In terms of fun weekend controversy, it looks like will.i.am had a bit of a lounge issue with United this weekend, via The Daily Mail. Let me say upfront that my impression is that will.i.am is actually a really good guy... for what it's worth. Here are his Tweets from yesterday, in chronological order: #unitedAIRLINES…
Continue reading: Will.i.am Kicked Out Of United Lounge
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It seems likely that his rant was unwarranted and he simply wasn't entitled to be in the Global First Lounge.
Even GS cannot access Global 1st Lounge unless they travel in the BusinessFirst or p.s. business cabins.
It's not unreasonable to consider him to be a Global Services member - I was once turned away from the GFL even though I was GS member, their system, for some reason, did not reflect that though.
I especially liked how he notes that SQ & LH are his favourite *A carriers. Paris Hilton or the alike would've said CX and EK were her favourite *A airlines 😉
He might have taken a picture of the first United Club lounge sign he saw or since he is a Celebrity there might be a special access for big name Celebrities to get into the GFL.
In addition to whether it was the GFL or just a UC, there are other the semantics: Was he actually "kicked out" (i.e., had already entered and then told to leave) or was he "denied entrance" (i.e., simply didn't get past the dragons)? Too many details missing to make a judgement.
I do love the home made lounge. Seems like someone who does not take himself too seriously.
Am thinking it was JFK.
He was at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City the day before.
The background of the Dulles GFL sign is black granite, not the frosted window stripes.
The JFK GFL shares an entrance with the United Club, so at minimum they should have let him into the United Club if he had membership.
Very strange...
Lucky, some clarification...what is the United Global First Lounge, and how does it differ from the United Club? How does one gain access? Would make understanding the story a bit easier...
@ wwk5d -- If this is in fact at JFK, then the Global First Lounge is inside the United Club, to the left. The Global First Lounge is available to passengers connecting to international first class.
No doubt United is the worst airline ever existed. Similar thing happened to me in Hong Kong earlier this year. I was trying to get into Cathay Pacific's first class lounge while traveling on a business class cabin. Obviously that won't work, but Cathay Pacific staffs treated me with manners. The lady smiled, apologize for their instructions and led me to business class lounge. She was really polite. She kept apologizing for their signs, and promised they will make signs more clear in future.
United sucks, I really wish DOT tears it apart, make it transforming into many smaller companies. Maybe their service can be improved then.
@Lucky: Since there is no more p.s. first and limited connecting Global First traffic, that lounge has been designated a Global Services lounge open to all UGS members, so it is conceivable to me that he was entitled access and then denied.
"No doubt United is the worst airline ever existed."
No doubt that is one of the worst comments about the airline industry ever made.
I am shocked he would affiliate with such global evil doers. 🙂
Probably because he was black? Why else would they accuse him of producing a fake membership card? Don't think they would accuse Ben of some of us of something like that.
I think this is not an exception to the general rule that celebs that tweet about their customer service issues with airlines just make themselves look small. Really, none of us, fan or not, care about your customer services issues - deal with them privately like most of the rest of us do.
I guess that's marginally better than being kicked out of the airline completely.
Greetings from downnder - I heard on the radio this morning that this happened at Sydney airport. It was stressed that he was not rude at all!
@wwk5d. No doubt United never made any progress.,because people like you are way too torelant. Does United ever understand what "service" mean?
@Andrew - SYD does not have a UA lounge, instead UA uses the NZ lounge, so I doubt it was in SYD (he would have had access with his BP to the NZ lounge assuming he was in F or C).
@Nisikd Oh I'm not doubting United has it's share of problems. But 'worst airline ever', like, in the history of aviation? That's just dumb dumb dumb.
Very surprised that even the lowly United would make a mistake like that. I guess, it's time for them to start issuing metal club cards to VIPs or something so that lounge bouncers wouldn't accuse members of faking cards.
P.S. Are fake GS & lounge passes/cards a real problem?