I had a bad experience with United and therefore reluctant to give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, I have a hard time believing the story as told by the couple on their way to Costa Rica. They board the plane, encounter another passenger asleep across their seats, and the flight crew doesn’t wake or relocate the offending passenger, but instead calls an air marshal to escort them off the plane?
Without video or photo evidence, I’m not buying it.
This could happen to any father traveling with their kids and without the mother, especially if the kids are little physical copies of the mother.
Airport Security has asked my daughters where they were going and who we, mom and I, were numerous times while traveling.
I didn’t say that. In fact, we don’t know the truth. We do know that United has had a terrible rep for customer service for quite a while and has shown that it will freely mis-characterize a passenger’s behavior if it suits their purposes. We don’t know whether the couple are habitual liars or attention-seekers.
I don’t know how full the flight my relatives were on was. I do know that the captain came out and said the flight attendant said his conduct was “disruptive” and he had to get off immediately. I also know that the surrounding passengers vocally protested, and that a number of them pressed their business cards on his travelling companion, who was left on the plane, volunteering to be witnesses that his removal was uncalled for. This was not a case of the attendant saying “I’m sorry, we can’t fix it now. Would you like another seat, or to be rebooked on another flight?” No other seat was offered. This was a case of a flight attendant whose own behavior was odd, who had lost it, and could not deal civilly or rationally with a SINGLE reasonable request from a passenger. (That is, NOT a disruptive tirade or nagging or repeated calls.) There’s no way to make what they did reasonable, sorry. I strongly doubt that the captain comes out and maligns the passenger because of a broken seat before kicking them off the plane under normal circumstances.
As for fitting across the seats, lean on the window with a pillow and have the seatbelt loosely fastened. And I have short legs. 
I had to bring a certified copy of my D’s birth certificate to show there was no father when we went to Mexico. IIRC, I was asked for it 3x each way at different points. It did make me uneasy that they basically interrogated me each time, as though I was doing a parental abduction.
Though you have only heard one side of the story, sometimes people do act irrationally. I had a situation as a passenger where I offered a helpful suggestion to the flight attendant to pass onto the captain, who then became enraged. He told her that I needed to come up to the cockpit immediately, and when I put out my hand to shake his, he demanded my employee ID (though I was on a paid for, first class ticket, not jumpseating). He was very confrontational and defensive, though I was very low key, non-accusing and friendly.
It made me think two things. First, you have no idea what exactly the flight attendant says to the captain, he or she will act on the information they have been given, and garbage in=garbage out. Second, I’m not going to ever mention that I’m a crewmember when I feel the need to speak up!
Yes, I was nearly told I had to get off the plane when I asked the flight attendant (at the recommendation of a lung doc) if the pilot could adjust the pressurization of the plane to 6000 feet instead of whatever it was as a default.
Fortunately, they let me remain on the plane and at a layover, I casually asked some pilots who were eating a meal at a food court whether pilots COULD adjust cabin pressure of an airplane to a lower elevation and they all said, “NO!”
^^Well, you could adjust it by cruising at a lower altitude, but that could potentially cost a lot in extra gas. Typically I fly at altitudes that will give us a cabin altitude of approximately 6K, or maybe a bit higher. I do not like to fly at altitudes higher than 35,000 feet because I have read reports that say your radiation exposure goes up exponentially above that level.
If you were ever on my flight (though it’s extremely unlikely), I would stay at a lower cruise altitude for you. 
^^^That’s very sweet @Busdriver, but carrying my own portable oxygen concentrator has totally eliminated those issues and I do not ask questions of crew that could get me removed from flights. I like to think my own supplemental O2 also helps me stay healthier when traveling. 
I’m glad you bring your own oxygen so you are taken care of either way. I would hate to think you would be removed from a flight because you asked a question…perhaps people are fearful that you will be incapacitated?
Exactly. I have a lot of sympathy for flight attendants, who have to deal with what seems like an increasingly irritable public under worse and worse flying conditions. But there are people who just can’t take it any more and crack. And the person who ends up on the receiving end of their ire isn’t necessarily the person who deserves it.
BTW, I am a very low maintenance traveler/customer, and I try to always be pleasant, undemanding, and forgiving when dealing with those who serve the public.
I think the pilot/crew were afraid I’d have medical needs that couldn’t be met inflight and require an emergency landing or something. It made me wary of calling attention to myself by asking questions of crew. Mostly, crews now seem to pretend I’m invisible, which suits me and H fine.
We fly about 35-40K miles/year with pretty much no issues. We are grateful that our crews and pilots get us safely to our destinations without drama.
On the other hand, TSA could definitely stand considerable improvement. They stole over $1000 cash from my nephew on his way to college.
Packed cash in their checked luggage??
No, cash in carryon that was taken when going thru TSA!
That is terrible, HImom! And it’s probably one of those unprovable things, just missing?
Yes. His folks gave it to him when he was dropped off. He went thru TSA and it vanished. He was understandably VERY upset.
Another relative had $10K in cash taken from him at airport security in Russia, also from his carry on. I guess there are bad folks everywhere. The security and police wouldn’t do anything.
I believe they also stole his smartphone.
Wow! Goes to show you, don’t carry much cash around, someone will find it!
You would have to be nuts to carry $10k cash, almost anywhere, but especially in Russia.
Well, he wasn’t carrying it long. 