United Airlines forcibly removes passenger on flight they (did not) overbook

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Is overbooking actually based on historic data?..

Yes. I've studied a business case on this. Overbooking is allowed due to no-shows and simultaneous agent bookings.

Here's the excerpt from US Dept of Transportation web-site:
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights

Looks like they should have offered $1,350 to begin with.

If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (400% of your one-way fare, $1350

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

Yes, sitting refusing to leave after he was picked.



So he deserves special treatment? I'm sure he can go one day without being there to overly prescribe antibiotics and opioids.



Well within their rights to remove him I didn't say assault him. But as I asked above how do you remove someone that won't leave?

What an incredibly bizarre opinion. United and the staff were obviously in the wrong. If someone puts up that much of a fight pick someone else or increase the amount of money offered to someone else.

And I don't know how it came out this guy was a doctor, but generally rank has it's privileges.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

What an incredibly bizarre opinion. United and the staff were obviously in the wrong. If someone puts up that much of a fight pick someone else or increase the amount of money offered to someone else.

And I don't know how it came out this guy was a doctor, but generally rank has it's privileges.

When they told him he was being bumped, he said that they couldn't because he is a doctor. I am not sure if he was just saying that to get special treatment. Has he been identified ?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

He should have pooped his pants.

That 100% guaranteed to work to get people to leave you the hell alone. Probably would have been given his own row if he did that.

[EldrickOnIce]

Doctors don't usually fly cooped up with the chickens in the back. But whether he is or isn't a doctor doesn't really matter. I hope this costs United large, both to the victim of their assault and in terms of ridership.

[transplant99]

One of the security guards has been suspended.

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Doctors don't usually fly cooped up with the chickens in the back. But whether he is or isn't a doctor doesn't really matter. I hope this costs United large, both to the victim of their assault and in terms of ridership.

As someone who has been in the health care business for a while I can tell you this is definitely and demonstrably false.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Doctors don't usually fly cooped up with the chickens in the back. But whether he is or isn't a doctor doesn't really matter. I hope this costs United large, both to the victim of their assault and in terms of ridership.

A regional from Chicago to Kentucky probably doesn't have much of a business class.

[rd_aaron]

Just saw this on reddit. A topical video on United's great customer service:

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by transplant99

One of the security guards has been suspended.

The one who let him get back on the plane?

I have no idea what guidelines they are supposed to follow in that situation, but it seems like the security guards were put into a no win situation there.

[BlAcKNoVa]

This is hilarious. I guess Reddit deleted the video and thread, so this is happening now on r/videos https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/

[FireGilbert]

Wow, this is horrible. I understand bumping passengers due to overbooking, overweight, or employees needing to be somewhere but do it before boarding. Also, if no one takes you up on your compensation offer it shouldn't be random it should be the people who checked in last.

Not really surprised this is United though, one of the worst airlines I have ever flown.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Wow, this is horrible. I understand bumping passengers due to overbooking, overweight, or employees needing to be somewhere but do it before boarding. Also, if no one takes you up on your compensation offer it shouldn't be random it should be the people who checked in last.

I read it isn't actually random. They pick the people who have the cheapest tickets because they don't have to give 'em as much in compensation.

So, on top of everything else, they were just being stingy. Surprise surprise.

Anyway, they had Orange Shirt Guy (the guy in the seat in front of Doc Scofflaw) and he said the guy was just sitting there like everyone else, pissed that they all had to wait because of this screwup. He wasn't making a stink. Everyone on the plane was also pissed because they weren't offered money, but "United money"—vouchers. Nobody was interested in that because it's not something of value, and the whole thing of "wow, this airline sucks, and they are offering me a chance to experience it again in exchange for this extending this crappy experience."

What a bunch of cheapskates. Knowing the airline industry, they'll probably announce further cuts to service, thanks to having to pay off this lawsuit.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

I wonder if the passengers can sue as well. I've heard from people successfully suing as spectators due to undue stress or experiencing traumatic event.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by temple5

I have to say, for other threads this might be appropriate but its not appropriate here imo. Overabundance of passenger entitlement? I must be missing something.

This guy entered into a purchase contract with United where he pre-paid for a specific service at a specific time (of course barring weather). United reneged on that contract and is (all airlines) trying to hide behind lawyers, lobbying, and govt kickbakcs that allow this practice to justify their extremely shady business practices.

Hotels are also sleezeball organizations that bump so airlines arent the only sleezeballs in the world. We were bumped at a hotel in Barcelona 4 years ago and we havent stayed in a hotel since. Thank goodness for airbnb.

United did not reneg. They are allowed to bump.

There's entitlement on all sides all the time. I'm not giving United a pass here. What I'm saying is acting like you can apply retail store logic to a federally regulated business when something goes wrong is completely impossible with the American standard of entitlement.

The airline makes it known that being bumped is possible and that you'll get compensated if it happens. Overbooking is BS. They shouldn't be able to do it. They just play the odds that no one would take it to this extreme. Seems like that system worked well up until now.

But even in this sense, the overbook was that a crew needed to get to Louisville for a morning flight. Possibly poor planning. If that crew doesn't get to Louisville, then an entire flight gets cancelled. That flight being cancelled was, at the time, the situation they were trying to avoid.

I'd like to think at some price point someone would finally take the bait. Had they figured this would have happened, they would have certainly upped the $800. Maybe in the future they will. But that's hindsight at this point. In this case no one did. And I'm sure that a "name your price" game isn't feasible. We'll see how it goes from here.

Now, I'm guessing this is just going to force a change where you can pay extra money to guarantee your seat. The total amount of guaranteed seats per plane will be max capacity minus, say, 20. There will be additional briefings about guaranteeing your seat if you have a ticket that can get you bumped, etc.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

I wonder if the passengers can sue as well. I've heard from people successfully suing as spectators due to undue stress or experiencing traumatic event.

They can collectively file a class action, yes... wouldn't be surprised if they do. What comes of it remains to be seen.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

That would not work.

Where would a hypothetical scenario stop? $800 isn't enough, so $1,000? Then more and more if no one bites?

If everyone collectively said no, then the plane isn't flying. And if precedent is set that everyone can band together to disrupt travel, then that would be bad. Because let's be real, everybody is always looking to screw over someone every time. You give anyone an in like that and someone is going to take it.

Just look at how sue happy America is. Someone is going to be entitled enough to believe that their boarding pass might be a lottery ticket. I don't want to side with a corporation there, but when does it stop?

As has been said by many, airlines should not be able to overbook, but then they'll just raise their ticket prices to cover the risk.

Of course it would work. It's the most fair way to make it work. Every single person on that flight, including the pilots have a number.

An economist would say it's the most efficient way of unavailing each individuals utility of that flight. And those who want to be on that plane the least will walk off when their price is called.

[Acey]

People do things like book tickets with no intention of showing up. My dad just did this... had an important business thing in Montreal that he couldn't miss. Booked tickets on both AC and WS. Until there's some penalty for no-shows, airlines will overbook. Again, most of the time they're right.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Acey

People do things like book tickets with no intention of showing up. My dad just did this... had an important business thing in Montreal that he couldn't miss. Booked tickets on both AC and WS. Until there's some penalty for no-shows, airlines will overbook. Again, most of the time they're right.

Which is fine, but THEY'RE taking that risk so THEY should be forced to deal with it in a way that minimizes impact on their customers. Forcing people off the plane so they can move their employees is total bull####.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Acey

Booked tickets on both AC and WS. Until there's some penalty for no-shows, airlines will overbook. Again, most of the time they're right.

Isn't the penalty for no-shows the ticket cost?