United airlines "passenger re-accommodation"

[bladeplayer]

Thing is he was actually trespassing the min he was asked to leave & refused , same as if you are asked to leave a pub or club etc .

The reason behind why he was asked to leave is a different matter tho , sitting peacefully in your seat having been checked in and boarded and being told to leave to facilitate staff is hardly grounds to be asked to leave in first place .. his reaction is somewhat expected ..

I hope he sues them out the door & wins

 

[Blue in Munich]

It may be wrong morally, but legally it appears they can do it;

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel...urity-passenger-denied-boarding-a7677601.html

Would everyone on here be prepared to pay the resulting price hike to get round the current position?

 

[richy]

Where I disagree with some of the comments on here, once the pilot asks someone to leave then you go. When security come on board and ask you to leave then you go. What happens if you ignore both the pilot and security on a plane in this modern era? He should have sucked it up got off and caught the next flight. Accept you have been unlucky and move on. To behave as he did was poor in my eyes and I lose sympathy for him at that point.

So it's justified that he was knocked unconscious and left battered and bloody?

What a ridiculous paragraph.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

He refused to leave. Security had to forcibly remove him. Had he accepted the situation and left there would be no issue but this bloke decided to be a grade 1 idiot. You don't mess about on aeroplanes and certainly not in America.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

While legally it seems he may be in the wrong, clearly morally United are even more culpable and the way they handled this and treated this passenger, and not a young one at that is a disgrace. The fact they haven't come out and issued something other than a mumbled, half hearted apology is shocking and I hope all this negativity has an impact on their business and hopefully (but not holding out hope or expectation) they'll change the way they deal with this sort of thing and the way they transfer staff on a booked flight

 

[Papas1982]

When I went to dis year Florida last year the airlines paid me £950 per person for an overnight stay and put us up along with upgraded flights.

The money made £3800 meant my girls had a holiday that we probably wouldn't quite have stretched to without.

The t'c and c's clearly state it can happen. They are obliged to offer compensation for volunteers, at a bumped at rate before there being standard rates. All of the people on that video yelling omg omg couldn't have taken his place. As once the decision was made that one more person had to leave. One more had to leave.

Whilst he didn't deserve the treatment he gave. It was inevitable. Airport security aren't going to mess around.

 

[Simbo]

When I went to dis year Florida last year the airlines paid me £950 per person for an overnight stay and put us up along with upgraded flights.

The money made £3800 meant my girls had a holiday that we probably wouldn't quite have stretched to without.

The t'c and c's clearly state it can happen. They are obliged to offer compensation for volunteers, at a bumped at rate before there being standard rates. All of the people on that video yelling omg omg couldn't have taken his place. As once the decision was made that one more person had to leave. One more had to leave.

Whilst he didn't deserve the treatment he gave. It was inevitable. Airport security aren't going to mess around.

How would your holiday have went if they have forcibly removed you and left your wife and the kids travelling without you, they arrive in Orlando after a 10 hour flight, have to pick up all the luggage, have no-one to drive the hire car as you were the designated driver. Fork out however much for a taxi to your villa, miss their first day at Disney world because you're not there to drive the car to get them there. Then you fly in the following day, no paperwork to pick up the hire car because it all in your wife's handbag, so on and so forth.
The real issue here IMO is airlines being allowed to remove passengers from flights for no other reason than they want the seat for someone else. Simply being greedy and overbooking flights to make them more money.
Disgusting and I hope the airline really feels the brunt of this one.

 

[Papas1982]

How would your holiday have went if they have forcibly removed you and left your wife and the kids travelling without you, they arrive in Orlando after a 10 hour flight, have to pick up all the luggage, have no-one to drive the hire car as you were the designated driver. Fork out however much for a taxi to your villa, miss their first day at Disney world because you're not there to drive the car to get them there. Then you fly in the following day, no paperwork to pick up the hire car because it all in your wife's handbag, so on and so forth.
The real issue here IMO is airlines being allowed to remove passengers from flights for no other reason than they want the seat for someone else. Simply being greedy and overbooking flights to make them more money.
Disgusting and I hope the airline really feels the brunt of this one.

Its in their t'c and c's so any morale outrage is irrelevant in regards to the initial jusgement imo.

The force he was removed with is outrageous and I agree it's not on. But that's another discussion.

In in regards to my situation. It was all Pre check in so paperwork wouldn't have been an issue. Wife and I both drive and so car hire also irrelevant. Of course hypotheticals can be raised to make the scenario better or worse dependant on your stance in regards the op.

I won won from the situation, this guy clearly lost.

