Posted on 04/17/2017 1:54:38 AM PDT by lbtbell
United Airlines has reportedly been reviewing several of its policies after a video leaked six days ago of officers violently booting a passenger from one of its flights. Now the airline has come to the conclusion that it not going to forcibly remove boarded customers from overbooked flights so that staff can take their seats anymorehe new policy requires staff and crew members to check in an hour prior to departure.
(snip)
In any case, United now seems to have recognized the error of its ways, or else, certainly, the mighty extent of the media sh*tstorm it has dragged itself into, and is taking steps to make amends. United spokesperson Maggie Schmerin told the New York Times over email on Sunday, "We issued an update policy to make sure crews traveling on our aircraft are booked at least 60 minutes prior to departure." Schmerin also reiterated that United is absolutely done removing passengers who pose no immediate security threat from their flights.
(Excerpt) Read more at jezebel.com ...
Gee, how benevolent of United! I guess their war on doctors and leggings has now ended.
Too late United, you have screwed the pooch.
Wouldn’t need any policy if their idiot employees had any common sense.
You fail to understand the bureaucratic mind.
If the United (or Republic) employee responsible, on site, for ejecting the paying customers had used common sense, he might have risked getting fired subsequently. The "higher-ups" would have seen only the fact that the four United crewmen failed to reach their destination on time, were thus unable to crew the future flight, etc. - not the public-relations disaster that he would have averted.
Regards,
The clown in question showed himself to be a pig and a drama queen.His past history,at least as it concerns his medical practice,indicates someone that I wouldn't allow to treat my pet hamster.
Oh,and...."worse that escaping Vietnam"....gimme a motherbleepin' break!!!
Not a nickel for this whackjob of his slimy ambulance chasing lawyer.
And I wouldn't hesitate to fly United because I know that they treat passengers who aren't stark raving mad in a reasonable fashion.
It is literally nickels and dimes for them to charter another flight for their employees, but they chose to screw over their customers instead.
I wonder how this has been going on. Can’t just be United.
“...clown in question” is a good quote. I will add....if you look at the video several minutes after they dragged him to the door and he’s standing...he looks drugged-up. Maybe he was on a tranquilizer or sedative.
One has to wonder if it might've been a savings. They were giving up the income from four paying customers, plus the money those passengers were being compensated.
Do stockholders have a valid gripe? The employees chose selfish convenience over profit.
So they admit it was a bad policy.
Wouldn't you rule that out if you were on duty and one of your patients came in like that?
And if they need to take on additional fuel to compensate for weather changes? And remove some passengers to compensate for the weight of the fuel?
They will still give up income plus compensation when needed. They will just do it before they board the plane. Which is what they should have done. Which I am sure was the policy. I am guessing the gate agents were in a rush to push this plane back to avoid penalties or to avoid further delays which could cause a lot of missed connections for that flight and the flight coming into that gate next. So they did something foolish. It is just asking for drama to try to eject a passenger once he/she is seated. You do it before anyone can get on the plane, not randomly, but by finding those passengers who are easiest to re-accommodate among those who are not elite status frequent flyers or who bought deep discounted fares.
He did have a concussion, a broken nose and some broken teeth.
Funny, I am no doctor but I was also surprised they put him back on the plane. I don’t know for certain but I imagine that putting someone with a concussion or possibly swelling of the brain into a pressurized tube for a few hours is a bad idea. I also wondered about shock, and whether they gave him blankets. Not to say I don’t also think the dramatics were overwrought, but still the man was assaulted and had his head banged to the point of bleeding. Need to be cautious.
I think such a situation could have arisen with any airline; it just happened to be United that was the unlucky one.
I flew on Delta recently. They started asking for people to give up their seats before boarding commenced, but they kept asking even during and after the time when people had taken their seats. As I recall, one couple did decide to take the airline up on its offer to compensate them. Other passengers were called off the plane, though.
I understand that practice of overselling and then bumping passengers is to make sure the plane is filled up even if their are no-shows. But... is this really the most profitable option? I have a hard time understanding how selling a ticket and then giving the person more than the value of the ticket to not take that flight—plus booking them a guaranteed seat on the next flight—is profitable for the airlines. Wouldn’t it be better to sell “stand-by” tickets to fill out the flights?
Once, when I was flying on official business, the people at the gate told me to stand by because they did not have a seat (for a flight booked weeks in advance???). They finally put me up in first class. It was an interesting experience since I’ve never before or since flown first class, but now I am wondering—did they bump a first class passenger to make sure that I could get on the flight since I was traveling on official business?
The cops apparently left him unattended while he was dazed and bleeding. You don't have to be a lawyer or doctor to know how big a screw-up that is.
Great policy change until one of their flights arrives later than the one hour window and that crew needs to get aboard another flight to be positioned. We’ll see if Must Ride overrides the new policy.
At my airline, the company was forbidden from putting us on a non commercial flight per our union contract. Seriously, what would stop them from putting crew members on a plane flown by a crop duster? (No offense to crop dusted!)
you are being obtuse. Playing the game of the culture of who’s who instead of what is reasonable.
By your analysis people fall into ranks of who can travel on a plane, first, anyone who has no bankruptcies, has no mental health issues, no felonies, no traffic ticket. Next those who had a traffic ticket. Next those who had a bankruptcy and a traffic ticket. Next those who had a bankruptcy, traffic ticket and a mental health issue. Next those who had a bankruptcy, traffic ticket, mental health issue and a prior felony. And you will be be bumped in the reverse order.
Look, dude, there is no law saying prima donnas or felons can’t fly on planes, buy a ticket and be treated with the same respect as anybody else. You need to think this through.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.