Posted on 04/11/2017 12:09:34 AM PDT by cba123
OK.
Sorry for the vanity.
I am just checking however, recently UA by way of the police, pulled (physically) a paying passenger out of a flight recently. He was actually dragged off the plane.
The plane was over-booked. The airline did some sort of lottery, and the guy lost.
Now I get that things happen, and I get that the flight was overbooked (not a good thing, from my view) but I think I just heard a report that this was partly due to a UA employee reservation, being kept.
On a nationwide, live news program.
So the guy was pulled out of the plane, so a free/discount employee could fly?
Is that true?
I wonder about the doctor. What would cause him to act as he did? Does he have a history of resisting authority? Was he on drugs or drunk? Does he not understand English well? Did he in fact have at least one patient with an extremely serious conditions he needed to care for? Is he under financial stress and needed real money from billings (not vouchers)? Does he have psychological issues that made him act as he did?
Did the passenger just try and explain and the attendant said to her/himself, I don’t get paid enough to deal with this, just walk away and call the cops, let them deal with it. The next thing the passenger knew he was being thrown out of his seat onto the ground by thugs. That sounds so much more likely to me.
I disagree: The police were called and took their instructions from UAL ground staff manager, who the police accepted, had the authority to make such a call...
Don’t mess with the airport/airline staff, Brown shirt mentality prevails....
With that flight crew, it would be more than seatbacks and trays in the upright position!
Vouchers? Why not cash? Vouchers only ensure that you have to deal with them again.
There's a number of reasons that I haven't flown since 2007.
"...I've seen several threads and it is all over YouTube..."
A department spokesman has already said they don't support their actions and one is on leave - paid, of course.
These guys will be lucky if they're not brought up on criminal charges. I'd be lawyering up. Bigly.
I agree: I call BS by the airline, and further, I suspect the UAL ground manager was 45 year old non-male.....I had a similar experience a few years ago....I arrive at the airport in plenty of time, no baggage to check proceed to the gate, still a hour before the flight, check in with the gate staff, assigned a seat, so I sit and wait, flight is called and I take my time, no rush as I have an assigned seat, however the gate agent, said sorry the plane is full....I could not believe what i heard and I had a court case at the destination, however the airline said f off take the next flight!!
“Assaulted”. It may take while, but someone should pay. I bet the guy gets a serious lawyer.
The vid (at link you posted), of that bleeding man saying ‘just kill me’, is shocking.
When I read the sorry statement, put out by the UA CEO...saying ‘we will reach out to this passenger’....I thought...No, you won’t! You WILL be reaching out to his attorney, though.
The poor man, he though he was living in a country of laws, with freedom to speak up if he thought he was being treated unfairly.
Probably wanted to get it out ahead of speculation that he was “Middle Eastern.”
We all know how quickly that starts. :)
Fly the Surly Skies with United.
The “bumped” (beaten and bloody) passenger was a doctor and had a valid need to be on that flight at that time. The airline should have upped the bribe until they got a taker.
UAL could have chartered a plane to fly four people 300 miles for less than $800/seat, I bet.
If it was to keep a UA employee on it might not be what you think
I worked for United for six months in 1990 ( quit because the union sucked) but in my job I was classified as an airline mechanic...so if i was needed for work somewhere in the country I could get on a flight and even ride in the cockpit to get where I was going
Obviously employees other than pilot co-pilot can’t right in the cockpit now
But if it was crew that need to be deadheaded to a different destination to do needed work to keep other aircraft flying at the other location.... then yes they’re going to have priority even over passengers
When you just flying for pleasure you have the lowest priority when you flying to do company vital work at the other location you have the highest
Employees on duty fly priority.
if an aircraft in Chicago needs a mechanic ...or and aircraft Atlanta need a Copilot.
But that’s mechanic or that spare pilot are both sitting in New York.
Guess what they have priority on any flight out of New York to get to where they’re needed
“Increase the offer until (...) its cheaper to hire a car and driver for the employees.”
Nice try with the driving idea, but vehicle time counts as “dead-heading” against the number of “duty hours” the pilot is allowed per day. Oh by the way they have to pay the pilot 100% pay every hour he is in the vehicle as if he was flying. There’s also a rule requiring 10 hour rest period before the duty time begins, with 8 of those being an opportunity for uninterrupted sleep. So if you’re thinking a long drive for that pilot overnight, might be tricky to meet all the rules.
“Can that be done anytime the airline gets a chance to make/save money on a few seats?”
Yes!
Say a bunch of rich company executives have a problem with their corporate jet. They rush to the airport without bags and buy “full fare Y” tickets costing thousands of dollars each before a full flight goes. The gate agents will ask for volunteers and involuntarily bump if needed. The cost difference between bump compensation and “full fare” is large.
Involuntary Bumping is called for in the plane ticket’s contract, and detailed in DOT govt regulations. It’s the law!
Or say a jet gets delayed due to weather or mechanical issues making the crew go past the number of duty hours legally allowed. The airline has to send in a fresh crew, might need to force space for them on a hub flight about to go. Not getting them on means further delays for hundreds of their passengers.
“”I think I’ve seen several threads on it, and it’s all over YouTube and most chat threads elsewhere. It’s dominating the Internet tonight””
Correct - while I didn’t see one minute devoted to the shooting at the school in San Bernardino, CA, this was all over the TV yesterday and last night. There was one passenger who took pictures and gave an articulate account of what happened but another one on a different show who had trouble finding his own tongue to get the words out....
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