[jjsheridan5]

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.

[Wuli]

“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.”

You make good points about what an airline ticket does not guarantee you. However, none of those things have anything to do with the context of the matter of the United passenger. You’re comparing apples and oranges, trying to make one look like the other. It’s not the same.

What you are guaranteed with the ticket is what the carrier’s own terms of service say. And United’s terms of service while permitting involuntary removal of a boarded passenger gives all kinds of reasons for which it is permitted. To resolve an overbooked condition is not one of them.