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United Airlines and our culture of perpetual outrage
UMassd Daily Collegian ^ | 4/17/17 | Polumbo

Posted on 04/18/2017 5:06:52 AM PDT by pabianice

But we have to ask, do the facts really justify this level of outrage? After all, United approached this overbooked flight in the same way that airlines across the country do every day. Dao was given many chances to leave the flight peacefully, and blatantly refused to do so. In airports post-9/11, this type of behavior is not tolerated as there is a greater emphasis on the expectation to comply with the instructions of airline personnel for safety reasons. After Dao dug his feet in, all United did was call the airport police. Anything that occurred after that point was out of its control, and was the responsibility of the police department. Still, the injuries to Dao that have garnered so much outrage were probably not done intentionally, and were likely only sustained after he was accidentally dropped while being removed. No evidence in the video, or anything that has otherwise surfaced, has shown that anyone intentionally tried to harm Dao.

Despite the media’s best efforts to create a narrative, Dao was not an innocent doctor assaulted for trying to get to his patients. Christina Mora, a reporter for a CBS affiliate out of Louisville, tweeted that his office remained open through Monday morning, and that the staff there would not even confirm that he had patients scheduled for Monday. Dao belligerently defied airport security, and was met with an unintended consequence. And now, Dao will also be a man with a potentially quite lucrative lawsuit in the works.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycollegian.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: revokedticket; sheeple; umass; unitedairlines
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To: erlayman

“Dao was given many chances to leave the flight peacefully, and blatantly refused to do so. “

And what legal or moral right did UA have to ask him to leave at this time?

None.


21 posted on 04/18/2017 6:19:15 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democratt)
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To: jjsheridan5

United needed to offer free tickets anywhere in the United States. Start with one. Then add a second ticket. Then add upgrades to that ticket. Then add Hawaii. The reality is that half the plane would take the 2 tickets with a cabin upgrade. That’s a free ticket with your wife. Add first class to it and you will have to beat people off the plane. Another thing they used to do in the old days was to give away first class vouchers, another wildly popular choice.

Whether you have business travelers or not on your flight, whether you have people going home or leaving your home, means you will have different appeal to your offers.


22 posted on 04/18/2017 6:25:12 AM PDT by poinq
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To: jjsheridan5

Legally they can bump only for overbooked flights while the passenger is outside the plane.


23 posted on 04/18/2017 6:27:48 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democratt)
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To: jjsheridan5

You are right. This is a lot like Black Lives Matter. Yes this is not a great example of United’s poor service. But as you saw with police video in Louisiana, South Carolina or Chicago. There is a problem. Even if Ferguson was a bad example.

The difference here, is that there is not a bunch of thugs trying to push this story. What we have here is a real organic outpouring of emotion against United from previous experiences so many United customers have witnessed.


24 posted on 04/18/2017 6:33:39 AM PDT by poinq
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To: pabianice

The author is demonstrating the correct about of corporate fealty our masters require.


25 posted on 04/18/2017 6:44:46 AM PDT by gdani
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To: gdani

^ amount ^


26 posted on 04/18/2017 6:48:25 AM PDT by gdani
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To: spetznaz

It doesn’t matter whether it was overbooked or not. If the man had paid for his seat, gotten to the airport on time, checked in with no problem and was even sitting in that seat, the airline was completely wrong in trying to take it away from him. It would be like buying an article of clothing at a department store and then, once you were out on the street with your paid-for bag of clothing, having the store manager come out and rip it out of your hands.

That said, while this flight may not have been overbooked (which gives the airline even less reason to do this), I read that something like 480,000 flights a year are overbooked, and 45,000 passengers a year - across all the airlines - “involuntarily” surrender their seats. I think in most cases they weren’t already sitting on the plane, however, and generally were simply told when they got to check in that they would have to be rebooked on another flight.

Airlines need to overbook because of no-shows and also because of passengers from connecting flights that don’t turn up in time because of weather delays or some other problem. But perhaps their algorithm needs tweaking, and certainly the processes for handling this need review. Dao did us all a favor by drawing attention to it, IMHO.


27 posted on 04/18/2017 6:50:12 AM PDT by livius
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To: MNDude
Legally they can bump only for overbooked flights while the passenger is outside the plane.

If that is true, then those responsible for the decision to bump him should be punished accordingly. Since bumping someone from a plane in the wrong place (outside, versus inside) is a relatively small infraction, I would expect that punishment to be relatively mild. (I know many will say that bumping someone once they are on the plane is the worst and unfairest thing that can happen, there are a million and one reasons why no rational person should rely on a plane transporting them on-time, or transporting them togenther with their companions -- anyone expecting, and relying, on those things is an idiot).

However, I was always under the impression that airlines are bound by law to make room for airline personnel. If that is the case, I am not willing to cede the point that the ordinary rules of bumping apply. Either way, the one that should not happen is that future airline travelers should be punished via a huge settlement from United, to this passenger. This, of course, is exactly what will happen, in our lottery-style judicial system, egged on by a reason-free public feeding frenzy. But it shouldn't.
28 posted on 04/18/2017 6:50:52 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: pabianice

Munoz, the CEO of United, said publicly and unequivocally that Dao had nothing to warrant or justify being kicked off the plane. That ends the discussion.


29 posted on 04/18/2017 6:52:31 AM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught owith pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: Don Corleone

United has two Mr. Cleans. Their names are Golan and Demetrio. They are Dao’s high powered attorneys. They will clean United like never before.


