So paying customers get booted for non-paying employees, correct? In what other segment of society is that a winning strategy?
The author of the article starts off with an invalid premise, so nothing he says after that is meaningful.
The reason for this chain of events starts with the flight being 2 hours LATE for takeoff. The flight was overbooked, but that was resolved. Then... the four flight crew members from a different airline needed seats to get to the other airport for their next assignment.
3 of the passengers took the money offer, to make room for this other ‘crew’, but the subject of this article was picked at random and refused to take the deal or get off the flight.
He also had a ‘deadline’ and felt like should they pick someone else. But... he went all irrational and the story didn’t end well.
Imagine you run a bar, and a customer is really drunk, and you refuse to give him another drink. He argues. Do you throw him out ?
The new regs that give attendants huge power over passengers since 9-11 have made it worse. Too many little hitlers now. They’ve gotten used to the power and like to exercise it now. You see incidents about passengers getting kicked off flights ford simply getting a bit testy about being treated like dog poop.
The public attitude of high dudgeon ahainst UAl is BS, as is drug-pushing Dr. Dao’s chances in a civil suit.
The airline has the right, for any nondiscriminatory purpose, to remove any pax from an a/c at any time the door is open. You may not like it, and there are rules for compensation, but that is the law, the filed tariffs and the Contract of Carriage.
The passenger refused the flight attendant’s repeated requests then legal demands over a 12-minute period that he leave the aircraft. He was then in violation of 49 U.S. Code § 46504.
United then called law enforcement to remove him, as required by law. Chicago LEO’s asked/told him on multiple occasions that he had to leave a/c. That’s when he began his false cries that he had to be in surgery the next morning.
They then ordered him to leave one more time. LEOs then told him he was under arrest for repeated vio of 49 U.S. Code § 46504 and Illinois law (Failure to Obey...) and he would have to leave with them.
He refused to comply and passively then violently resisted that lawful arrest. LEOs then had to extract him from his seat and he fought them.
This is all confirmed in a new video that has now surfaced of the Dr. taken minutes before the previously released one.
Dao, who is seated next to the window, says to the officers standing in the aisle, “I won’t go. I’m a physician I have to work tomorrow, eight o’clock.” That has been proven to be a lie, as he no longer has surgical privileges, They were taken away by the state for his being a drug pusher to kids, and only very limited internal medicine privileges recently restored. , Even if he did have surgery, it is immaterial.
Dao who is on his cellphone, appears to say something about making a “lawsuit against United Airlines” but does not raise his voice until the officers continue to tell him he has to leave. “I am not going,” he repeats, while shaking his head.
The officer then suggests that he may have to “drag” Dao off. “Well, you can then drag me. I don’t go, I’m not going,” the doctor says again. “I’m staying right here.” “I’m just telling you, it’s going to be a lot harder for you,” Dao replies, “Yes, I know that, I’d rather go to jail.”
Cops simple defense, (besides Sovereign Immunity) “We told him what was going to happen, and he wanted it to happen so he could sue United Airlines. He chose what happened.”
Then the other video started.
The entire violence was caused by an arrested man actively resisting that arrest and removal from the a/c. Did Chicago LEO’s overreact? Possibly, but the blame is not UAL’s. It started when the pax refused multiple lawful orders, resisted arrest, and what happened subsequently was his fault.
There was no breach of contract. If there was one, he was the violator in failing to follow the lawful order of a flight crew member. There was a violation of Federal law, and if he pushes it, the airline’s lawyers will be pushing the FAA to impose a statutory $25,000 civil fine for interference with a flight crew member.... and possibly some jail time.... and he would have to pony up lawyers fees and ant fine before any possible damages from the airline would be received.... and airlines are VERY well represented. In addition, the necessity for his forced removal after his violation of the law would only increase the severity of HIS act, not lessen it, as would his reported reentry to the a/c.
Also, I wonder how many drinks are on his Amex (discoverable) charged just before the flight... and I’ll bet the flight crew and LEOs might just testify he smelled of alcohol.
A parallel example. Let’s say are stopped for 40 in a 30.
When running your license, the LEO gets a hit saying you have an open warrant from Spokane, Washington. He announces he is going to arrest you and take you to jail for that.
