United does have now a PR mess on their hands. They should have had an auctioneer and paid to the highest bidder an option to stay and wait for the next flight.
No, United should have told their standing-by employees that standing by means not necessarily getting the flight you want. UAL should be busted in the chops if these are all the facts.
> They should have had an auctioneer and paid to the highest bidder an option to stay and wait for the next flight. <
Bingo! If $400 doesn’t get anyone off the plane, try $800. Then try $1200. Then try $1600, etc. Any other method should result in a lawsuit against the airlines.
United is awful and likely don’t care about the PR hit. They once pulled a little trick on me I call the “voluntary separation scam”, where they wrote “VS” on my boarding pass, but never said a word to me. When my luggage didn’t show, their staff said “you agreed to voluntary separation of your luggage, see?”. Of course, once you’re at your destination, you can’t really dispute it with the weasel who wrote it. Ummm......no.
They used to be a favored airline of mine, as I traveled a lot for my job. Now I see them as bottom-feeding scum. And they likely would take that as an ENDORSEMENT.
> paid to the highest bidder
lowest?
I saw that happen yesterday at O’Hare.
The flight at the gate next to mine was oversold so they offered a $300 dollar voucher to take a later flight that day.
Nobody took it so they offered $350.
Nobody took it so they then offered $400. Somebody took it.
BTW, the airline was American.