Posted on 04/10/2017 7:37:53 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
“No, this is wrong,” a woman shouts at security officers in the video.”Oh my God, look at what you did to him!”
A disturbing video was uploaded to Facebook by Audra Bridges Sunday night. It shows a full United flight sitting at a Chicago airport and bound for Louisville. But there was a problem – United had overbooked the flight, they needed four seats for their stand-by crew and no one was volunteering to give up their spot.
That problem led to a violent confrontation as security forced one passenger off the plane, who said he was a doctor and couldn’t take a later flight because he had patients to see at his hospital in the morning.
Bridges, a Louisville resident, told the Courier-Journal that United announced in the terminal Sunday night that the flight was overbooked and offered passengers $400 and a night at a hotel to give up their seat and opt for a flight at 3 p.m. on Monday. No one volunteered, and passengers boarded the flight. United told the full flight that they couldn’t take off without the four seats, then upped the offer to $800 plus a night at a hotel, but still no one volunteered.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Perhaps instead of picking people at random, they should do it by whomever checked into their flight last.
Don’t want to be bumped involuntarily? Arrive earlier to the airport.
Continental Airlines, BEFORE their merger with United, was a pretty good airline, as well. Very customer-centric, excellent meals in First Class...nothing like the garbage they serve, now.
On one of our last Continental flights, our flight crew told us that, unfortunately, Continental would be lowering standards, down to United’s level....and, sadly, not the reverse. They were 100% right.
You’re a doctor, right? Imagine this scenario: this Dr., who lives in KY, flies home every Friday at noon and back Sunday at 5p at a contracted rate Cook County secured with UAL. As a result, he gets bumped quite often, and his Physician’s Mgr. gives him crap about the re-scheduling he’s always causing.
This time around, to get out of the consta-bump loop he’s in, and after getting bloodied up and kicked off, he hears ‘I’ll take the voucher! from a passenger and runs back on to avoid another round of cancellations which is ruining his reputation through no fault of his own.
Perhaps. But that has nothing to do with this story.
United's Contract of Carriage Document
Probably a deadhead crew.
I don’t think it matters who the guy is. HE had a ticket and the compensation was not sufficient for him to get off.
Myself I would have probably taken the money. Not right that he was tossed into a seat and drug off the plane. Great advert for the other airlines out there. Whe won’t beat you up and drag you off our flights.
The passenger was a jerk. I applaud United. What where they supposed to do? They picked four at random and ordered them off the plane. Read The Terms of Carriage and appropriate federal laws and you will see they did nothing wrong. It wasn’t even unusual. But that passenger is a lunatic who ran back on the plane. When you are given an order by a flight crew you are obligated under law to obey it. You can argue later if you wish. Sometimes reasoning with them works but when it doesn’t you submit.
The guy doing the posting is also a jerk. If he wants as so moved and concern r why didn’t he give up his seat?
I have been removed twice by UA on oversold flights. They must know I am 98% Delta because UA is just awful.
Dr. Freud loves your spelling ...
That’s just it. United should have kept upping the incentive until they got a true volunteer.
What a stupid move by United.
Well, as someone who travels, we’re told that it’s the law to comply with crew member instructions. Once they told him to leave, he was supposed to leave. He brought it all on himself. This situation is not unusual, but his reaction to it was.
Had I been on the plane, I might have delayed my arrival at work if this started happening. But once the guy decided to act like a major jerk, I’d have turned back to my book. I doubt people will skip United because of this - most flights I fly on are full. If people still fly even with TSA, then this will mean little.
Ok...Ok....we get it!!!
Other than using points for an upgrade I wasn’t in a position to be flying company paid first class, so the vast majority of my exposure has been coach. I do recall the old Midway Airlines which was nice if I was needing to be downtown in Chicago. The whole plane was “first class.”
Regarding Piedmont and USAir merging, the downgrade was very obvious, stupid cheap nitpicky things like a tiny bag of peanuts and a small cup of soda instead of a regular sized bag and a whole can. All the former Piedmont passengers threw a fit and got the whole can back for a while.
Some of the changes were a little discomfiting. USAir loved those old Fokker F-28’s which were cramped, abrupt and loud, I hated them. Their pilots were trained to land very differently, too. Almost felt like they were diving for the runway and wham! Piedmont sort of throttled back and wafted down by comparison, much more comfortable and pleasant, with a little blip of the throttle immediately before touching down, then landing like a bird I guess. Somebody explained the reasoning for that to me once and I’ve forgotten, it went back to WWII.
“No kidding. Imagine if he was a doctor that had a surgery in the morning. They better hope that isn’t the case.”
Then he should have planned ahead. If its not emergency surgery, he can reschedule. If it is, someone else can do it.
Also, his demeanor wasn’t “I must get to a patient”. It was spoiled child at Disneyland. He was chosen at random, but he thinks he is more important.
Doctor? No, Gaffer say’s he was not a Doctor. Not that Gaffer was anywhere near the airplane, but he is certain, so...
Post 9/11...it's much cheaper to just call a customer service issue a "security incident".
Thank you for posting the Contract of Carriage.
Years ago that would have been one of the first things posted on this site. Unfortunately now we get 150 posts of posters feelings, thoughts, projections and suspicions. That’s fine as long as the reader understands much mis-information is posted as fact.
That seemed like the solution to me. But I don’t fully understand the “standby crew” definition.
My nephew is a pilot with United. I know when he and his family are just “traveling” they only get on if there are enough extra seats. But when he’s alone, traveling back to his hub and home, on another flight that he isn’t piloting, I wonder if he’s considered standby crew. I’ll have to ask.
[From United’s condition of carriage:]
“Boarding Priorities - If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority:
Passengers who are Qualified Individuals with Disabilities, unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 years, or minors between the ages of 5 to 15 years who use the unaccompanied minor service, will be the last to be involuntarily denied boarding if it is determined by UA that such denial would constitute a hardship.
The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.”
If there is going to be any kind of lawsuit, it seems that here are the grounds: picking passengers at random to bump goes against the policy of denying boarding as noted above.
I remember that story.
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