Got a great deal on your airline tickets? Might want to hide that fact from this airline, or your chances of getting booted off will go up.

A recent United Airlines flight from Burlington to Washington, D.C. was deemed “too heavy to fly” by the pilot, so a number of passengers were needed to step off and take the next flight out.

However, instead of asking for volunteers, choosing a random selection of passengers, or asking those seated last to take a later flight, the flight crew demanded that the 20 least profitable customers exit the plane. The gate agent made the announcement to the entire plane, so the 20 people who were removed in order of how much they paid for their tickets were made to feel as embarrassed as possible.

It was only after a Twitter user posted running commentary on the incident that United stepped in. The airline’s Twitter representative acknowledged the event “shouldn’t have happened” — but it’s unclear whether it was talking about the price segregation or the fact that it was announced to all the passengers on the aircraft.

Tags: Airline tickets, Travel, United