Yes, this is the part that confuses me, too. If 100% of their seats are paid for, wouldn’t the airlines benefit (perhaps only slightly, but still) from having fewer bodies in the plane? Fewer free sodas, less fuel needed, and so on?
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I’ve flown a lot in my lifetime. I have NEVER seen an airline remove a passenger from a plane that was already boarded - even to get someone on a deadhead. And if a flight is overbooked, they take care of that bullshit at the gate before the plane is loaded.
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True, i did not think of that bit. It’s always been at the gate. Well i hope United enjoys this shitstorm.
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There is a SIMPLE solution to United Airline’s overbooking issue. BOYCOTT them. No bodies in seats, no overbooking issue.
If you continue to fly United knowing that this is how they treat paying customers, you deserve this treatment yourself.
Either you’re so disgusted by this that you cannot support them and their actions or you condone this behaviour and accept that it should happen to you! You have choices.
Personally, I am disgusted.
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All I can think of is Louis CK when we all bitch about airlines, but… fuck United. They really, truly are terrible. They didn’t used to be, but they have been now for quite a while. I fly Southwest, Alaska or Delta domestic - depending where I’m going - and never United or a partner of theirs even international.
3:51 -
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My friend showed up over an hour early for her United flight, and was told she couldn’t check her bag because check-in closes 45 minutes before the departure time. “But … it’s 7:30 and my flight leaves at 8:35”, she said. Nope. Ticket agent who couldn’t read a fucking clock refused to check her bag and made her go to another line to rebook the flight.
They were going to put her on a flight really late that evening until she gave up on logic and burst into tears. She’s not proud, but she managed to get on a flight only 2 hours after her original one.
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I’ve only taken a few plane trips since 9/11, but I can tepidly endorse Southwest. I’m pretty sure they won’t actually beat you bloody and drag you off the plane for being inconvenient.
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If I had to guess really quick how many flights I’ve been on with SW in the last couple years (roundtrips) I’d say 30 maybe. And I have otherwise flown a fair amount for your average American international and domestic.
I’ve been in the crowd when they announce that a flight was overbooked and they look for volunteers, etc…
Like I said above - I have never seen people removed from a plane once it was already boarded even to get someone on a deadhead.
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I’ve only taken a few plane trips since 9/11, but I can tepidly endorse Southwest. I’m pretty sure they won’t actually beat you bloody and drag you off the plane for being inconvenient.
No, but Southwest will fat shame passengers:
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Your Doctor might, but mine does not. Quite the opposite. Patients are scheduled based on the amount of time it usually takes for their stated complaint. But some of them don’t show up, and many others come in for a sore throat, also want to talk about the suspicious lump that they noticed six months age. And others just show up without an appointment.
Also, at the doctor, you usually pay after treatment. I generally have to buy an airplane ticket before the flight. So if they sell all the seats, it would be a bonus if people don’t show up. Less weight, less fuel. Unless the idea is to sell another ticket for seats that have already been sold, but the peeps did not show up.
But I watched this, and sympathized with the guy. I usually fly super long, multi-leg flights to or from Africa or wherever. Often, I am scheduled to arrive the day before a ship or small charter plane is scheduled to leave for someplace super remote. If I miss that, it might mean sitting in a hotel in Dakar or someplace for weeks, waiting for alternate arrangements to be made.
So, when they ask for volunteers to take a later flight, I don’t.
I could totally see myself saying, “no, pick someone else”.
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This made me LOL (more of a “snrrt”, actually)
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You know, you raise a good point. If a flight is overbooked and no one volunteers to relinquish their seat, then the ONLY individuals who should be put in the “removal” pool should be those ticket holders who have refundable tickets. Anyone who has bought a completely unrefundable ticket should be exempt since that seat is bought and paid for whether the person shows or not.
Now that I think about it more, The airlines cater to business and first class passengers to a ridiculous degree; I wonder if they were even included in the pool of potential removees?
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Yeah. That’s how Delta handles the problem. It’s funny that United got all of this terrible publicity just one day after Forbes published this article about a family that got $11K in bump fees on Delta.
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I don’t believe in coincidence.
Obviously, this man was a Delta Airlines plant put on the plane to make United Airlines look bad.
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Jim Wright never fails to please: http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/01/but-aside-from-that-mrs-lincoln.html
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I’m boycotting them by default, because I haven’t had a job that required regular travel in years. When I did, I was flying out and back every couple of weeks (25-50% travel) and I basically had to take whatever flight I could get.
There are those who fly regularly, and then those who fly seldom or never. Once you’re in one group, you can’t really relate to the other.
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Last time I flew United, they stranded me in DC. I had a connecting flight out of DC, but it ran into mechanical problems and I had to stay overnight and take the first flight or in the morning. However, when I tried to fly out, they wouldn’t let me because they said I was already at my destination.
I don’t get it. I had a valid ticket for the flight, but they didn’t let me on. They said i was already at my destination, which was clearly not true. Then they said I had gone there, come back, and then was going there again, all in the course of four hours, over which the airports were closed? 
Even if such a very stupid thing were possible, I had a valid ticket and they should have let me on just with that. I also had a note explaining what happened, but they weren’t having any of that.
I called United to complain, but they have deactivated their complaint line. That doesn’t mean they don’t have one, because they still do. They just don’t have anyone manning the line, so anyone calling the number will have to hang on the line until they figure out that their call won’t be answered.
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Can you imagine being the person responsible for the United twitter account right now? What a nightmare. I checked earlier this evening, and it looked like they haven’t sent any responses or tweets since the United’s shitty ‘apology’ midday today.
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