United Airlines is facing a discrimination lawsuit, as an Asian woman claims she was kicked off a United flight simply because she was mistaken for another Asian passenger seated several rows away from her (thanks to PYOK for flagging this).
In this post:
Did United mix up two female Asian realtors?
This incident happened on August 29, 2024, on United flight UA1627, scheduled to operate from Las Vegas (LAS) to Washington Dulles (IAD). The flight departed at 9AM local time, and was supposed to make the 2,065-mile journey to Dulles Airport.
There were several realtors onboard, who were returning from a conference in Las Vegas. At least two of those realtors were Asian women, who knew one another and worked together. However, they weren’t seated together (they were seven rows apart), so for all practical purposes, they were separate parties on this flight. This will be an important detail in a bit.
Due to bad weather, the flight had to divert to Baltimore (BWI). This was a super unpleasant situation, as passengers ended up being stuck on the aircraft on the ground in Baltimore for roughly five hours, due to the lack of available gates. Typically the tarmac rule requires airlines to give passengers the option of deplaning within three hours, but the number of diversions meant that simply wasn’t possible.
As you’d expect, passengers became restless. One of the female Asian realtor’s colleagues started feeling unwell, and was sweating profusely and suffering pain in his chest. The passengers claim that the flight attendant was quite dismissive about his medical condition, and wrote off the symptoms as a panic attack.
So one of the Asian realtors confronted the flight attendant over her rudeness, and received a “snarky” response. Eventually, passengers were able to deplane, before once again being allowed to board the aircraft again, around midnight. As the second Asian realtor attempted to board (who had nothing to do with the above situation), she was told that she wouldn’t be allowed to fly, due to accusations made by a flight attendant.
Putting two and two together, she concluded that she was being denied boarding over the earlier interaction between the first Asian realtor and the flight attendant. So the belief is that she was incorrectly identified based on her ethnicity, despite sitting far away, and reportedly spending the entire delay reading her Kindle.
Eventually her coworkers stood up in support of her at the gate, causing all four of them to ultimately be denied boarding, before being escorted out of the airport by police. The flight attendant reportedly claimed that one of the passengers had physically pushed her, an accusation that all passengers deny.
The two realtors have provided witnesses, including an off-duty United employee, who reportedly saw everything that happened.
You’d hope these incidents wouldn’t happen, but…
There are different versions of events as to whether a passenger pushed the flight attendant during a confrontation. Regardless, it sounds like any of those accusations would involve the first Asian realtor, and not the second one, given that one was reportedly just reading her Kindle throughout the delay.
Obviously we don’t know for sure what really happened here, though I think we’d all hope that an airline wouldn’t simply kick off a passenger simply based on having a similar gender and ethnicity to another passenger. Unfortunately this would hardly be the first time that something like this happened.
After all, we’ve seen American kick a group of Black men off a flight over body odor issues. The only problem is that the body odor issues reportedly involved one person, but the group of men who didn’t know one another were all kicked off. We’ve also seen American kick two Orthodox Jewish men off a flight due to the behavior of one of them, even though they didn’t know one another.
It goes without saying that all of this should never happen. However, all too often it does, when there aren’t enough layers in place for ensuring policies are followed.
Bottom line
In a lawsuit, United is being accused of kicking an Asian woman off a flight, due to the alleged actions of another Asian woman. Now, the accusations against that other passenger are disputed as well, but if the details are as explained, this is problematic. I’m curious to see what comes of this, or if it’s settled out of court…
What do you make of this lawsuit against United?
They did beat up and drag the asian doctor off the airplane not a long time ago. United and most American carriers are well known for discriminating against asian, middle eastern customers; their decline in service quality is well documented which is why they cry to the DOJ/DOT anytime they see Emirates, Singapore and other non-US carriers competing with them.
When it comes to discrimination on airplanes, I think the white guys need to tighten up their game. If you're going to throw your weight around and punish pax, you darn well better KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. If the white guys are lumping members of an ethnic group together when there's a problem, they should be severely punished for 'blanket discrimination'. Travellers may not be aware of the power of an FA who doesn't...
