Looks like United just can't get out of the spotlight. But this time, it's not about Mr. Dao and his horrible encounter with the United staff after he refused to give his seat. Rather, the famous airline flew a passenger to the wrong direction.
A French woman who recently flew with United said the airline flew her 3,000 miles in the wrong direction. She was supposed to fly from Newark, New Jersey to Paris, France, but the airlines flew her to Chicago instead.
According to Travel Pulse, Lucie c cannot understand a word of English. Although her ticket explicitly said she was heading to Paris, a last-minute gate change was announced for her flight. It was in English, therefore she did not understand a word. She just arrived at the boarding gate and the staff boarded her without checking the destination.
Her niece told ABC New York the exact details of what happened, and she said her aunt already felt something was wrong when another person was already sitting in her seat when she boarded the flight. The flight attendants, instead of realizing something was amiss, apparently just moved her to another seat.
Bahetoukilae's niece said her aunt got the surprise of her life when she realized she was not in Paris upon landing. When she finally told the airport staff of what happened, they immediately rerouted her flight to France, not without enduring an 11-hour layover at the airport.
United was sympathetic about Bahetoukilae's experience and offered a refund from her trip as well as the accommodation costs she spent while waiting for her Paris flight. But according to her family, she wasn't concerned about the money. It's about United's failure to address a serious security lapse such as what happened, saying their aunt can be anyone. A terrorist, even.
"With everything going on this country people have to be more careful," her niece said. "They didn't pay attention. My aunt could have been anyone. She could have been a terrorist and killed people on that flight and they didn't know they didn't catch it."
An apology statement was already released by United to Bahetoukilae and her family. They said they are also working with Newark to avoid such an incident to arise again.
