Navang Oza. (Source: Facebook) Navang Oza. (Source: Facebook)

In yet another incident that brought some more bad press for United Airlines, an Indian-origin man claimed that the airline cancelled his flight reservation in US just because he filmed one of their employee during an altercation. 37-year-old Navang Oza posted a video on Twitter where he claimed he was denied entry on a flight to the West Coast once he began recording the ordeal on his phone. According to KNTV, Oza was quoted as saying he was checking in on Monday for a flight home to San Francisco from New Orleans when he complained to a United Airlines employee about being charged $300 for his luggage, adding that he had paid $125 to check the same bag during the first leg of his trip.

After he couldn’t get any explanation behind cancellation, taking a leaf out of past events Oza decided to film the dispute and post on social media. A disgruntled Oza posted an unedited clip of the interaction with the ticket counter worker in New Orleans. The video clip starts with the airline employee pointing a finger at him, saying, “You did not have my permission to videotape”. Then she directs an agent to her left to cancel his reservation. “I want to know why,” Oza asks.

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To this the agent replies, “Because you did not have my permission,” she said. “I was shocked because I didn’t know she had the right to cancel my flight because I started recording,” he said. Almost a minute later, the airline employee is seen recording Oza saying, “I’ll do the same thing.” After the brief duel, Oza said the employee eventually called airport police. Once the police officer arrived, Oza was recording the incident when he asked, “Can I at least keep this recording?” The officer replied, “Sir, you have the right to do whatever you want; it’s a public space”.

The California resident ultimately re-booked his flight on a different airline. Meanwhile, United Airlines told the news station that it was investigating the incident. “The video does not reflect the positive customer experience we strive to offer, and for that we apologise. We are reviewing this situation, including talking with Mr Oza and our employees to better understand what happened,” the airline said in a statement.

United has courted a slew of controversies in recent weeks, including the removal of passenger David Dao, who had sustained injuries from being dragged off an overbooked flight.

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