Police were called to the United Airlines ticket counter in Bozeman, Montana after Senator Ted Cruz arrived at the airport past check-in cutoff for his flight. Out of Bozeman, at the end of spring break, rebooking options were limited and the Senator – who has experience fleeing the snow on United – reportedly became belligerent.
According to a poster on Reddit who took video of the incident, the Senator declared, “don’t you know who I am?” And he “[a]lso demanded to speak to a manager about a dozen times.”
According to the Deputy Director of Bozeman’s airport,
One of our Public Safety Officers (PSO) was in the ticket lobby and was asked to assist with a frustrated passenger at the United ticket counter (which is not unusual). The passenger had missed the check-in window for his flight and re-booking options were limited out of Bozeman due to Spring Break.
Once travel options were explained to the passenger, he was rebooked and departed Bozeman later that evening. Our PSO didn’t realize he was dealing with Senator Cruz until after the fact.
Cruz frequently contends that airline employees spontaneously hug him when he flies United. The agents working check-in for his United flight might find that surprising.
I promise you strangers are not going over to Ted Cruz to hug him
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2022
What was the big deal no emotional support giraffe allowed on board?
They should have held the plane for hours.F the little people inside
Such a classy fellow said nobody
Even when I agree with Ted Cruz on something, he still makes you want to punch him in the face. He’s just one of those people that is naturally highly annoying,
“What was the big deal no emotional support giraffe allowed on board?”
But he (Cruz) is a Diamond Guest! lol
Just another example of our elitist arrogant “I’m more important than you” politicians in this country. No wonder our nation is so divided and facing so many serious problems.
Both major political parties are filled with hypocrite DC SWAMP politicians who serve themselves first, and don’t give a hoot about the average American citizen. A curse on both of their houses!!!
“One of our Public Safety Officers…was asked to assist with a frustrated passenger at the United ticket counter (which is not unusual).”
Lol, Bozeman airport really throwing some shade at United there!
Have to agree with CM forget about what party he belongs to.
He is an a-hole and a coward.
Didn’t recognize him from the video. I don’t think I’ve seen him in glasses before.
The DYKWIA attitude is ridiculous and unhelpful… but I do agree that check-in cutoff times seem ridiculous and arbitrary sometimes. The 30 minute cutoff time for BZN without bags is silly. Issue the boarding pass and he can be on the plane in less than 5 minutes (regardless of who the passenger is.)
30 minute cutoff might be reasonable for some larger airports, but not really for BZN. Even with bags, they could easily get both the passenger and the bag on the flight in that case. There’s really no reason for them not to just issue the boarding pass and see if the passenger can make the flight. If they can, that’s the best outcome for everyone, including the airline (except maybe for the passenger at #1 on the upgrade list if he’s in First. – haha) Of course, if it were ORD, that would be another story, but BZN is decidedly not ORD.
@ Gary — What an asshat.
They didn’t hug him because they didn’t know who he was. Cruz needs to stop clutching his pearls and butch up when he causes a problem and expects everyone else to fix the problem.
Ted belligerent – what a shock 🙂
BTW I support him and hope he keeps winning his elections but he is know as one of the biggest aholes (regardless of party) in the Senate.
What a D-Bag
Oh my…..
Ted Cruz truly is the smartest guy in the room. Truly. Full stop.
He is also the most arrogant annoying man in the room.
He should NEVER be president.
But neither should Trump or Biden . . .
Loser with the ugly wife that thinks he’s the greatest thing on this earth.
@1KBrad: “Ted Cruz truly is the smartest guy in the room.”
It must be a very small room, like a broom closet.
It would be lovely to post this where everyone in Texas can see it. Rachel Carson was right about remembering that such people were “temporarily entrusted with power” and not giants. It really is amazing how power makes some people better as they have more opportunities to do the right things, while it brings out the worst in others.
