A woman's annoying travel day turned into basically one of the best days ever when United Airlines gave her a $10,000 travel voucher for bumping her off a flight.
Allison Preiss, a communications director for the Center for American Progress, was flying Thursday when the airline announced the flight was oversold. They began the call for a volunteer to get off the flight, but no one budged.
.@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.
Preiss live-tweeted the whole saga, saying the airline said it would kick off the "lowest fare passenger" if no one volunteered.
She was traveling from Washington, DC, to Austin.
Unfortunately for Preiss, she soon found out she was the lowest-fare passenger, and she was pulled out of the boarding line. She was frustrated.
.@united IS THE WORST.
She also claimed United wanted her to sign something saying, "I volunteered my seat on this plane when I was involuntarily denied boarding," she tweeted.
"On the upside, I wasn’t physically dragged off the plane and my dog wasn’t killed on board, so I’ve got that going for me...which is nice," she tweeted, referencing recent United scandals.
However, her horrible travel day turned amazing when, instead of giving her cash, United gave her a travel voucher for the insane amount of TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.
This is how badly United didn’t want to give me cash:
People were pretty jealous, tbh.
@allisonmpreiss Omgggg where are you gonna spend it? First class to somewhere amazing?
I will also give up my seat!
@CaseyNeistat United employee: “We’re offering $10,000 for anyone willing to gi-“ Me:
Pick me, pick me!
If United ever offered me $10,000 to give up my seat.
A spokesperson for United confirmed the incident and voucher to BuzzFeed News, but gave no details about how often they give out vouchers this big.
Me after United offers me $10,000 to give up my seat
Preiss did not immediately return a request for comment.