United Airlines Investigating Who Spilled Beans on Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz's initial Thursday statement about his Cancun trip painted it as a quick in-and-out, reports USA Today: "I flew down with [my daughters] last night and am flying back this afternoon." But Politico reports a journalist heard from someone at United Airlines that the senator had intended to stay longer, and United is now investigating. Edward Russell with travel news site Skift tweeted that his source told him Cruz had "rebooked his flight back to Houston from Cancun for this afternoon at around 6 a.m. today (Thursday). He was originally scheduled to return on Saturday."

"It's against United's policies to share personal information about our customers and we are investigating this incident," the airline said in a statement, adding that the employee who leaked the info could potentially be fired. Politico reports that "tens of thousands of United employees" can access flight data, but such data leaks happen infrequently. Russell retweeted a critical response to United's move from Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA: "Perspective: whoever the 'leak' is, she/he/they have over 10k @united colleagues & families in TX who are freezing while their US Senator skips town & then tries to lie about it. @tedcruz is not a 'customer,' he’s a public servant who has lied too many times. WE’RE ALL THE LEAK." (More Ted Cruz stories.)