Dom. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It should be considered he may have been dealing with a rude agent at the desk who played it up exactly for this headline or may have arbitrarily and capriciously decided he missed a check in deadline. It’s routine that check in agents can allow someone at the narrow window of time to check-in. When they don’t, despite plenty of time to make a flight and it being a normal occurrence for agents to make exceptions, people naturally will question why an agent is being unhelpful. People can riot for months and burn down cities and nothing can happen. Others can walk into a government building that had doors open by police and be in jail for months. One rule for thee and not the other.
Ted Cruz is a rino masquerading as a patriot, however, it’s really low to report on a situation without the full context.
@ Jackson Waterson — Thank goodness for the black woman being added to the Supreme Court.
I came to read the stupid comments and you pathetic turds didn’t disappoint. You Muppets just jump in feet first to a video clip that shows one side of the story.
You worship politicians and social media interaction like the thirsty needy attention whores you are. You are the reason America is failing.
Ted Cruz wearing a mask!
What would Ron Desantis say?
bwahahahahahhaaaaaaaa
Doors held open by police? To thank them, they beat them with American flag poles and fire extinguishers. Let not get into the looting of said government build.
Remember, regardless of political affiliation, Ted Cruz is one of the least liked within the Senate. No one endorsed him during his presidential run. He is horrendously unpopular.
Lindsay Graham and Diane Feinstein hug each other. They don’t hug Ted Cruz.
Readers! You in particular should know that Mr. Cruz could have absolutely avoided this unfortunate situation. The blame is his own. How? Gary?
Context doesn’t matter. Political party doesn’t matter. Self entitlement dosent matter. You can’t lose your temper at the airport or on board & expect service. Especially right now. Everyone on this forum, every frequently flyer & especially a US Senator should know that by now. Zero tolerance… At least until 4/18 when things calm down, hopefully.
His Spring Break from last year didn’t make enough noise in Cancun??? He needs MORE publicity.. What a joke this guy is???
Eh. Snowflakes will always end up melting down.
Someone at United is going to get fired!!! Congratulations!!!
Even the devil Sara Nelson would not be able to save his/her job.
It’s so exciting to see check-in counter low-life losing job.
About as surprising as ice in Alaska. Remember that this is the guy that John Boehner (R) called “Lucifer in the flesh”. The former Speaker of the House also said “I’ve never worked with a more miserable SOB in my life”.
Boehner the incompetent RINO Speaker who left to be a lobbyist for Marijuana is really the most MISERABLE SOB TO SERVE IN THE HOUSE…..what a total jerk and buffoon that accomplished nothing!!!
@ Daryl Higgins. LOL!!!
Not only a revisionist TC supporter (who knew there was such a thing), but a prime example of exactly what is supposedly decried in your earlier post. A culture warrior who claims to be non partisan! Bad behavior does not have a party affiliation.
“Our PSO didn’t realize he was dealing with Senator Cruz until after the fact.”
Probably cause his ticket says Raphael.
What a loser.
Hardly partisan, both Cruz and Boehner are Republicans!
OMG…Ted Cruz goes full-on KAREN!! What a complete schmuck this guy is. Why does anyone take this man-baby seriously and WHY THE HELL do people keep voting for him? Have they not seen and heard him?
@Don: you forgot to mention his dad’s role in assassinations.
@Jackass Waterson never fails at bringing in his hatred of POC. Imagine having a Black woman sitting on the bench with those women abusers like Kavanaugh and Thomas. Your little mind will explode.
These comments are way more than I anticipated. Entertaining, informative and…..disturbing.
Alas, this is life today…..
Because none of us have ever been upset at an airline agent.
Ted Scuz
@DaninMCI, only once, when I asked for a paper boarding pass and he somehow cancels the reservation and cannot restore it.
@Jeff
I wouldn’t use Ms. Lindsey or Feinstein as a barometer for anything good. Ted Cruz does have a good amount of support from people who don’t see he is a rino opportunist. We all can agree that everyone hates McConnell. He is probably hated by more Republicans than Dems.
