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

What a stupid post.

Business is driven by customer service.

Different ticket prices do not effect service or expectations.

But they do. First class gets the complimentary champagne and the gourmet meal. Wider seats. First boarding. Coach it's peanuts, half a Coke.
 
Its a company policy.
No it is not,
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx#sec25

Rule 25 Denied Boarding Compensation
2.Boarding Priorities - If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority:
The policy is about boarding, not people already boarded!
 
Here is a good article that shows the airline...while probably within their rights to remove the guy...screwed up royally in how they did it.

Are Airlines Allowed to Force/Drag Passengers Off Flight? | Law News

United is going to pay big time for this.

Yep I hope it was worth it as I can't imagine any jury not awarding huge for this. IN fact I suspect that the jury during deliberations sends a note to the judge asking if they can award more than asked for.. :)


Tim-
 
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.

That would be the remedy, and I am fine with it costing the airline plenty, as it would discourage the practice of boarding people onto their planes whom they only minutes later going to refuse to fly.
 
And if the crew they needed the seats for weren't able to get on... what about the other 200 people on the next flight that wouldn't be taking off? United has responsibility here for sure.. but so does the guy for not just getting off the flight.

Given the circumstances, the random draw seemed the most fair.



Where do you see they needed the seat for crew, number one. Two, perhaps United should invest in computers so it avoided problems like this just as every other airline in the world does.


I see criminal assault, kidnapping and fraud. The man paid for a seat, showed up on time, to not deliver the goods at that point is "bad faith" in the legal sense. I hope this guy sues the airline, the captain and crew and the slugs who beat him up...

I strongly suggest an immediate boycott of United Airlines. Let them run empty for a few months and remind them they are in the "service" business.
 
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.

What you're getting for the lower price is less leg room and no peanuts. Nowhere is it written when I buy a cattle class ticket that I'm first up when somebody needs to get booted off.
 
But they do. First class gets the complimentary champagne and the gourmet meal. Wider seats. First boarding. Coach it's peanuts, half a Coke.

I agree with your delineation.

Many characteristics, though, cross the seating boundaries.
 
Maybe the crew should have been put on an earlier flight? Just a thought.

It sounds like there were not many flights to/from the locations in question. For example, in this case, the next available flight was the next day after 3:00.
 
Because the rule makers gave the airlines too much credit, they never figured that they would be so cruel or incompetent or whatever to board people whom they minutes later refuse to fly.
It is there own rules, and it about boarding. I think those rules would not apply after boarding.
The flight crew has a lot of latitude to remove unruly passengers, but that also does not apply.
 
It sounds like there were not many flights to/from the locations in question. For example, in this case, the next available flight was the next day after 3:00.
A quick priceline search shows there are plenty of flights from Chicago, IL (ORD) to Louisville, KY (SDF).
It looks like a commuter run, like Houston to Dallas.
 
I think they could have prevented people from boarding, but once they have boarded the rules limiting boarding
are out the window.

Exactly. This should have been dealt with before anyone was boarded. The airline is still within it's rights to remove a passenger but it's a much dicier situation once the passengers are in their seats. The goons who removed him way overreacted. The right to remove a passenger doesn't imply to right to use any means.
 
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.


Well, for one, the overbooking was known before the passengers were seated on the plane. Seating people and then asking them to get off the plane is stupid. Those who were not seated by the time the plane was full should have been left behind. If they decided to be asses and seat the staff first then the staff should get off the plane. I don't care if they are needed for another flight at the destination. That is tough luck. Poor planning by the airline should inconvenience the AIRLINE, not the passengers.
 
Or as I half jokingly suggested earlier, United would be better off today if they had bought four tickets from Ameican Airlines for their employees to use

True, this was a monumental fudge up on their part
 
A quick priceline search shows there are plenty of flights from Chicago, IL (ORD) to Louisville, KY (SDF).
It looks like a commuter run, like Houston to Dallas.

I can only tell you what the news reported, which was the next available flight was the next day at 3:00 PM.
 
I can only tell you what the news reported, which was the next available flight was the next day at 3:00 PM.
It could have been on a weekend, but usually endpoints with more than 10 flights a day, also have fairly frequent
weekend flights. The worst case scenario, is to rent a car and drive the 5 hours or so.
Or get one of the small commuter jets coming out of maintenance, and fly the crew down,
I think it is only about a 1 hour flight.
 
So what? United needs to schedule crews without effecting passengers.
No, they really don't.

If the crew doesn't move, two hundred people get canceled instead of four. That's the decision you want made?

Nothing excuses their pathetic behavior with this one customer.
They tried to do it the civilized way. What else should they do? Oh, this guy refuses to go. Fine let's grab someone else off the plane because he's a dick who thinks he's more important than everyone else.

Like these 4 employees were the only United crew in the world who could fly the plane.
Easy to proclaim when you aren't the one in the logistics center.

United deserves to get crushed for this crap.
The passenger deserves to go to prison for refusal to leave an aircraft when ordered to by flight crew.
 
What a stupid post.
Yeah what do I know about operating airplanes.

Business is driven by customer service.
And sometimes that means prioritizing two hundred customers over four.

Different ticket prices do not effect service or expectations.

Different types of fares absolutely do that.
 
Come fly the friendly skies...until we drag you out of your seat kicking and screaming.
 
I think it's too soon to award "Word of the Year," but I'd like to enter "re-accommodate" into the contest. Here is United CEO Oscar Munoz's statement:

This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our tem is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation. Business News - Chicago Tribune
 
Where do you see they needed the seat for crew, number one. Two, perhaps United should invest in computers so it avoided problems like this just as every other airline in the world does.


I see criminal assault, kidnapping and fraud. The man paid for a seat, showed up on time, to not deliver the goods at that point is "bad faith" in the legal sense. I hope this guy sues the airline, the captain and crew and the slugs who beat him up...

I strongly suggest an immediate boycott of United Airlines. Let them run empty for a few months and remind them they are in the "service" business.

I see a man guilty of a felony when he failed to comply with flight crew instructions to depart an aircraft.
 
United are idiots.

Were I CEO of United - and I was faced with this choice - I would have said just forget it, rent a plane if you have to, quietly offer a passenger 2 grand to vacate their seat, anything - but find another way to get the crew to their destination. And if that makes their next flight late....so be it.
No amount of late flights is worth the horrible publicity this stunt will cost them.
Dragging a guy from his seat kicking and screaming? How stupid can United get?

Jeez...when will all companies learn, you cannot pull this kind of **** anymore and just wait til it goes away. This will NEVER go away completely. Almost EVERYONE has a phone with a camera on it. Anything controversial you do with others around WILL be on YouTube in a matter of hours...guaranteed.
 
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