The Finneeeesse: Woman Scores A $10,000 Voucher From United Airlines For Giving Up Her Seat
March 23, 2018
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United Airlines Passenger Scored a Voucher Worth $10K
A woman in Washington, D.C. is going down in the history books for the most legendary finesse of all time. She put every other customer service offer to shame by scoring a $10,000 voucher from United Airlines. Yep, $10,000. She’s a legend. But as you might be able to predict, Allison Preiss said that getting the airline to cough up the dough was no easy feat.
Preiss was on her way from Washington Dulles International Airport to Austin, Texas on Thursday morning when the airline staff starting asking passengers to volunteer their seats on the overbooked flight. As per usual, nobody volunteered, and when that happened, the airline told Preiss that she had to forfeit her seat, because she had paid the lowest fare.
Obviously, Allison was pretty annoyed, so she took to Twitter to vent about the incident. After that, one airline worker tried to backpedal and completely change the situation, telling Preiss that she was only bumped because the plane had a broken seat.
.@united offering $1K in travel credit for an oversold flight. If nobody bites, they will kick off the lowest fare passenger by pulling them out of the boarding line. For a flight that THEY oversold. Unreal.
— Allison Preiss (@allisonmpreiss) March 22, 2018
After that is when the gate agents started to negotiate. They first they offered her a $2,000 voucher, but Preiss declined and said she’d prefer a check. As they were about to write her a check for $650, one agent offered her a seat on the next plane and a $10,000 voucher.
This offer is in line with the airline’s new cap for passengers who offer up their seats, which was raised back in April 2017, following a passenger being dragged off a plane for refusing to forfeit his seat.
They really do not want to give me cash. They just offered me $10,000 in travel credit. TEN THOUSAND.
— Allison Preiss (@allisonmpreiss) March 22, 2018
Good on you, Allison. This is a message to all future flight passengers to stick to your guns when traveling, you might just walk away with $10,000.