Posted on 04/10/2017 2:59:25 PM PDT by grayboots
My husband is a Gold member on United and is totally disgusted by what they did to that poor man. I thought of a great marketing idea for other airlines. If they offered a comparable status on their airline to fly, my husband would jump at the chance to fly with them. Do you think the other airlines would think of this? I think so many people would switch over to their airline in a heartbeat. Or is this not an option for them?
But they weren’t offering another flight until 3 pm the next day. I assume that is because they didn’t want to incur the cost of putting him on another airline’s plane.
Such “customers of size” who didn’t book first class or two seats for themselves shouldn’t be allowed to board in that situation.
But whether or not the passenger should have done something differently, can’t you see that this is a PR nightmare for the airline? Something that they should have avoided—e.g., by upping their offer until enough people accepted.
The main reason for an airline is do they go where you do and is their hub convenient?
ORD is cosmopolitan enough to house a good-sized AA hub. If you are elsewhere it could be a problem getting where you are going without having to stop through ORD or another hub.
Last time I checked, AA will match status but you only get to do it once so be sure.
I read some more posts.
Apparently, just ONE name is randomly chosen by computer.
Perhaps to save time (LOL!)?
Another post said the rules for evicting a passenger are explicitly codified by the Department of Transportation.
Yeah, and then no one would comply until the offer was outrageous. There has to be a point where the offer is considered fair.
> This guy made the news because he chose not to obey a lawful order and paid the price. <
That’s all true. The guy lost his cool. But I’d have to add one more thing. This is not like someone sneaking into a movie theater, then getting caught and being asked to leave.
The passenger did everything that he was supposed to do to get that seat. It was his seat. Then all of a sudden - through absolutely no fault of his own - it’s not his seat anymore.
So yes, I have sympathy for the man. And if I were on the jury during his civil suit against the airlines, well...I probably wouldn’t be starting out neutral.
I’m afraid you don’t have all the facts.
First off, United didn’t “pay” anyone. The “payments” were not cash, but $800 worth of flights on United. In other words, it didn’t cost them a cent, and if you weren’t going to fly on United again, the “payment” was of zero value.
Second, the man was a doctor who HAD to get to his destination on time to treat his patients. He wasn’t just some guy on vacation. There were sick, maybe even dying, people depending on him. For that reason alone, United should have chosen someone else.
Finally, even if the previous two points didn’t apply to the situation, you don’t remove someone from their seat by slamming their head against the headrest. You pull them OUT of the seat, you don’t forcefully shove their head into it. What they did is like trying to save a drowning man by shoving him back into the water—it doesn’t work, and someone’s going to get hurt.
Sure enough, he was. Blood started coming out of his mouth, and at some points in the video, he’s in such misery, that he’s begging to be killed. These “security” guys were more concerned with venting their psychopathic anger and beating him up, than they were about removing him.
I read that this guy has now suffered a brain injury as a result of this attack. In the medial profession, his career is now over if he does have a traumatic brain injury. United could have avoided all this by just picking another passenger, instead of knowingly trying to harm this doctor’s patients by keeping him from getting to them.
The doctor’s family needs to sue for lost salary, medical expenses, mental anguish, and anything else their attorney can come up with. And the doctor’s patients should also sue United.
Removing a troublemaking passenger from a plane is one thing. This passenger was not in any way responsible, nor did he exhibit any bad behavior; he was merely picked at random by a computer to be targeted, even though he was minding his own business. He has every right to protest being ripped off, without being subjected to violence. What is our country coming to, if a customer can’t even complain about bad service?? This incident is jackbooted thuggery at its worst, and United needs to be sued out of existence.
It wasn’t just one. A couple was “asked” and they complied.
Here ya go:
http://nypost.com/2017/04/10/officer-who-dragged-bloodied-passenger-off-flight-placed-on-leave/
I remember when I was young, I couldn’t fly back east because the tickets were probably more expensive than they are now and our low military salary didn’t fit. I did get to bank a lot of vacation time though. Plus long distance calls were very expensive. Today long distance is the same as calling your neighbor.
I’m not 100% certain on what the exact scenario was. I will assure you that when passengers and involuntarily denied, it is looked at by many staff. No one in their right mind would “make room” for a fried. No chance in that happening. It was likely they needed crew somewhere to fly a plane full of people. This happens in small cities when you have a sick call or something.
Even Fox News highlighted the United fiasco at 6pm.
Hopefully, enough people will remember how the Jackboots at United Airlines handled this situation and will fly anybody besides United.
United Airlines could have avoided the mess THEY created by simply offering to pay a bit more for folks to take a different flight.
Instead United called in the Jackboots and with force removed a paying passenger.
Looks like there will be action taken even before it gets to a lawsuit:
http://nypost.com/2017/04/10/officer-who-dragged-bloodied-passenger-off-flight-placed-on-leave/
I was an in aviation in the mil. I like control over my flying experience
I worked for TSA for a while, quit.
TSA is the reason I wont fly. They scare me.
Uhm no. The UA policy is clear. When he refused the voluntold, UA contacted security. Now, the actions of security were unnecessary, but once you are asked to leave, you don’t really have a choice.
BINGO! There it is for all to see. Contract of Carriage amongst other things.
I did it all the time in the 70’s back and forth from the NE to Mia.
Thats when flying was fun. Dollar nips,smoking, empty seats what a way to go
United says it was a “flight crew” of 4 needed to work a flight departing from the current destination of Louisville. Another poster said that under union contract the airline is NOT allowed to drive crews by road (answering the question of several of us today, why didn’t they transport the crew the 300 miles by limo or van).
It seems like a huge screw-up to have already boarded passengers. I don’t know how often that happens, that airlines have to try to remove passengers already onboard, but that’s obviously a more obnoxious route to take than refusing someone boarding. Once people are in a seat and waiting to take off they may feel a lot more resistance to the idea of not flying that flight.
Good reasons for airlines to figure out their final passenger list before they start boarding, especially wrt their own crew transport needs! I suppose there is always some juggling at the end with no shows and standby passengers, but it seems like the first rule should be to never board anyone who does not 100% have a seat.
Then once in that dire situation, they should have kept upping the “offer” until they got enough volunteers. They got 3 passengers to accept their offer to leave the flight, but they needed a 4th. Given the outcome, it would have been a lot better if they’d offered multiple free flight vouchers until someone stepped forward voluntarily.
“They don’t have a right to force any individual passenger off the plane once they’ve boarded you.”
They most definitely do. It happens many, many times every day. Drunks get pulled off daily. You are very much incorrect.
What I meant was the airlines only print out the exact number of people who need to be evicted.
I thought they just overbooked one passenger.
-PJ
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