Umberto Eco) for a good contextual presentation.
Screw these anti-semites, screw all the haters. Go back to 8chan. Leave the travel blogs to travelers. @dan does a good deed and he gets torn up by a few butt hole haters for it. Gary, block these monsters please.
As someone who follows both Dan and Gary daily and respects their work, I consider Dan’s efforts in this situation simply an act of kindness which merits being commended.
@Jackson Rodgers
How in this situation did they make it harder for everybody else
First: I commend Dan,(whatever his motivations), for looking out for his fellow humans! We need more of you!
Second: I agree with the clerk actions to protect his/her thankless underpaid job.
Ultimately it is UA’s duty be it morally or from a PR perspective to provide for their passengers since they already knew that they had a large amount of paying customers with special requirements.
As per UA’s usual, they stuck to their motto: penny wise, kilos of fool!
Ask yourself this, how much could it had cost UA to feed their now former customers vs the negative PR and the lost of future business?
They failed well over a dozen people not a family of seven.
@Abby — Lighten up! Dan is not the kind of guy you think he is. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t try to help people who got stranded in his hometown.