 

[richy]

He refused to leave. Security had to forcibly remove him. Had he accepted the situation and left there would be no issue but this bloke decided to be a grade 1 idiot. You don't mess about on aeroplanes and certainly not in America.

Unbelievable

 

[shewy]

Morale outrage is everything not irrelevant, see how the companies shares have fallen, the loss of trade from this will hit them as well so not irrelevant at all.
It's a disgusting practice which should be made illegal.

 

[Papas1982]

Morale outrage is everything not irrelevant, see how the companies shares have fallen, the loss of trade from this will hit them as well so not irrelevant at all.
It's a disgusting practice which should be made illegal.

The morale outrage is at him being man handled. And their share value may fall (short term).

The practice of overbooking is done by all airlines. So the fact he was selected to miss a flight is not going to change for others due to this.

 

[Dasit]

Disgusting from the airline.

They have also gone into full damage control mode.

People are convinced they have paid twitter to remove hasttags and trending for anything related.

They have paid the media to run smear campaigns on the doctor. How is it relevant that he is gay, or the worst an article about him having a criminal record when in fact they had the wrong person.




Now as for overbooking, I am fine with that. That overbooking practice is factored into your airline fee, it is cheaper because of it. What they should have done is kept raising the offer of $ from $800 until someone took it. I personally would have taken the offer of $800, a hotel for the night and the early morning flight, assuming I wasn't on a tight schedule. I am sure someone would have happily walked off the plane if they had offered say $1200 or $1500.

 

[North Mimms]

Apparently they can offer up to a maximum of $1350 but for some reason when no-one took the offer of $800 to be bumped, they didn't offer more just went straight to "you 4 need to get off"
So United did have another option which they didn't try

 

[delc]

Couldn't they have found another way to get their staff to where they needed to be, rather than wrestling a paying passenger off their plane to make room for them?

 

[shewy]

The morale outrage is at him being man handled. And their share value may fall (short term).

The practice of overbooking is done by all airlines. So the fact he was selected to miss a flight is not going to change for others due to this.

Still doesn't make it right, personally I've taken £250 and got a later flight as was not in a rush. I just don't get the legality of it, selling something that's not there.

 

[Simbo]

While I get the fact that legally they have probably done no wrong, the guy should have left when the pilot told him, then security told him etc etc. The security guy might not even know the full story he might just get told there someone who needs removing from the plane. Even if he agrees with most that it's outrageous it's still his job to get the guy off and if he doesn't do then he's in trouble.
I also get the fact that moral outrage will get you almost nowhere in life, while their share price may fall just now it will come back up and in few years it will be the same as it was going to be anyway, like the Volkswagen scandal.
I also get the fact that that a lot of people do win in these situations.
What totally outrageous me and is more or less the whole issue, is the fact that the airline can force someone of a plane who has paid their money, has checked in properly, isn't drunk, abusive to staff or being unruly but is sitting quietly in his his seat waiting to take off and just through them of for no other reason than they need the seat for someone else.. it's disgusting and no way in hell am I buying the overbooking is factored into your airline fee line of horse manure! A blatant attempt at PR crap to pull the wool over people's eyes. The fact the governing body allows it is disgraceful. Pure greed from the airline and it should be illegal.
Im also in the camp of how can they actually sell something they can't give you??? Can someone actually explain this properly?
If Mizuno said we're making a set of clubs, limited edition of 100 sets, they will cost £1000 and be ready in a year, out your name down now and pay your money. Then in a years time they've taken 150 peoples money and 50 people have been left without clubs they've waited a year for. That's a racket IMO, a scam!

 

[Slab]

Like all these things not many people really care enough to do anything about it

If the public/customers really wanted change they can have it, the only thing stopping us is apathy

 

[North Mimms]

The bizarre thing is, the airline weren't even trying to bump passengers to get United staff to their destination. It was staff of a "partner airline"

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The bizarre thing is, the airline weren't even trying to bump passengers to get United staff to their destination. It was staff of a "partner airline"

Presumably there is a reciprocal agreement between those partner airlines though. That day it was one set of staff on a United plane, tomorrow it might be United staff on a Delta plane.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Incidentally, I certainly do not wish for this incident to be repeated but if the scenario happens again what do people suggest happens?

The pilot asks a specific passenger to leave the plane. The pilot is in charge of that plane, his/her word is law. The passenger refuses. Security are called, the passenger refuses. What next? I would imagine if the passenger is not removed then the pilot and crew will leave the plane and the flight is cancelled. Everyone loses. That plane and crew are then also in the wrong position for their next flight, more disruption.

It's okay to sit and say United should not bump anyone but it happens across the industry, it is part of the model. I don't condone the model but clearly there are reasons behind it, particularly in the US where planes are almost used like buses.