- A United Airlines passenger said he was served a first-class meal while seated in economy plus.
- He told Insider that the plane's cabin manager threatened to add him to a no-fly list because of it.
A United Airlines passenger said he was thrilled about being served a first-class meal in economy plus — until he said the plane's cabin manager threatened to add him to a no-fly list.
Sam, who requested to be referred to by his first name because of privacy concerns, told Insider that he was flying from Madison, Wisconsin, to Seattle via Denver on August 3.
Sam, who said he was a loyal United flyer and a Premier 1K member of the airline's MileagePlus frequent-flyer program, was upgraded to first class for the first leg of his trip.
He said passengers on his first-class flight to Denver didn't receive a meal because the flight was mistakenly not catered. But he said that the flight "went off without a hitch" and that he spent part of his time chatting with a flight attendant.
Sam told Insider that he was seated in economy plus for the next leg of the flight to Seattle and that the flight happened to be on the same plane with the same cabin crew.
He said he asked the flight attendant he had chatted with to save him a manicotti meal for the trip to Seattle if there were any to spare.
"At no point did I actually think she was going to do it. And if she did do it, great," he said. "I shot my shot."
Sam said that he boarded the plane again after the 40-minute layover and that he reminded the flight attendant of his request when he spotted her.
But the cabin manager overheard the conversation, he said.
Sam said that the cabin manager approached him a few minutes later and that they told him "confrontationally and very rudely" that he couldn't be given the manicotti meal because it was against United's policy to get a first-class meal in an economy seat. United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sam told Insider that he didn't see the flight attendants for the next 90 minutes. But he said the friendly flight attendant brought him a plate of manicotti and a fork after the first-class meal service was finished.
"It was very discreet. She dropped it down, winked at me, and I said, 'Oh my gosh, thank you so much,'" Sam said. "And that was it."
Sam said the cabin manager approached him when he took his first bite of manicotti.
The cabin manager "then begins to verbally berate me in the most condescending, unprofessional, and disrespectful tone, informing me that she is 'writing me up,'" Sam said. He said the cabin manager was also planning to write up the flight attendant.
"The big points of what she said to me were that I was being documented, I was being disciplined, and that discipline could lead to being put on United's do-not-fly list," he said.
Sam said the cabin manager also notified the captain of the incident.
"My emotional state went from happy to 'What's going on?' to 'Are you kidding me?'" he said.
Sam said that he approached the captain after the flight to explain the situation and that the captain apologized.
Sam shared the incident on Reddit on the same day. His post, which has since been removed, had more than 450 comments. Some commenters were shocked by the cabin manager's actions, but others were shocked that Sam had broken the rules.
Sam told Insider that he sent United a three-page email to explain what happened and that he was "reasonably satisfied" with the airline's response. He said he received an apology and was told that United would investigate the incident with their in-flight leadership and corporate security team.
Sam said he was shocked by what happened, but he said he hadn't sworn off United.
"You don't get divorced over one bad day," he said.