Posted on 04/13/2017 3:37:45 AM PDT by Zakeet
I hope you are saying that in jest. Speaking from personal experience, it is not true.
There is legal/technical witness tampering and there is de facto witness tampering. Lawyers have been retained. Motions have already been made [the lawyers asked a judge to order the airline to preserve all records]. Unless United settles out of court, it will go to trial. If it does, the passengers will be witnesses.
Given these facts, United is blatantly currying favor with potential future witnesses. It may backfire, though. Dao’s lawyers may use United’s actions to argue against them.
UA flies Putin for free.
Had this man actually known his rights he would have been entitled to demand a cash payment plus the cost in fares and hotels for the inconvenience.
But he could not have done that on the spot. He would have to have been involuntarily removed, hopefully peacefully, and then asserted his rights at the gate. The cash value vs. hrs., delay, etc. are available for those who wish to see them.
Regarding the offer of $800 and a free hotel room, I wonder how often that actually happens. Because if that really happened a lot, why don’t we have “professional” travelers who constantly fly on planes so that they can volunteer for these offers. Cash in just three or four times a week and one could make a decent living for oneself.
This all could/can be handled at or before the airport terminal.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Now lets get back to real news (see Norkies’ missile launch)
they left a 69 yo bleeding, unconscious man unattended. That’s stupid on many levels.
Agreed, luckily they are not facing charges of criminally negligent homicide. Unconscious patients should never be left unattended. Anything can happen, aspiration injury and chocking being a real risk. That blew my mind when I read that. If true I hope the penalties are large and cause the individuals and corporations involved some real pain. That’s some third world stuff right there.
I fly fairly frequently, and I only see the overbookings once in a while. One would lose more money trying for these situations than actually being given compensation. I used to be a United frequent flyer, but I dropped them in favor of American...I have had better customer experiences since.
Oh, so you think lawyers who charge uo $1,000 AN HOUR sit around working on frivolous lawsuits.
You’re talking through your hat.
They should have kept upping the money for the voucher. Do you think people wouldn’t have volunteered for a $2000 voucher.
up to $1,000 hrly
Doubt we know the whole story of what happened. Of course the evil big corporation is going to get blamed, but did he have any responsibility?
Unless you are a bakery.
I have a feeling that United is going to continue to be front and center every day in the press until it gets knocked off the page by North Korea.
I appreciate your additional details and information. To compound United’s legal jeopardy, the unconcious, bleeding near-70 yo had been tased point blank—younger people have died from this—and he is a dr. Dao knew all the right things to say and do once they got him to the hospital, that much we can count on.
If you’re going to put a man’s life at risk, you shouldn’t select a dr to do it to. It’s bad for business.
I fly frequently as well and have only seen these offers a few times. I fly mostly JetBlue and Delta. One time my wife and I took advantage. We were in Orlando waiting to go back to Boston when they asked for volunteers. My wife and I looked at each other, realizing it was like zero degrees up in Boston and said hell yeah, we would take another night in Florida. Had a nice dinner and a free hotel room. Not a bad deal.
The cheap bas***ds could have gone up to $1 million if they so chose. There is no law limiting how much the airlines can voluntarily compensate a passenger for bumping, there is a maximum they MUST compensate a passenger for bumping, which is 4x the ticket price up to a maximum of the $1350 figure you site.
From the United Airlines Contract of Carriage:
If UA offers Alternate Transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the Passenger’s Destination or first Stopover more than two hours after the planned arrival time of the Passenger’s original flight, UA shall pay compensation to Passengers denied boarding involuntarily from an Oversold Flight at the rate of 400% of the fare to the Passenger’s first Stopover or, if none, Destination with a maximum of 1350 USD.
So, if that Chicago to Louisville ticket cost $205, the maximum the passenger would have to be compensated was $820, which is what was being offered.
United should have stopped him at the gate. They should have said they were four seats short, and that Dao would be compensated and “re-accomodated,” to the best of their ability.
What could Dao have done? He wasn’t going to drop to the floor and start banging his head till he was bloody. United would have been in the clear.
Your post is the best post on this article. Maybe Munoz should start reading FR for legal advice, due to the high amount of attorneys here who obviously specialize in commercial aviation law. It’s OVER. Munoz did a complete mea culpa on national TV yesterday. He admitted, on national TV, that United was AT FAULT, NOT THE CUSTOMER. The only thing left to argue is the amount of the settlement.
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