Reminds me of when Bill Clinton held up air traffic at LAX so he could get a haircut. Screw all the little people.
Cancun Ted went the wrong way !
It’s disappointing that NO ONE replied to my question regarding how Ted Cruz could have absolutely avoided this situation.
USE THE (stinkin’) APP TO CHECK IN 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE.
Irrespective of political party, anyone who is as frequent a flyer as he should know better.
@Reno Joe – In theory, yes. But I’ve been denied boarding by showing up 43 minutes before a flight on AA for the domestic leg of an international trip, despite checking in online, but needed to check bags. (Stupid shuttle bus decided to go to the other terminal first.) There was even a later flight that I could make and still make the connection, but no deal. Depends on what situation they were trying to solve. In my case, they were overbooked on the domestic leg, and needed to offload passengers. I “won” that lottery, despite showing up in time for the domestic rules – I didn’t think the international rules would apply to the first domestic leg. They enforced the letter of the rule. Then offered to sell me the same tickets for $3500 – so you know they were just gunning for revenue. My fault, but the front desk can show mercy or enforce the rules depending on the demands of the situation. I suspect that’s what Cruz ran into – an oversold situation that they solved by enforcing the rules to his detriment. I’ve seen this happen more than once while standing in line in the years since. If they can find a way to not pay people for their seat, they’ll take the opportunity, no matter who you are.
FWIW, I didn’t take them up on their “offer”. I simply drove to ORD and picked up premium economy seats on Aer Lingus for less than 1/3 the offer price on the next day’s first flight out. And learned the lesson of always showing up at least an hour early, even if checked in online and even if it means parking in high priced close-in airport parking. Don’t be cheap when you’re up against a deadline that can cost a lot more.
@Dom: I guess you also graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. You know, as Ted Cruz did.
With comments like yours, I probably need to explain what magna cum laude means . . .
But perhaps you may recognize some of his other accomplishments: “While at Harvard Law, Cruz was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, an executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. Referring to Cruz’s time as a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said: “Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant”.”
Put Fled Cruz on the no-fly list
Ted Cruz & our new Justice are both Harvard Law & have more in common with each other than any of us.
@1KBrad you may very well be correct, but his antics don’t make the public perceive him as intelligent at all. The comment section of this blog, in my opinion at least, tends to skew pretty far right, but the consensus on this story seems to be that Sen. Cruz is a disliked moron, and a buffoon.
@Jerry – Many highly intelligent people have the social skills of a brick. Actually worse than a brick, because a brick doesn’t actively make you dislike it. And I say this as someone not as smart as Cruz, in all likelihood, but with only slightly better social skills. Although some, but not all, of my family members like me, so my percentages are probably better than his. Cruz reminds me a friend’s child who may be the most brilliant person I have ever met, but also highly annoying. Truly a mathematical genius, he for a time wanted to go into politics – until reminded that the primary goal of politics is to get elected, not assassinated. He’s now a very wealthy quant on Wall Street, which suits him.
As for Cruz graduating magna from Harvard Law, who didn’t? Couldn’t make summa? Before the reform in 1999, almost 90% of Harvard Law graduated with honors. The new rule restricts that to 50%. I’m sure Cruz is smart, but graduating with honors from Harvard Law merely means you were smart enough to get in, not that you learned anything there.
I’m so glad that a video was produced to show Ted Cruz behaving crazy and getting loud and that it was easy to point this out. NOT
Seriously did anyone that made a comment about Ted Cruz concerning this encounter actually view the video???? The video showed absolutely zero bad behavior. So many comments here are ridiculous as to what might have or had not happened. One suggested that someone would be fired???
I’m sure the airlines have cameras at the counter that can easily be retrieved.
I also don’t believe that United had a company conspiracy against Ted Cruz because of the exchange he had with the CEO concerning mistreatment of employees. Also any who doesn’t think there are many United Houston employees that greatly support Ted Cruz and even hug him is flat out wrong.