Ellen DeGeneres Mocks United’s ‘Crazy’ Policies: ‘Your First Forcible Removal Is Free’
Even Ellen DeGeneres had some harsh words for United Airlines this week.
There is perhaps only one story that could bring together the man behind “Mean Tweets” and the nicest woman in daytime television.
After Jimmy Kimmel used his Monday night monologue to go after United Airlines for physically dragging a paying customer off of an overbooked flight, Ellen DeGeneres shared her thoughts on the story during her show on Tuesday.
“To make room for people, they forcibly removed one of the passengers,” DeGeneres said. “It’s crazy. They charged him a $50 removal fee. That’s not true, that’s not true. Your first forcible removal is free.” On top of all that, she added, the in-flight movie was Manchester by the Sea, “so it was very depressing.”
After joking that she would be removing one of her audience members from the studio, DeGeneres turned serious for a moment to critique the “bad policy” of choosing people at random to get kicked off of the plane. “Here’s a better policy: don’t overbook your flight,” she said.
DeGeneres said she also found it “crazy” that United prevented teenage girls from boarding a flight last month because they were wearing leggings. “I’ve seen more yoga pants at the airport than I’ve seen in yoga classes,” she said, joking that planes aren’t exactly Downton Abbey.
“It doesn’t make sense, everyone should be able to wear yoga pants on a plane if you want,” she added. “I think United didn’t want people to wear yoga pants because there’s nothing to grab when you’re yanking someone to pull them out.”
As some members of the audience began to groan, DeGeneres said, “Oh, I took it too far.”