Party foul for United Airlines

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A swanky party in the Houston Museum District where the guests leave with swanky swag bags -- but not all of the people on the list made it on the list. Michael Baugh's husband had an invitation and he was the plus one but were turned away anyway.

"Basically from four-to-five people ahead of us all of the way back, nobody got in," explains Baugh. "So we were bumped, which is hilarious." It was hilarious to him because the party was a promotion by United Airlines to announce a new route to Australia. The people invited were all customers who travel frequently.

"They had a limit when you went to sign up for this. so they should've been able to control the numbers anyway," says Jack Moriniere, who was able to enter the event.

To be crystal clear, planning a promotional party and operating a major airline are not the same thing, but United and the airline industry as a whole have taken a lot of heat for overbooking flights.. United recently suffered a public relations nightmare after airport security dragged a doctor off an overbooked flight  After that incident, United changed its policy to allow supervisors to offer up to $10,000 in vouchers to bumped passengers.

Although disappointed, Baugh has a sense of humor about the odd situation.

"We were shunned from the party. and OK, we are not victims here, but the irony is not lost on us," explains Baugh. And he did kind of want one of those bags. He won't get one but the airlines did released the following statement:

We were not able to host all customers at a luncheon we were sponsoring earlier today due to overwhelming interest. We are contacting those customers to apologize for the inconvenience.