Posted on 04/11/2017 12:09:34 AM PDT by cba123
“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”
On most airlines they are allowed to give away your seat if you aren’t ready to board 15 minutes before flight time. They usually close the door 10 min before but that’s 5 minutes when it is still open that they can give away your seat if you aren’t there, even if you have boarding pass
He was trespassing the moment they asked him to leave.
There are no ifs ands or buts about it. Seating is by availability and when you book your flights you’re told this and that overbookings do occur.
Aviation is heavily regulated and controlled by the Federal Government. Airlines have time sensitive schedules and missing them often cost 10’s of thousand of dollars.
Trouble with scheduling and pushed flights could and usually do effect other flights and other passengers.
Just pretend he was a Black Muslim from the hood. Then it would have been a non-issue to most of you showing concern that a trespasser was physically removed by police.
Do any of you think you have a constitutional right to Fly? Or is it like abortion, a new found constitutional right derived from false dichotomies?
It’s a PR nightmare for the airlines and that will blow over. Judge Napolitano not withstanding, the man’s lawsuit will die in appeals.
LOL...so true.
They left out the part about how the guy became ‘irate’ after he a) purchased ticket b) was seated/boarded with his belongings (bags possibly checked in) and, c) was told to get off, that he’d been randomly selected to be kicked off the boarded plane.
You sound like that doctor.
A vulgar display of violence? Like getting your face bloodied as you are legally arrested and removed from a plane?
As the truth is coming out and as facts are being revealed, I doubt very much that doctor is going to receive a huge lawsuit settlement as many predicted. He was in the wrong.
Thanks for that link........
Great way to respond to my post, which wasn't even directed at you. I've flown a lot over the years and I have never heard a call for volunteers after the flight had boarded.
As for walking up to the gate and offering to pay full fare...ain't gonna happen. You don't get past TSA without a boarding pass. So unless you already have a ticket for another flight, you're not going to be in the sterile area. So your scenario is highly unlikely.
As far as claiming I made a bad assumption, I understand United needed to reposition a employees to crew another flight. But they handled this situation extremely badly, as can be evidenced by the social media firestorm that has erupted. If you really need four volunteers, you need to keep upping the ante until four people decide they can wait a little longer. That would have been a lot cheaper than the stock market hit, the bad publicity and the inevitable legal action.
Bottom line...United employees made some really bad decisions in this case. And now the CEO is doubling down by backing their stupidity.
Its good that you have the airlines best interests at heart. They are going to need people in their corner. Many of us feel that they are responsible for their costs of doing business & proper staffing.
The airlines are able to have rules that contravene common sense and take unfair advantage because they have lobbyists. Probably that isn’t going to work so well in future.
Involuntary Bumping should be rare & high $ cost to the airline with reimbursement to the passenger. There should be a reason tied to saftey or emergency which should be documented and subject to review by the licensing agency upon passenger complaint, not just paper shuffling amongst insiders. Trump’s specialty - a little sunshine- coming soon to an industry near you.
Plus the flight ended up being two hours late, so the employees got there only a hour before they would have if they had driven.
Yes it would be relevant in general circumstances, but his refusal to leave the plane made the reason irrelevant. Any potential case against the policy of UA was gone the second he refused to depart and had to have police remove him. Regardless of how the policy was used, his refusal to comply with the airline and then the police made the reason for his removal irrelevant.
I think there is a lot of grey area here.
In the video I watched on two different sites the guy that did the removal did not look like police nor did he behave like police.
In the video the unkempt “cop” in saggy jeans walked over to an old man sitting quietly in his chair, leaned in and dragged him out as soon as the “cop” reached the passenger’s row without a word.
The man was levered from the window seat into the aisle floor, striking his head during the maneuver, screaming in shock and pain for a few seconds until his head was struck. Then the passenger was dragged up the floor of the craft silent and bleeding while many people in the cabin said, that’s terrible, why did you do that and variations. When the man awoke unattended in the walkway outside the plane he staggered back into the cabin dazed and confused. That is not something he can be blamed for, he was concussed.
I think many of us would have a problem with being arbitrarily removed and might say no, please find someone else I have a “wedding, funeral, daughter’s graduation, dying father, urgent appointment”. We might not realize that upon our saying that with no warning we would be assaulted and injured. I’d like to think that isn’t the way its supposed to be.
3 out of 4 were not pedophiles like that guy is.
He should have been drag off just for that.
Reduced to basic bottom line, you are saying the airline behavior is okay regardless of who it is directed at.
Because if it is okay here, it is okay elsewhere.
If you are a pedophile then yes.
Yes, because guilty until proven innocent, no due process is the conservative way.
Right?
No, if that is true of him you build the case and secure a conviction.
Warning, there are three doctors listed with that same name.
Be absolutely certain you are talking about the right guy.
Otherwise, vigilante belt pulling righteousness comes across as hollow.
Good Lord, what ridiculousness. There wasn’t a good reason to kick him off the plane.
I get you can’t stop over-booking without seriously affecting ticket prices. But they have to off-set that with upping the incentive. You don’t kick a guy off that did nothing wrong. I thought Freepers would respect balance.
The only ridiculousness is thinking that the “doctor” was in the right and likely the amount of force used by police to remove him. I could have seen a potentially valid complaint against UA if he just left the plane as requested and than filed suit. Once he failed to comply and police were called, his complaint lost any chance of being credible. His only possible action is pursuing excessive use of force by the police, which is completely separate from UA, as the police work for TSA not UA.
Also, there were 3 others that were removed, but that was done without incident and they were compensated. Sir stupid, refused even though the removal included $800, flight change, & a hotel stay. Sounds balanced enough for me considering that his destination was a 5 hr drive by car.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
What were you saying? :)
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