When it comes to discrimination on airplanes, I think the white guys need to tighten up their game. If you're going to throw your weight around and punish pax, you darn well better KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. If the white guys are lumping members of an ethnic group together when there's a problem, they should be severely punished for 'blanket discrimination'. Travellers may not be aware of the power of an FA who doesn't like you or what you're doing. I had a mild altercation with an FA a couple of years ago, resulting in a quick conversation with an FAA official who met me in the jetway when I deplaned. The FA didn't like the way I was wearing my mask ... the venom she directed towards me was quite shocking; the Captain joined us on the jetway and backed up the FA. He made statements that proved he had no knowledge of the situation, he just believed whatever she told him. The FAA guy saw right through this and I was on my way. Perhaps the power that has been given to the FAs needs to be toned down a little, especially when they do incredibly dumb things like 'punish' the wrong Asian female RE agent.
gee.......when police officers pull someone over for an issue they immediately ask for ID & registration....why don't flight attendants ask for an ID & boarding pass to verify the person and seat assignment so what ever happens going forward can be handled with some sort of accuracy.......just a suggestion?
to error is human????
She is lucky she didn't get Dr. Dao'd!
Just don't fly United in general if you're Asian. They have a history against Asians being treated unfairly. Explain to me why they are also expanding routes in Asia? Are they going ti kick off an entire plane because they are all Asians as well.
Air travel in general is becoming problematic, from drunk passengers, worsening travel conditions and now power mad flight attendants. As if flying domestic wasn't a miserable enough experience as it is.
White folks are funny. They're saying Asians all look alike. Would that be the same for Blacks? I mean, isn't that the reason why white jurors always vote to convict any Black person in court? White people just can't tell anyone apart.
United needs to be sued of an unidentified amount and all of the aircraft personnel on board of that flight terminated, with the rights to not work in the airline industry again!
Isn’t this sort of like saying everyone looks alike. There are multiple crew members NOT involved in this scenario
Ha! the table is turned!
Gotta love how clean the comment section is thanks to the Arps Skadden's absence.
Honesty isn’t popular these days, but it is a very easy mistake to make with how similar they look.
Realtors? It’s the Botox.
Yu got the Wong person.
Mu your car. No pah king.
Well hotels have camera in the lobby and some in hallways, why not have them on airplanes?
Of course there is alot of personal filming on the airplanes when there is an incident. But cannot always be collected by police.
I guess United's defense will be that all Asians look the same.
With that flight, everyone should be able to receive huge compensations or file lawsuits.
Totally unreliable UNITED air.
They looked very similar - sometimes I can’t differenciate them myself. What can you do?
What a discriminatory remark. What they can do is listen and identify the correct person. Also, based on what you said then people can say all white people look alike what can you do. Nonetheless, that passenger who made a comment about the flight attendant’s response to another passenger in a supposed medical episode should not be removed from the flight. How dare the flight attendant dismissed it as just a panic attack as if...
What a discriminatory remark. What they can do is listen and identify the correct person. Also, based on what you said then people can say all white people look alike what can you do. Nonetheless, that passenger who made a comment about the flight attendant’s response to another passenger in a supposed medical episode should not be removed from the flight. How dare the flight attendant dismissed it as just a panic attack as if she was medically qualified. Total power trip with these flight attendants.
No where in this article does it describe medical personnel being involved. It appears the flight attendant’s assessment was correct.
Much like airlines issue passenger bans, they should issue employment bans for this sort of blatant racism. The reputational harm from low quality FA is absurd.
Also that situation is pretty ridiculous- BWI is a 1-hour drive from IAD. it would have been far faster to take a taxi or bus rather than wait for an abusive United Airlines to complete the flight.
I'm assuming you won't get your luggage though. And if you don't board the plane, security restrictions call for your luggage to be removed. At that point who knows what will happen to it?
