A woman has claimed that United Airlines forced her fiancé to give up his spot in first class and move to economy so that a crew member could have his seat.
Danielle Schwab, who goes by the username @watergirl8296 on TikTok, made the claim in a video posted to the app on Tuesday. In the clip, which was filmed from her seat on the plane, Schwab said she and her husband were travelling from London’s Heathrow airport to Chicago when he was “bumped” from his seat.
“Okay so, I’m recording this right now because we are on United Airlines going from Heathrow to Chicago and we booked these seats, we’re in first class, we booked these seats fair and square,” the TikToker said. “And, all of a sudden, my fiancé, we just got engaged, just got moved to coach.”
According to Schwab, her partner was moved from his seat, which the couple had booked “ahead of time,” because the airline wanted a “part of the crew to sit in first class instead”.
“I understand that the crew works really hard, however, we booked these seats ahead of time and this is not fair,” she continued. “This is not customer service. I’m sorry, it’s just not customer service. Like, this is ridiculous.”
The video, which has since been viewed more than 1.7m times, has been met with outrage on the couple’s behalf, with many encouraging Schwab to ask the airline for compensation.
“Ask them how you will be compensated because they can’t just move you,” one person wrote, while another said: “Definitely not fair. Get a refund for the difference in seat prices asap!”
In a follow-up video, Schwab said: “Basically, what we were told is, this is how it works. Flight attendants take turns taking naps in the back of the plane, there’s usually bunks or seats that go out into a bed. So, what they were saying is, if a seat is not working … what they did instead was they went ahead and booted four people out of first class, including Mikey.”
In the video, the TikToker said she was told by airline staff that it’s not a “common practise,” as the plane is supposed to be put “out of service if you don’t have enough seats” for flight crew.
“Or you can do the screwed up thing and kick people out,” she said.
Schwab’s fiancé then claimed that, once they’d gotten off the plane, they were greeted by a customer service representative, who…
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