Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last week for a business conference.
Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.
Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.
I asked why, he told me. They said the flight was overfull.
Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night, held his ground. He was already on plane, already seated. He shouldnt have to disembark.
Thats when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute, Fearns said. They said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.
Apparently United had some mechanical troubles with the aircraft scheduled to make the flight. So the carrier swapped out that plane with a slightly smaller one with fewer first-class seats.
Suddenly it had more first-class passengers than it knew what to do with. So it turned to its How to Screw Over Customers handbook and determined that the one in higher standing more miles flown, presumably gets the seat and the other first-class passenger, even though hes also a member of the frequent-flyer program, gets the boot.
I understand you might bump people because a flight is full, Fearns said. But they didnt say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat. And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said theyd put me in cuffs if they had to.
You couldnt make this up if you tried.
It shouldnt make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If theres anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, its that person.
So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the airline that knows how to add insult to injury.
A United employee, responding to Fearns complaint that he shouldnt have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.
They argued the whole way back, Fearns recalled. Nearly six hours. It was a lot of fun.