Also, I'm pretty sure they weren't told it was going to be another 2 hours. They were probably dribbled the delay in 15 minutes increments the way most gate agents do it, so they had no reason to believe it would take as long as it did.
This is ridiculous but not surprising. Why do these issues arise mostly on U.S. airlines? F.A.s on a power trip? They can just come up with any excuse to deny boarding. The F.A. misidentifies the passenger and it leads to escalation instead deescalation. You can see how that played out at the gate during boarding after the delay which ended up with more denied boarding. Incidents can happen on other airlines as well but why...
This is ridiculous but not surprising. Why do these issues arise mostly on U.S. airlines? F.A.s on a power trip? They can just come up with any excuse to deny boarding. The F.A. misidentifies the passenger and it leads to escalation instead deescalation. You can see how that played out at the gate during boarding after the delay which ended up with more denied boarding. Incidents can happen on other airlines as well but why do they consistently end up in escalation instead of deescalation with U.S. airlines.
@E39 This discrimination happened on a Star Alliance carrier, lol.
Is she somehow related to The famous Dr David Dao?
I am a "law and order" type of person. I follow instructions and cooperate with law enforcement. Police and the like also generally behave within the rules, they can be penalized or fired if they break the rules. My big problem is with airline employees. These are not police or court officers, they could simply be power trip hungry malicious people that lie if it helps their situation.
"Police and the like also generally behave within the rules, they can be penalized or fired if they break the rules."
No, they do not. Stop pepertuating that myth. Not only do they not follow the "rules," nothing happens to them when they break them. For example, none of those cops who witnessed that lady who broke her pelvis because one of their buddies threw her to the ground after being released from jail has...
"Police and the like also generally behave within the rules, they can be penalized or fired if they break the rules."
No, they do not. Stop pepertuating that myth. Not only do they not follow the "rules," nothing happens to them when they break them. For example, none of those cops who witnessed that lady who broke her pelvis because one of their buddies threw her to the ground after being released from jail has been charged or fired. None of them. They didn't even report the crime to their superiors.
Pay your employees more money. You'll attract smarter employees. Problem solved.
I believe it is getting to the stage where crew will be required to wear bodycam.
@Justin Dev it is called do not go on a power trip and learn the meaningful and effective process of deescalation. :)
Grocery store staff in the UK now wear body cams.
I think this is a fantastic idea. We keep hearing they are there for safety, not service. So, let's see it. I agree many FAs ensure abusive treatment, so it's for their safety. But as many have pointed out, their absolute discretion in keeping people off flights makes some a menace, so let's have an impartial eye.
Fire the FA... Fire a lot of FAs... There are a lot of bad ones that make the good ones look bad.
And pay the lady!
what does it matter that she was Asian? Are you saying Asians look alike? Terrible
I wouldn't necessarily call this discrimination though but lawsuit yes. It's more incompetence than discrimination. It's a country wide issue. People do not double check anything. Cell phones have taught us react within 30 seconds of any situation. "an asian b*tch me out. Ok I'm gonna kick the 1st one off".
Dr. David Dao knows a few good lawyers. And they still have United on speed-dial.
"One of the female Asian realtor’s colleagues started feeling unwell, and was sweating profusely and suffering pain in his chest. The passengers claim that the flight attention...wrote off the symptoms as a panic attack." Some smart ass FA. You better 1000% sure that person doesn't has a heart attack before open your mouth and said is just a panic attack.
The FA is pathetic, and has lied about being physically assaulted. That lie should be a firing offence.
This is never a good situation. And sometimes deplaning is not possible particularly if thunderstorms are rolling in and out. Airport workers are not going out during thunderstorms to bring a flight in.
What helps is regular communication and flight attendants up and about offering at least water. But too often no information and flight attendants sitting on their asses thinking "not my problem."