30 posted on 04/18/2017 6:56:23 AM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught owith pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: rwilson99

+1


31 posted on 04/18/2017 6:59:03 AM PDT by Fantasywriter (Any attempt to do forensic work using Internet artifacts is fraught owith pitfalls. JoeProbono)
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To: livius
Buying an airplane ticket is not like buying a shirt. Airplane tickets are not, and cannot be, a guarantee of transport. There are 100s of reasons why an airline will not be able to transport the ticket holder. They cannot guarantee timeliness. They cannot guarantee delivery. They cannot even guarantee directness. With a shirt, if you are holding it, and you paid for it, it is yours. With an airline ticket, all you are really getting is a general promise to try to get you there on time.

While United clearly deserves some of this outpouring of reproach due to their history of treating customers like dirt, when these kind of feeding frenzies turn into lynch mobs, completely devoid of objectivity, then there is only one thing we know for certain: future airline passengers are not going to benefit -- one way or another, future airline passengers are going to be left paying the price: through higher prices, increased regulation, fewer choices. Something. But future passengers are definitely the ones with a target on their back, even though the current lynch mob's intent is to try to help them.
32 posted on 04/18/2017 6:59:34 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: Don Corleone
It was NOT a United airlines airplane. It was a United partner “Republic Airlines”.

Dao was on United Airlines flight 3411. The crew that bumped him was a Republic Airlines crew that needed to get to Louisville.

-PJ

33 posted on 04/18/2017 7:00:32 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: jjsheridan5

There is no special rules for non-air crew employees.

Under United’s contract of carriage non-air crew employees are just passengers. In this case, they were non-fare no-reservation late arriving late-booking passengers, the kind that should get bumped.


34 posted on 04/18/2017 7:01:37 AM PDT by 13foxtrot
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To: 2nd amendment mama

Exactly when I stopped.

You don’t

A) Sell a man a ticket.

B) Let him through security.

C) Give him a boarding pass.

D) Allow him to board.

E) Allow him to take his seat.

F) Accompanied by a family member.

And then tell him “Ooops! We screwed up! Get off the plane, we need that seat!”, and throw him off using force, and without mutually agreed upon compensation.

Calling this “overbooking” is a gross misnomer showing either the ignorance or disingenuousness of the writer. Or both.


35 posted on 04/18/2017 7:29:39 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: pabianice
In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled United Airlines and our culture of perpetual outrage, pabianice wrote:
A flicker of uncharacteristic sanity at UMass.

____________________________________________________

Actually not so much. The flight was not overbooked and the doctor paid over $1000.00 for his ticket. They wanted to remove him from his seat so that airline employees could use the seat, it was said that some of those employees needed to be on another flight in the morning and it was imperative that they reach their destination in time to get rest before flying again.

Ok, it is the right of United Airlines to decide who to kick off of a flight but certainly unwise to kick anyone off who has already boarded. They could have avoided this if the employees of the airline had simply checked in before boarding. Much was made about the offer to pay up to $1200.00 to someone who would give up his seat. The DR. paid nearly that much for his 1st class seat I can understand why that was not a motivation for him.

The Security that removed him was not airport security, it was a private security company hired by the airlines.

The Dr., well he seems an idiot, a baby, an a$$hole perhaps but in the suit that will be coming I would rather be on his side than the Airlines. The Airlines would be wise to settle and settle quickly to get this out of the news. They will pay through the nose one way or the other.

36 posted on 04/18/2017 7:31:15 AM PDT by JAKraig (my religion is at least as good as yours)
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To: JAKraig
They will pay through the nose one way or the other.

No. They will not pay through the nose. Future airline travelers will pay through the nose. United will pass those costs on, driving prices slightly higher, permanently. They are clearly going to suffer a short-term blow relative to other airlines, given the tremendous negative publicity (some earned, some not-so-earned). But if they have to settle, then every other airline needs to plan accordingly (regardless of whatever processes they have in place to prevent this sort of thing, they have to accept that there is a non-negligible chance that they will be on the receiving end of this kind of feeding frenzy, and that they will become the payers of someone else's set-for-life judicial lottery winnings).

Future passengers will pay. Higher prices, less choice, more regulation. Few things in life are guaranteed (including, ironically, airline passage). But this is.
37 posted on 04/18/2017 7:43:09 AM PDT by jjsheridan5
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To: pabianice
...comply with the instructions of airline personnel for safety reasons.

There was no safety or security issue, other than those created by UAL's poor customer service.

38 posted on 04/18/2017 7:49:48 AM PDT by Mr.Unique (The government, by its very nature, cannot give except what it first takes.)
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To: pabianice

“No evidence in the video, or anything that has otherwise surfaced, has shown that anyone intentionally tried to harm Dao.”

LMAO!!!!
Did Ray Charles write this ?


39 posted on 04/18/2017 7:50:21 AM PDT by moehoward
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To: jjsheridan5
Future passengers will pay. Higher prices, less choice, more regulation.

I agree that higher prices for airline tickets is a likely result. But that's a good thing. Fares got so low it became a race to the bottom and service declined. Nobody likes feeling they are on a Greyhound bus in the sky.

Higher fares, less overbooking, less crowding, better working conditions for the cabin crew and that all equals a more civilized trip and happy passengers.

40 posted on 04/18/2017 8:06:39 AM PDT by grasshopper2
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