Passenger: United Airlines Bumped Me For Congresswoman

(RTTNews) - United Airlines has apologized and given a $500 travel voucher to a woman who has accused United Airlines of giving her first-class seat to a Texas congresswoman.

Jean-Marie Simon, a 63-year-old teacher from Washington D.C., accused the airline of preferential treatment and giving her seat to Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat.

According to the airline, its internal systems showed the passenger cancelled her December 18 flight from Houston to Washington, D.C. after a weather delay. However, Simon has denied cancelling the flight and said she was moved to a seat in Economy Plus on the flight.

Simon had posted a tweet with a picture of Lee sitting in the seat that was assigned to her. She said that the airline gave her seat away, without notifying her and getting her consent.

United Airlines said it upgraded Jackson Lee automatically after Simon cancelled her flight, as Lee was the next person on the airline's upgrade list. Jackson Lee also said in a statement that she "asked for nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary."

A spokesman for the airline said it has issued an apology to Simon and offered her a voucher to correct the wrongdoing. However, Simon has claimed in a tweet that the corporate office of United Airlines did not issue an apology.

"United has NOT apologized. Man at call center, answering my form complaint, said he was very sorry, but far from written apology United owes. And $500 voucher was issued at gate right after United cancelled my flight, not part of 'apology package'," Simon tweeted.