If I were on the jury I would be pushing to award a high amount in this lawsuit. Not because I think the individual had any level of extreme suffering, but because airlines really need to be penalised for being so happy to deny boarding to passengers. Even if this was the individual who allegedly got into an argument, once things cooled down, they presumably caused no further issues, so what's the point other than...
If I were on the jury I would be pushing to award a high amount in this lawsuit. Not because I think the individual had any level of extreme suffering, but because airlines really need to be penalised for being so happy to deny boarding to passengers. Even if this was the individual who allegedly got into an argument, once things cooled down, they presumably caused no further issues, so what's the point other than a power play? Airlines should be held responsible for their employees.
Exactly. A lot of people here are saying pax in US are out of control but I have flown everywhere in Asia and if US is out of control, then some of the markets in Asia are asylum centers. But the point is it never goes to the point of removal and almost every cases, situations are deescalated calmly
Usually deescalation involves the crew or airline staff to show some level of submission and humility...
Exactly. A lot of people here are saying pax in US are out of control but I have flown everywhere in Asia and if US is out of control, then some of the markets in Asia are asylum centers. But the point is it never goes to the point of removal and almost every cases, situations are deescalated calmly
Usually deescalation involves the crew or airline staff to show some level of submission and humility and pretend they are understanding, pretty much a must in hospitality, even in a safety focused sector like aviation. It is so that the pax feels they got there point and there is nothing else to talk about. But this does not exist in US, crew does not want to face challenges and takes the easy way and power trips. Regulation has also empowered FAs to a ridiculous point and it really needs to change because it feels more and more like you are flying less with flight attendants and more like you are flying with prison guards. And as you pointed out, it should be upto airlines to be held responsible but I also don’t get why they don’t dissuade FAs, surely this is costing the airline money in both rebooking the pax or going through courts and handing out compensations and penalties. It is just plan stupid
Just another worthless flight attendant on a power trip. there for your safety, nothing else...
I'm a little confused as to why the passengers were reboarded to fly BWI to IAD after a 5 hour delay? Both airports are in the DC area
@Anyflyer,
Perhaps some had connecting flights? Parked their vehicles there? Visitors to the area and didn't know the logistics of getting around?
Yeah, I was wondering the same. They probably could have gotten a bus to IAD in less than 5 hours. Heck, I used to take the Chinatown bus from DC to NYC and that would take 5-6 hours even with Friday evening traffic.
UA probably needed the plane in IAD, not an out station like BWI
FAs power trip is totally out of control. Only in the US you hear this level of passenger ejection volume. Sounds like the passengers being upset is t Legitimate and yet still getting kicked off. Out of control.
Have you been to the US and seen how passengers behave?
Forget passengers. 50% of us are just nuts. Whatever thought that comes to mind becomes fact just by repeating it 3x and then they tell people there's lots of data out there go look it up. They don't know data if a data center fell on their heads.
@Komma Have you ever been on U.S. airlines and see how the flight attendants go on power trips and they are there for your safety not for providing any customer services? Can you tell the difference in attitude between U.S. airlines and Asian airlines?
Found the unionized FA?
I am an American living in the US currently but work/travel/live in multiple countries ...duh.
FA power trip.
Part of it is the pressure box they put passengers under. The neverending, never-reviewed safety measure make people feel inherently unsafe. There need to be safety protocols of course, but the whole environment feels pressurized.
You say that these incidents happen all too often. I think that is a perception not based on reality. What percentage of passengers are subjected to this? What are the percentages when you break it down by gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation? Let’s give some numbers, if they exist, and then accuse the airlines that this kind of thing happen all too often.
Discrimination is very hard to quantify, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. From my personal experience I have to say it does happen quite often in places where the awareness is low.
imo it's a two-way street. if flight attendants had proper service training, passengers (as a whole) would be better behaved
Eric Ji, you speak the truth!
It does, just because it's not your perception or experience doesn't mean that it's not happening.
I've boarded many flights with UA and noticed the interactions between gate agents, flight attendants, etc. with other customers are positive, met with good morning, even eye contact, etc... and when it comes for my time I say good morning and many either ignore me, turn their back to go do something, respond with "mhhmm" etc. Part of...
