oh - some seasons are better than others for fly fishing there - I was making a funny.
<#notatallfunnytoanyonebutme
Exactly. And more to the point, did the rent-a-cops run a background check before deciding that this miscreant was the one to kick out? What we have here is the classic “he was no angel” defense, which is normally employed against black victims, but which has other uses as well.
15 Likes
My favorite part: Only after the guy lawyered up and requested a full refund, etc., did United offer to refund the difference between the first-class seat he paid for and the economy seat they stuck him in. Shouldn’t that have been automatic? You need to ask for that?
13 Likes
Sad thing about the latest fiasco:
Instead, they gave him a $500 credit to use on another United flight, and gave back the difference in price between his first class ticket and the economy seat.
That’s pretty good, actually! They have a clever way of avoiding refunds of this nature.
1 Like
Well, at my age a week is an eternity.
I dislike Untied and avoid them whenever possible (Hawaiian and Alaskan are both better between Hawaii and the mainland), but equipment changes do happen and there needs to be some policy to deal with this situation, seats can’t be magicked into existence. If last in-first out was the policy, then this would favor first-class passengers (who generally board first).
There is no real comparison between this case, where a white person of means was sternly asked to leave, and the Dao case, where the minority passenger was beaten and dragged off the plane. If the person involved thinks these are the same thing, he is suffering from privilege-induced brain fog.
4 Likes
7 Likes
I’d suggest mandatory minimum compensation: a replacement ticket plus five or so times the ticket price (including all fees and everything, probably with minimum)
That way they can still do it in bona fide emergencies, but somehow I suspect that those would become rarer.
But of course that would be government overreach.
5 Likes
"I have a manual and a policy. Therefore not only do I not have to make any decisions, I am absolved of any wrong doing on my part as long as I was following the manual."
This didn’t work in Nuremberg, why is it working now?
6 Likes
Ha!
10 Likes
This is not entirely correct, according to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. As noted by Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez at Refinery29:
And digging up dirt on the victim of an incident is not only in bad taste; it’s actually unethical. The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics makes it abundantly clear: Just because some information, such as court records, is legally accessible, it doesn’t mean it’s ethically justifiable to publish it. Hell, the code even advises reporters to “Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.”
20 Likes
You could be right.
I’ve noticed that Southwest is the only US airline to have said anything about this - and they’ve always been somewhat outside the club. American and Delta have kept quiet, possibly because they don’t see that United did anything wrong?
1 Like
spj is a rather small organization. Their goals may be admirable, but they can’t speak for the majority of the working press.
SPJ has nearly 300 chapters across the United States that bring educational programming to local areas and offer regular contact with other media professionals. Its membership base is more than 9,000 members of the media. --wikipedia
Just to be clear, I wasn’t accusing you of brain fog, and I think the post was interesting. (The story hasn’t yet made the Hawaii papers.) I agree with everyone who thinks that United should have a better system in place, should incentivize more for bumping, and should be made aware that that their customer service has a serious problem. In this case however the passenger wasn’t even bumped, just shifted to coach and refunded the fare difference. I ride coach between Hawaii and California several times/year, it really isn’t the end of the world!
They’re likely fearing an industry-wide investigation or crackdown.
8 Likes
They ultimately found someplace for First Class Man to sit in the back.
The article doesn’t say nobody else was bumped to make this happen.
1 Like
I am so never going to fly united ever again.
3 Likes
My experience flying United from Hawai’i back to the mainland:
They lost my checked bag, so after waiting the specified number of days I filed a claim. I listed all of the things, and provided a receipt for my raincoat which was over $100 (this is their policy); I was particularly miffed because I had bought a bunch of Kona coffee for myself and some friends. I get back a response letter and two checks, one a refund of the checked-baggage fee, and one for significantly less than the total value of stuff I claimed. Part of their stated reason for not giving me full compensation was that I didn’t provide the receipt for the raincoat, which I did.
I called them up to complain about it, the guy on the other end was nice enough but started off saying that I didn’t provide the receipt. I said no, I did, check the file; he did, saw the receipt, apologized, and said they would send me another check to cover the difference for the raincoat (should have been about $20), but would not reimburse for the coffee or a few other things. A few days later I get another letter from United saying that they denied my claim dispute. Instead of the $20 check I had been expecting, they accidentally sent two more checks, in the same amounts as the first ones; and the larger check has a stamp on the endorsement block stating that cashing the check is an accord and satisfaction, extinguishing my claim against United.
So now I have four checks, totaling double the amount they said they would reimburse me and double the checked bag fee. I quickly call a lawyer friend, who tells me to deposit or cash them as it is their mistake not mine. And since I accepted their accord and satisfaction offer, there would be nothing further they could do to try to get that money back.
So I rushed to the bank and deposited all the checks, and I had zero guilt about doing so 
28 Likes
I’d say it’s not to justify United’s actions. You’d have to be a complete brain moron for that, in this landscape. They just want clicks.
If any coach passengers were bumped for him then I think they’re the ones with cause to kvetch.
Really, there are a quite a few daily flights from Hawaii to California. Sometimes they’re all genuinely booked, but mostly it wouldn’t be a problem if airlines regularly took other airlines’ bumped passengers, the way they used to years ago.
