Couple En Route to Wedding in Costa Rica Booted From United Flight

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A Utah man and his fiancée say they got the booted from a United flight Saturday out of Houston en route to their Costa Rica wedding after changing seats, reported local Utah media, the New York Daily News, and other national media outlets.

The company has been spotlighted for a series of recent customer service disasters in recent weeks, including an incident where a 69-year-old doctor was dragged off a flight to make room for United crew members causing him injury and bleeding, images of which that were taken by passengers circulated virally on the Internet.

Michael Hohl and Amber Maxwell’s destination wedding is slated for Thursday in Costa Rica, and said they were rebooked on another United flight.

According to their report to Utah TV affiliate KHOU, when they boarded flight no. 1737 along with friends they found their seats occupied by a napping man who was sprawled across their assigned seats.

So, they relocated to empty seats three rows up, with Hohl telling KHOU they were “simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat,” on the apparently half-full flight.

According to Hohl, after a flight attendant told the couple to return to their assigned seats, they did — only to be confronted by a U.S. Marshal who had been called aboard.

The couple said they agreed to deplane and there was no incident, according to media reports.

“They said that we were being disorderly and a hazard to the rest of the flight, to the safety of the other customers,” Hohl said.

KHOU-TV got a slightly different story from United who said they were “disappointed anytime a customer has an experience that doesn’t measure up to their expectations.”

“These passengers repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating which they did not purchase and they would not follow crew instructions to return to their assigned seats,” the airline said. “We’ve been in touch with them and have rebooked them on flights tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Dao who was removed from a United flight in Chicago last week, “suffered a broken nose, missing teeth, sinus injury and a ‘significant’ concussion,” said his attorney Thomas Demetrio said in a press conference Thursday. Dao has filed suit against United and the city of Chicago in Cook County Circuit Court, according to online reports.

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