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Man dragged from plane for refusing to voluntarily give up his seat.

art imitating life? well, kind of :shock:

 
MaggieD said:
I just read an update, and it said that four passengers were chosen at random when no one volunteered to accommodate four employees traveling stand-by. sounds completely inappropriate, if true.
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Sounds to me that United has a strange concept of "stand by".
 
SMTA said:
I didn't get the impression that the flight was overbooked.

United had 4 United crew employees that they wanted to put on an already full flight.

That makes their actions even more heinous.
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They had 4 united crew employees they needed to put on an already full flight in order to not cancel a flight for two hundred.
 
Cardinal said:
Yep. Apparently "random" here means "randomly selected among the poorest passengers." Shocker.

The lesson here is simple: don't be poor.
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Yes, the people who pay full fare, or fly a lot, are more valuable as customers than some random person who flies once a year, never signed up for a frequent flier program, and got some bottom-barrel bargain ticket.

If your travel plans are critical on a level like "I need to see patients," pay full fare you cheap ass.
 
Deuce said:
Yes, the people who pay full fare, or fly a lot, are more valuable as customers than some random person who flies once a year, never signed up for a frequent flier program, and got some bottom-barrel bargain ticket.

If your travel plans are critical on a level like "I need to see patients," pay full fare you cheap ass.
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Trying to not be price gouged is a bad thing? Seriously?
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Seriously, there is no excuse for the airline not doing at least this much.

But this is America @2017, there are whole lists of things that we used to be able to do properly that we can no longer manage.

Putin Propaganda Network Brand SpuntnikNews is having great fun with this, because even the Russians can handle this little maneuver....only boarding those who are going.
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It's easy for bystanders to just up and say "well they shouldn't have seated everyone."

But airline operations are immensely complicated feats of logistics. Stuff is constantly changing. All it takes is one bit of bad weather in Atlanta or a mechanical breakdown in Detroit and the entire situation can change. Without details like this, it's foolish to assume they were just being dumb about it.
 
radcen said:
Trying to not be price gouged is a bad thing? Seriously?
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With allegedly critical travel plans? Yes. Dumb decision. People buying discount fares know full-well they are the lower priority travelers. This isn't just about overhead luggage space. He took the risk and it bit him in the ass.

Regular fares keep the airline operating. Airline profit margins are thin as hell, if you want to keep them around you're going to have to pay for them. That's how the market works.
 
longview said:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-p...oved-flight-refusing-give-seat-134930951.html
If I have a paid for ticket, it should be up to me If I choose to take their incentives to get off.
This is simply crazy of United to do this.
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Why...oh why did the gate agents stop the buyout offer at $800? I'm sure they would have had 4 takers in the $1500 range.

Hell, the whole point with buying out people is to give them the option to hand over their seats on overbooked flights. You're not supposed to remove essential travelers. This guy was a doctor who had to be in Louisville, perhaps even more so than the damned flight crew for whom they bumped those passengers.
 
longview said:
The reason for the random draw, was so 4 United employees could fly.
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From what I have read, they pick the person(s) who had paid the lowest fare.
 
calamity said:
Why...oh why did the gate agents stop the buyout offer at $800? I'm sure they would have had 4 takers in the $1500 range.

Hell, the whole point with buying out people is to give them the option to hand over their seats on overbooked flights. You're not supposed to remove essential travelers. This guy was a doctor who had to be in Louisville, perhaps even more so than the damned flight crew for whom they bumped those passengers.
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I think they could have prevented people from boarding, but once they have boarded the rules limiting boarding
are out the window.
 
I read about this at the Daily Mail last night, and in the original report, "doctor" was in quote marks. In the updated story, the man dragged off the plane allegedly claimed that he was chosen because he was Chinese. Pictures of his bloodied face are at the link:

Audra Bridges, one passenger who filmed the man's removal, described what happened on the flight to the Courier-Journal.

She said that passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and staff appealed for one volunteer to accept $400 and a hotel stay to take a flight at 3pm the next day.

All the remaining passengers were then allowed to board the flight - only to be told that another four people would have to give up their seats.

Police are filmed dragging man off United Airlines flight | Daily Mail Online

United passenger dragged off plane went to hospital for injuries - Business Insider
 
longview said:
I think they could have prevented people from boarding, but once they have boarded the rules limiting boarding
are out the window.
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My guess is the crew arrived right after boarding. Crew does have priority. But, the way to make room for them is by buying out passengers--not holding a freaking lottery and bumping critical travelers.
 
calamity said:
My guess is the crew arrived right after boarding. Crew does have priority. But, the way to make room for them is by buying out passengers--not holding a freaking lottery and bumping critical travelers.
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It does not sound like that had a lottery, but rather picked the passengers who paid the least.
 
Deuce said:
With allegedly critical travel plans? Yes. Dumb decision. People buying discount fares know full-well they are the lower priority travelers. This isn't just about overhead luggage space. He took the risk and it bit him in the ass.

Regular fares keep the airline operating. Airline profit margins are thin as hell, if you want to keep them around you're going to have to pay for them. That's how the market works.
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No, dumb presumption to dictate how others should spend their money.

And you might want to rethink that doom-and-gloom profit margin thing: Airline Profit Margins Soar Despite Revenue Challenges
 
Deuce said:
They had 4 united crew employees they needed to put on an already full flight in order to not cancel a flight for two hundred.
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So what? United needs to schedule crews without effecting passengers.

Nothing excuses their pathetic behavior with this one customer.

Like these 4 employees were the only United crew in the world who could fly the plane.

United deserves to get crushed for this crap.
 
longview said:
It does not sound like that had a lottery, but rather picked the passengers who paid the least.
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The article I read said they offered up to $800 for seats, and then when had no takers they let a computer pick four people at random.
 
Deuce said:
With allegedly critical travel plans? Yes. Dumb decision. People buying discount fares know full-well they are the lower priority travelers. This isn't just about overhead luggage space. He took the risk and it bit him in the ass.

Regular fares keep the airline operating. Airline profit margins are thin as hell, if you want to keep them around you're going to have to pay for them. That's how the market works.
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What a stupid post.

Business is driven by customer service.

Different ticket prices do not effect service or expectations.
 
mike2810 said:
In the linked article they needed four volunteers to leave the plane. They got none. So they said a computer program would be used to select four random passengers.

My question. What would you do, other than don't overbook flights? Seems to me a random draw is reasonable.
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I have been on an overbooked flight. They tend to compensate and rebook your flight. I also got a free meal, and sat first class on my next flight.

I think they airline should treat their patrons like that.
 
Travelsonic said:
Maybe the crew should have been put on an earlier flight? Just a thought.
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There were other solutions. The most obvious, the auction. Keep raising the price until 4 people bite. The most expensive, send a deadhead flight. I've known both to happen.

Actually the most expensive was what United chose. Piss off everybody. Turn it into a national negative news story, then pay big bucks to the aggrieved party.
 
Deuce said:
It's easy for bystanders to just up and say "well they shouldn't have seated everyone."

But airline operations are immensely complicated feats of logistics. Stuff is constantly changing. All it takes is one bit of bad weather in Atlanta or a mechanical breakdown in Detroit and the entire situation can change. Without details like this, it's foolish to assume they were just being dumb about it.
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With our modern airlines it gets difficult to tell if the problem is stupidity, cheapness, or lack of caring.

Regardless, no one should ever be boarded who the airline will not allow to fly because they dont have room, one way or another they need to figure out what they want to do before they send people down the jetway.

This is a very reasonable expectation, especially after the appearance of computers.
 
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