His information is wrong, and you know it, because you have never been within 500 miles of the State of Washington.
Regardless, you must submit to the arrest or face the physical and legal consequences for not doing do.
You later have good grounds for a civil suit, but that is for arguing later, not on the street, on in airline seat. If you resist, you can be charged and so serious time, regardless of the incorrectness of the “Spokane” charge.
This drug-pushing-on-kids doctor set himself up for what he got, because he wanted to sue United, and if Dao is ever foolish to take it to trial, that’s going to be the jury’s verdict.
When it happens to you, we’ll all agree that you were stupid to fly United after seeing this live-action video.
Talk about snowflake now CFP and some FReepers are advocating that that the law doesn’t apply to everyone equally, not if it inconveniences some of their favorite special people or business.
I betting these advocates of select law enforcement would have hollered long and hard had they been bumped, true they most likely wouldn’t have behaved as the gentleman did in this case, but they would have been livid and we would be reading about the evil United Airlines on the pages of CFP today.
Nope, I’m not with this guy on this one. When you pay for a seat and you need to be there the next day, and you don’t want to “volunteer” to be bumped for hours, or even till the next day, they need to up the offer till someone volunteers. For $200 more I bet you someone would have actually volunteered. They picked him because they figured an old Asian man wouldn’t put up a fight. Guarantee you.
I know a repeat:
There may be worse than UA but its the worse I ever flied, once.
Its been leading a race to the bottom for over a decade,
Screw them!
“Canada Free Press” must speak to the quality of their writers.
United might be innocent in the “fine print area” (emphasize “might”, they probably violated their own CoC due to lack of proper government required notification and their definition of “boarding” is in error), but they are not innocent of stupidity. Up the offer until you get a “willing” volunteer and you avoid the potentially messy mandatory booting of people off the plane.
Idiotic. I fly a lot, and all airlines overbook. This is something that has got to be examined, because many more people fly now, there are fewer flights, and overbooking has become completely routine. Normally there’s enough college kids or single travelers who will take the voluntary offer - but even so, there were 450,000 over-bookings last year, and 40,000 “involuntary removals” in that same year.
So most people accepted the offer, and about 10% didn’t. They got removed, but this doctor’s removal - and yes, I know about his past, and yes, it doesn’t matter in this context - may be the thing that brings about the reevaluation and restructuring of what was a minor bad policy that has become major overnight.
Also, that said, I fly Delta, which has always treated me right. THere have been delays and problems, but they have always been good about keeping me informed and compensating me if I can’t get back on time for reasons that were within their sphere (bad equipment, and believe me, I don’t want to fly if the pilot doesnt!).
United Airlines may be technically “innocent,” but UAL deserves whatever shit hits their fan whenever. It is the maximum of miserable for long distance flights, at least in the cheap seats. The staff resents the passengers because they are the burden the bosses inflict on them. They think they signed on to wear spiffy uniforms and fly to exotic places, not cater to passengers like they are actually working for a living.
Airport police or whatever they are, they are still THE authority on the field...and the Left DOESN'T LIKE AUTHORITY!
Leni
It will be interesting once the cockpit recordings are released.
um....I don’t think the flight was overbooked.
It was full.
They needed to get a flight crew somewhere.
They needed 4 seats that were not available.
After being a frequent flier for some 35 years I can tell you Untied is not innocent.
After being a frequent flier for some 35 years I can tell you Untied is not innocent.
After being a frequent flier for some 35 years I can tell you Untied is not innocent.
The author argues that United Airlines actions were O.K. and besides he says:
“United Airlines, last year, had to deny boarding to 3,765 passengers due to overbooking. When you consider they had 143 million passengers in totalin 2016, that’s not a bad percentage of boarding denials.”
Now then, before revealing those numbers he made the claim of the airlines that they HAD to overbook, because they estimate how many people are statistically likely to not show up or cancel their reservation, so they “legitimately” over book.
Bu then the number of those they had to remove from their flights was 3,765 out of 143 million passengers. While it says they had to remove only a small % of customers - actually 0.0026329% - that same figure suggests the claim of “necessity” for over booking is not likely.
Face it, many people try to fly standby, or simply at the last minute. THAT is where the airlines should look to make up for cancelled reservations and no shows, not forcibly removing paid customers off their reserved flights.