United Tricks Passenger Into Deplaning, Then Denies Him Boarding

An OMAAT reader (who asked to remain anonymous, for the purposes of this post) shared a very strange story with me. He was able to board a flight, then temporarily removed so that a ticket issue could be addressed, and then denied boarding. What exactly happened here?

Traveler removed from United aircraft, denied boarding

A traveler shares what he calls the most outrageous treatment that he has ever received from an airline. This happened on Friday, May 2, 2025, and involves United flight UA1905, from Chicago (ORD) to Pittsburgh (PIT), where the OMAAT reader was traveling with his elderly father. According to the traveler’s version of events:

• The traveler and his father were on standby for this flight, and arrived at the gate about 20 minutes ahead of boarding, and were given boarding passes well ahead of boarding starting
• The traveler and his father boarded when their group was called, and everything seemed fine, and they were waiting for the door to close
• Shortly before the door was supposed to close, a gate agent approached the man’s seat (and another passenger’s seat), asking the two to follow her to discuss something, and to take their things with them
• He complied, but clarified that he’d able to board the plane once again; the gate agent confirmed, and said there was just a minor problem in the system, and they needed to verify a few things
• Upon arriving back at the gate, the other gate agent told the man that it was going to take too long to sort out the issues, and the plane would be leaving without him

Let me of course emphasize that the traveler was told by the initial gate agent that he’d be allowed to get back on the plane. Also note that the passenger’s elderly father was still on the flight and wasn’t deplaned, despite them being on the same ticket.

The agent then explained that there was a system error with the ticket. The reader of course wonders how he was able to board his flight if there was an issue, why the issue wasn’t sorted out earlier, and why he was lied to about being able to get back on the plane. It gets worse:

• The traveler realized that he had left his cell phone in the seat back pocket, but the gate agents refused to retrieve it
• The traveler’s elderly father was “confused and distressed,” as he relies on his son to help navigate airports; he asked to get off the plane, but was denied
• So not only was the elderly father separated from the son, but the son didn’t have his cell phone, to stay in touch with his father

When it came to compensation, the supervisor offered the passenger a $350 flight credit. The traveler said he found that to be shocking for the amount of embarrassment, distress, and inconvenience, so the supervisor upped the offer to $500, but said he couldn’t give any more.

The traveler was ultimately rebooked on a flight three hours later. When his father landed in Pittsburgh, he asked a United gate agent why his son was kicked off the flight. That gate agent reportedly claimed it was due to a weight restriction. However, the pilot reportedly overheard that and refuted the claim, stating he had no idea why the man was kicked off the flight, as there was no weight restriction.

United handled this situation very poorly

Obviously we only have one side of the story here. If I were to reach out to the airline, they almost certainly wouldn’t be willing to discuss individual customer complaints with me, for obvious privacy reasons. So let me share my analysis of the situation.

First of all, it seems pretty clear that the traveler was taken off the flight for something outside of his own control. So it’s not that he was actually intoxicated or belligerent, or something, since he was offered compensation for the inconvenience.

At a minimum, the customer service shown here was absolutely pitiful, and shows a basic lack of humanity:

• He was told that he’d be able to get back on the aircraft, when that wasn’t the truth
• When it was discovered that he left his cell phone on the plane, they refused to get it
• The traveler’s elderly father wanted to deplane, but wasn’t given the right to do so, separating the traveling party

Logically, some might wonder why the traveler wasn’t more assertive. As he explained to me, “normally, I would have been more forceful before just walking off, but I was exhausted as it had been a long travel day managing my elderly father.” Fair enough!

I’m curious what actually prompted the issue, though. I asked the traveler for more details on his ticket. He explained that he was on an Aeroplan award ticket, which involved travel on both Copa and United, and this was the last segment of the itinerary. A few thoughts:

• Once you clear standby for a flight, you’re considered confirmed, and should be treated the same as any other passenger
• If there was an issue with the ticket in the background, that should’ve been handled before the passenger was allowed to board the flight, and not after
• What makes zero sense here is that there was seemingly an issue with the one traveler, but not with his father, even though they were traveling on the same ticket

In terms of compensation, the traveler should be eligible for the standard involuntary denied boarding compensation, based on my reading of this. Since he arrived at his destination between one and four hours late (on an international ticket), the airline should pay an amount equal to 200% of the one-way fare, with a $775 maximum.

Since this was an award ticket, that amount would be based on the lowest published fare in the market. In reality, that probably wouldn’t end up being much more than $500, though it should be cash, rather than a United voucher. Whether the airline offers any additional compensation, though, is anyone’s guess.

I suspect the issue in getting a resolution here is that the gate agents may not have correctly filed this incident in the computer for what it actually was. I’d be shocked if they properly registered this as an involuntary denied boarding situation.

Bottom line

A traveler cleared standby on a United flight, only to then be removed shortly before the door closed, due to a supposed issue with his ticket. That’s despite him being told that he’d be allowed back on the plane, and he even ended up being separated from his elderly father. I don’t know what exactly caused this issue, but one thing is for sure — United didn’t handle this well.

What do you make of this strange United denied boarding incident?