Well, we (some of us, anyway) live in a country where a shocking number of people are completely OK with police murdering people in the street, or torturing them to death in prisons, so a little assault and battery is virtually invisible to them. At least no one is dead… this time.
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I’m not condoning the behavior, this is terrible. But it doesn’t work the way you think. Yes, there are travel perks for United employees and family and friends, however, it’s on a space available basis. Paying passengers are NEVER kicked off for a standby passenger. Never ever. This case is likely not about perks but about requiring said employees to work on a flight or flights out of Louisville. These aren’t considered standby passengers as the whole network of United flights will be affected if they can’t get to where they have to be. Unfortunately, airlines do reserve the right to kick off paying passengers in certain situations, and if they stopped overbooking flights, that would be reflected in increased ticket prices.
They really should have upped the offer until they got volunteers though. It would still have been much cheaper than this PR nightmare. Seems United is making a habit of screwing up their PR.
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I think this guy didn’t want to get off because he was a doctor and had patients he needed to see.
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Back in the 80’s we got bumped UP to First Class because they’d overbooked our flight. How times have changed.
I plan my travel very carefully because I usually don’t have a lot of flexibility for it. I would be beyond furious if I was told I couldn’t use tickets that I’d probably booked several months in advance. I planned ahead.
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This is going to cost more than ONE million. This guy’s lawsuit is already pretty much a guarantee, but United damn well better HOPE none of his patients are affected by this boneheaded move!
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I was just thinking this same thing. How can any flight on another airline cost more than $800? Go and buy your team a flight on another airline or put the passenger on another flight.
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I am willing to let LEO use this policy as long as they as they only do it in “first class” or “business class”. Coach may or may not chant, “Worldstar!” during the proceedings.
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Yeah, absolute dick-move from the airline. I bet that crew was needed somewhere else, so some penny-counter decided it would be the better option to just drag some passengers from a plane to get them to work on time. Most likely the same penny-counter that decided there’s too much staff and the company needs to downsize their workforce.
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That’s not how overbooking happens. I have a little inside knowledge here… In fact, every flight has a maximum capacity X, and a maximum authorized number of seats to be sold X+Y. Y depends on the size of the plane, and on how frequently, statistically, passengers don’t show up (or miss connections, etc). Airlines do whatever they can to never fly with empty seats, even if it means selling the same seat twice. Conversely, sometimes flights are intentionally undersold because of weight restrictions or climate considerations.
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Are you sure about this? It seems like if it were true, we’d be able to point to a section of United’s contract of carriage that spells it out.
That document does enumerate reasons for removing passengers from an aircraft. Ten specific reasons. This scenario doesn’t fit any of them as far as I can tell.
Now, if it were a pre-boarding situation (or an actual overbooking situation) the airline would have a lot more latitude under their contract.
This particular scenario is not permitted under the contract as far as I can tell.
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United is proud to introduce its newest service class: Steerage! Designed for our amusement, steerage class wings you back to the days of the Titanic, when lower-class passengers were treated like cargo. You’ll “enjoy” such “amenities” as bunk bench seating and occasional concussions, plus free raw potatoes and fetid water on transcontinental routes.
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It’s nice to know that United treats its passengers with as much care and respect as their luggage.
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Well, so much for my theory.
Nevertheless, why not resolve the overbooking at some point before the passengers actually board the plane?
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Probably the underpaid peon on the desk didn’t have much help and this slipped through.
They’re probably also limited to how much compensation they can offer at a local level. I doubt the gate person could keep upping the offer until they found someone’s price.
But yeah. It seems like they could have got out of this with one pissed off customer if they’d caught it before boarding.
Or paid for a taxi to Louisville for the crew.
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I think you meant this reply for someone else. Is it even possible to trespass inside a vehicle?
How much more are you willing to pay to enact that law? if it were enacted, prices would rise fairly dramatically OR tickets would become 100% non-refundable.
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They usually do. This was not a case of overbooking but them thinking booting paying customers off the plane was the best way to get their crew to their destination. Going to cost.
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The staff weren’t flying “standby” if the paying passengers were kicked off the plane, were they?
If the airline actually needs the staff to be in a place by a time, the solution is pretty simple - book them regular tickets…
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