The schoolteacher and lawyer who lost her first class seat on a United flight to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee countered the Democratic congresswoman’s claim that the passenger was upset due to racism.
‘That could have been Donald Duck in my seat,’ Jean-Marie Simon told Fox News on Thursday. ‘I could not see who had boarded the flight. I didn’t even know who she was.’
The dust-up occurred when United assigned Jackson Lee seat 1A, which was originally paid for in points by Simon, on a flight between Houston and Washington, D.C., on December 18.
Jean-Marie Simon, a D.C.-based teacher and lawyer, is pushing back against claims coming from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee that she’s a racist, after becoming angered at United for bumping her from her first-class flight and awarding it to the Democratic lawmaker
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was given another passenger’s first class seat on a United flight earlier this month and then suggested the woman complained because of racism
Passenger Jean-Marie Simon snapped a photo of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee sitting in the first-class seat Simon paid for. United contends Simon cancelled this leg of her flight, which resulted in Jackson Lee getting upgraded to Simon’s seat
Simon has said repeatedly that she was angered by the airline’s actions and not by Jackson Lee, suggesting the carrier decided to curry favor with the congresswoman and throw the teacher aside.
‘The only way she is relevant is that she has a documented history of demanding first-class service,’ Simon, a fellow Democrat, told Fox today.
She also thought United was ageist when the airline blamed Simon for cancelling her flight on the United app, which led to her seat loss.
‘I’m not some AARP grandmother who doesn’t know how to use a phone,’ said the 63-year-old, who was formerly a war photographer in Guatemala. ‘I know how to cancel a flight and I did not cancel this flight.’
Simon first took to Facebook to describe the experience saying as she waited at her gate she saw the woman she now knew to be Jackson Lee being escorted onto the plane before any other passengers including ‘uniformed military, toddlers, people with disabilities and Global Services passengers, and even a group of fellow Texas congressmen whom Jackson Lee had been talking to before she was escorted onto the plane.’
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she believes that Simon was so offended because she is an African American woman, and said that if it’s perceived she did anything wrong she wants to apologize in the spirit of the holiday season
Once it was Simon’s turn to board, the gate agent informed her that her reservation did not exist, though eventually reseated her in economy plus, adding a $500 voucher.
‘I said I wanted my seat, that I had paid a lot of miles for that seat, and that it was United’s responsibility to undo the seat assignment and return it to me, the person who had paid for it,’ Simon wrote. ‘He said no, because I had “unreserved” my seat and it had been given to another passenger, that s/he had been “upgraded.”‘
Simon said she was the last passenger to board the plane and was seated next to a Texas congressman who explained to her what happened.
‘He told me that it was Jackson Lee, a fellow U.S. congresswoman who regularly does this, that this was the third time he personally had watched her bump a passenger,’ Simon said. ‘Then he asked me if I knew whom Jackson Lee represents in Congress: Bush International Airport in Houston.’
‘He apologized, saying, “Jackson Lee gives us all a bad name; it’s shameful,'” Simon recalled.
When the flight got further delayed, Simon snapped a photo of Jackson Lee in her first-class seat when she walked up front to discuss alternative flight options.
She later encountered a flight attendant who asked her if she was going to be a problem.
‘United lied to me, repeatedly. They put Jackson Lee on the plane and then tried to blame it on a late incoming flight, another airline, my cell phone, united.com, Global Services, and on everybody but the United employee who deliberately erased my seat, my ticket, and my name from the system in order to accommodate a member of Congress who repeatedly bullies his/her way into favored status,’ Simon charged.
Upon hearing the story, Jackson Lee reacted by interpreting Simon’s actions as an affront against her race.
‘Since this was not any fault of mine, the way the individual continued to act appeared to be, upon reflection, because I was an African American woman, seemingly an easy target along with the African American flight attendant who was very, very nice,’ Jackson Lee tweeted on Tuesday.
‘But in the spirit of this season and out of the sincerity of my heart, if it is perceived that I had anything to do with this, I am kind enough to simply say sorry,’ the congresswoman added. ‘But as an African American, I know there are too many examples like this all over the nation.’
Simon, described as a human rights activist, quickly pushed back against Jackson Lee’s claims.
‘I had no idea who was in my seat when I complained at the gate that my seat had been given to someone else,’ she said.
‘There is no way you can see who is in a seat from inside the terminal,’ Simon explained.
On social media, Simon has repeatedly said she’s still not received a written apology from United, though the airline did reimburse her with a second $500 voucher on Monday and told the Houston NBC affiliate that her points for the flight had been given back.
An airline representative contacted her last Saturday morning and repeatedly apologized.
Simon has asked for a formal, written apology.
‘It’s just impossible to suspend disbelief and swallow that story that I cancelled my flight,’ she said said.
The lawyer and teacher said she was so distraught by how the airline treated her that after she arrived home she wrote a letter to the CEO, Oscar Munoz, and posted it on social media.
Immediately after the incident the airline denied Simon’s claims.
‘After thoroughly examining our electronic records, we found that upon receiving a notification that Flight 788 was delayed due to weather, the customer appears to have canceled her flight from Houston to Washington, DC within the United mobile app,’ United said in a statement.
‘As part of the normal pre-boarding process, gate agents began clearing standby and upgrade customers, including the first customer on the waitlist for an upgrade.’
The teacher said she has screenshots of her United app that shows a canceled flight to Houston in August during Hurricane Harvey when she was supposed to visit her daughter, according to the Houston Chronicle.
United says the screenshot wouldn’t show the December 18 flight as canceled because Simon did eventually end up taking the flight.
United Airlines has experienced a number of public relations headaches in the past year related to its customer service.
The most notorious case was that of Dr David Dao.
On April 9, just before a United flight was set to take off from Chicago to Louisville, security personnel forcibly dragged Dao off a plane to make room for United crew members.
Dao refused to give up his seat and was left bloodied by the experience, which was filmed on cellphone video and posted to social media.
The viral backlash was a black eye for United, which apologized. The airline and Dao reached a financial settlement for an undisclosed sum of money.
United Airlines has experienced a number of public relations headaches in the past year related to its customer service. On April 9, Dr David Dao (above) was violently dragged off a flight just before take off in Chicago because the airline needed to make room for crew