It does, just because it's not your perception or experience doesn't mean that it's not happening.
I've boarded many flights with UA and noticed the interactions between gate agents, flight attendants, etc. with other customers are positive, met with good morning, even eye contact, etc... and when it comes for my time I say good morning and many either ignore me, turn their back to go do something, respond with "mhhmm" etc. Part of the reason I switched from United to a different one recently and on the other domestic airlines I am not met with the same subpar UA experience.
I'm not going to say this one incident was racist, etc. but on one of my last UA flights last year it seemed to be going OK until I asked for a Spiced Cranberry Sprite and the FA seemed irritated I had asked for that, stared me down a bit. UA needs a real culture change and they need to get rid of the bad apples because on the last few flights, good didn't lead the way.
There are many many countries in the world. Most have airlines. But if you didn't name the airline or the location of this incident and then I had to guess the country...
Why do Canadians with their foreign King think they are so much superior to Americans. Because they aren’t.
Nah you seppos elected a melon twice. You don't get to judge others.
Irrespective of race, why do so many of these incidents escalate to the point where people are denied boarding? I imagine it was a long day and tempers were flaring, but maybe if the FAs were a bit more professional and able to de-escalate conflict properly, it would never have risen to this level.
This is mistaken identity - NOT racism, plain and simple. If it was racism they wouldn’t have let the other Asian lady on the plane first, would they? Yawn.
Calling it racism draws more attention to it and gets the hearts bleeding out of control. There's a strong desire in modern society to make every incident an extreme one.
Why do we assume they are women? Even if they wear traditionally female clothing, they may self identify as men or neither man or woman.
We are all bigots because we often refer to male or female but did not ascertain whether the individual self identifies as male, female, X, or Klingon.
I know you think you’re being clever or snarky or funny but you’re really just showing the world how big of a moron you are.
The plaintiffs identified themselves as women in their filed lawsuit, which is free to the public to read, but you’d need reading comprehension skills for that.
OMG. Get a life
As your name is Derek, should we not assume you’re a male? So I guess you’re a female? You are ludicrous.
Oh FFS Derek, give it a rest.
Even if the person suing is 100% right, how big could the damages in the suit actually be? Unless she missed some major business deal the next day the actual damages are negligible and not worth the time to sue.
The suit is not for denial of boarding which may be de minimis with respect to damages. The suit is for discrimination. The punitive damages are enormous because discrimination is just so ugly and pervasive we need to impose huge monetary penalties to corporations to give them an incentive to stamp out discrimination.
Anti-Asian racism is often swept under the rug. Kudos to you Ben for reporting on this. Hope the Asian passengers receive $100M payouts each just like Zuckerberg’s giving to AI researchers who aren’t even geniuses, they just have a very basic command of linear algebra. Which is sadly way out of grasp of the kind of rude and trashy flight attendants who would falsely report battery by Asians and further take action based on their own bias that Asians look alike.
@E. Jack Youlater
Good amount of that "anti-Asian racism" is done by the blacks.
I wish you can keep your view on this topic after acknowledging that, because most people seem to neglect out the fact that blacks discrimimate Asians because they think that Asians are inferior.
Thanks for sharing and giving attention to this incident and not burying it. Racism from Airline Employees is real. Just this week someone reported they were flying AA domestic First Class, the only non white person in First, and the FA told them there were no meals left. This post garnered a lot of comments including from AA FA’s who said there was no such thing as having no meals left in First is there...
Thanks for sharing and giving attention to this incident and not burying it. Racism from Airline Employees is real. Just this week someone reported they were flying AA domestic First Class, the only non white person in First, and the FA told them there were no meals left. This post garnered a lot of comments including from AA FA’s who said there was no such thing as having no meals left in First is there always extras. Many other people of color commented that it had happened to them too. Unfortunately, there are rotten apples in the airline industry.