A United Airlines flight from Houston to Amsterdam dumped fuel and then diverted to Chicago O’Hare on Sunday when a business class passenger, seated in 11G, melted down and became abusive after learning from flight attendants that they’d run out of his first choice of meal.
After removing the passenger and refueling at O’Hare, the flight continued on to Europe and arrived three and a half hours late.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC, who broke the story with internal airline messages about the “threat level 1,” found it surprising that days passed without any video from inside the cabin appearing on social media. Surely other passengers in the cabin pulled out their phone to capture the insanity as it was going on! Jon followed up, though, once video finally surfaced.
Here the passenger is shown confronting a crewmember, saying he’s a frequent traveler on United and that he’s standing up for his rights – while the flight attendant “is a douche.”
@ifyoureashleyanduknowit We got to stop in Chicago to let this super nice guy off the plane. He continued to laugh and antagonize the United crew after these, and they handled it with such calm! #unitedairlines #unitedairlinestiktok #amsterdam #chicago #houston ♬ original sound – Ashley Woodford
Another passenger on board previously reported that the man appeared intoxicated. And, given the point in the flight where this occurred, it seems to me likely that would have meant pregaming at the airport rather than drinking too much on the aircraft.
It can be frustrating to spend thousands of dollars on a flight and then get the sense you’re not the most important passenger on the plane given that other passengers were given the meal that you wanted (airlines don’t board enough of every meal option for every passenger, but rather bet that on average passengers will choose a certain number of each). It seems, though, that this man was the “douche.”
JonNYC cautions that the video doesn’t capture the full drama that went on onboard, and that there was definitely enough bad behavior to warrant the diversion.
Note: for those who might be inclined to feel "that was enough for a diversion?"
Answer is that there's more that transpired than is captured in the video.— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) July 13, 2023
Indeed, the passenger who uploaded this video to TikTok suggested in the comments to their posting that they had a lot more video, and they intended to share it as well. As of this writing, however, they haven’t done so.
He’s lucky someone on that plane didn’t deck him because you can be sure that everyone on that plane wanted to get to Amsterdam for a reason and some may have had additional expenses because of the delay. I have seen that sometimes a passenger like this is ordered to repay the airline for the cost of their disturbance; in this case, that will be very expensive. But would I would also like to see a lawyer file a lawsuit against this idiot for the passengers. Flying these days is stressful enough. Delays and cancellations happen every day. But this delay did not have to happen and it’s because an idiot probably had too much to drink and thought he we entitled.
Oh good grief.
Had them run out of my choice of a meal before. Just ended up getting some bread and butter. Not like it was the end of the world.
Most of the meals are crap anyway.
What does “Becomes Loses It” mean in the title of this article?
The guy is yelling about “regulations,” “virtue signaling” and “complying.” So many of these right wingers are becoming more disruptive in public.
If he travels often, he would know that he could have pre-selected his meal.
Just another Radical Left Winger on the Rampage.
Did another passenger get upgraded to his seat for the rest of the flight, and if so, what meal did that person get?
If he were so passionate about onboard dining, why did he chose united?
@Alan – sound more like a Radical Right Winger on the Rampage to me – you know, loud, obnoxious, entitled, an unjustified feeling of personal rights being taken away. Yep, pretty sure a Right Winger!!
I completely agreed with Andy and Patti. United’s meals are not that good to cause everyone’s delay. Kirby cut back lots of things.
Playing devil’s advocate here: actually, there is no excuse for running out of meal options — since the meal ordering is done before take-off. Other airlines manage to avoid running out of meal choices, it doesn’t seem to be a thing when I fly foreign carriers. It’s not that hard, apparently. With United they pack so few meals and cut it so close that they ALWAYS run out of several of the meal choices, on every flight. This is the airline’s fault.
Also, United should NEVER run out of the vegetarian meal. Because if they do, vegetarian passengers have nothing to eat. This has happened to me and it is annoying.
Now it’s one thing if you are in an upgraded seat — don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. But if you paid for it you should get a partial refund of your ticket if they fail to give you an acceptable meal (which in this case would be vegetarian)
Yes, you can pre-order your meals on United, but half the time that system doesn’t work or somehow they ask you again for your meal choice and have no idea that you pre-ordered.
Yes, the passenger was a douche and should be banned from United. But maybe this is a chance for United to fix this.
Your right, it probably ticked him off that he paid a whole lot of money for the flight, then doesn’t get the meal he wanted. I guess he felt entitled. And to be fair, he should have gotten that meal, and that is on United. But it isn’t an excuse to do what he did. I’m wondering what he meant by saying he was standing up for his rights? I guess he thought he has a right to make a scene causing a diversion thereby violating everyone else’s rights?
In the end, apparently, he drank himself out of being a frequent flyer on United it sounds like, and into an expensive bill. If he lives in Houston, that is going to not only be expensive, but very inconvenient for him to frequently fly out of Houston for however long on someone other than United. Not only was he kicked off the flight, and I am assuming arrested, meaning a federal criminal charge that he gets to pay to defend himself from, but he also gets to re-imburse United for the diversion. THIS is why they don’t let people board a plane drunk, nor do they allow you to be overserved. It’s too bad we don’t get follow up on these incidents so others can learn from these bad actors.
But this is at least partially on United, though no excuse for him. When you have a frequent flyer that pays well, you need to provide good service. Now because of a simple thing like a meal, United will probably bar him from flying their airline because of something in their control. But the airlines seem to be taking business for granted these days.
Sweet! He gets kicked off. Who’s next on the upgrade list? A seat just opened.
Skip has to be drunk or dopey to throw a tantrum over airline food. Sounds like an entitled millennial.
Yet another self important OPM flyer doing his corporate boss’s bidding, making 40k a year with no vacation, feeling super important when an airline gives him a shiny “elite” card
It’s very clear that this man acted based on the political beliefs which he holds from the side I don’t like. The side I don’t like constantly behaves badly, while the side I do like never does anything wrong. All of the world’s ills come down to the side I don’t like, and it’s important to point out that all bad human behavior is based on the side I don’t like.
I hope that I can continue to better society by belittling and blaming the side I don’t like for all ills which befall us.
@ Bob Spoons
Exactly right. I’m so tired of all outrage, everything, all the time. There are a$$holes all over the political spectrum.
Should have taken that drunk Nap !
His behaviour is not good, but… The airlines are charging sky-high prices and whilst I am lucky with work paying, seriously – how hard is it to cater for a couple of extra $35 meals… The asian-based carriers seem to do it – why can’t the american? It shouldn’t have to be an episode of Hunger Games every time you book a Business Class seat heading o/s….
This is a PR mess for poor United Airlines. The world brutally beating up on United meals service.
I see that Gary doesn’t like being called out for bad grammar and deleted my comment lol. Yeah keep being the foremost expert in points and miles Gary but not grammar…
@Bob – I did not delete any post for criticizing my writing
I’ve often wondered if it’s possible to make sure true paying passengers of bus/first could be prioritized somehow. Especially on things like meal choices. I believe in most cases everyone gets what they want, but in the case there’s a run on short ribs and all you have left is fish ….
1. Paid tickets
2. Upgraders from a paid fare
3. Full points redemption
4. Non-rev