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?
And in your scenario of keep offering more and more, at what point should the airline stop if no accepts the offer. Should they keep going until they offer the CEO position for the company. At some point there is a limit. They had one and met it. End of story. Sorry for the passenger, as the force used by security (not UA) was unnecessary, but UA did nothing wrong.
“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.”
There are different agreements with different airlines. He could have taken his check, cashed it and bought another ticket if he wanted.
I agree with you about the customers of size. Airlines loose a lot of revenue when this happens. Nothing they can do.
It’s a PR nightmare for sure. That’s why the CEO reached out to him. He’ll get nicely compensated for his bad behavior.
Regardless of the law and policies, this event was a huge black eye for United, who spends huge bucks on advertising. It would have been MUCH better if they just sweetened the pot until they got enough volunteers... give up a few thousand dollars, get your employees to where they need to be, keep everyone happy. This is all over the news and social media and getting the predictable comments. Doesn’t United invest in manager training?
The airlines used to actually pay cash for people to "volunteer" and you had to run for the front of the plane to get the cash. Today they give you a worthless "flight credit" if you are lucky.
Of course arguing with or disobeying a flight crew is a big mistake. But from a business point of view what United did was an even bigger mistake. It wouldn't take but a moment in Washington for the terms of carriage to be changed, and airlines left writing the checks.
Yes. Google status match and your airline. Most of them allow you to do it once. You are required to meet a challenge though.
It was 4 people, they had 4 flight crew that needed to get to another location. From what I read, no one took the initial offers. They asked (voluntold) a couple who left without incident.
Or just offered to get the bumped passengers to their destination asap - renting a limo for them would have been a better plan.
What I don’t get is why they didn’t know they needed the seats until the plane was full? Seriously. They couldn’t know this the half hour before? Unreal.
Yep, sucks on an infinite level. He did nothing wrong until he refused to give up his seat. I share in your sympathy, I do. I also realize that it is something that had to be done. Denied boarding’s happen all of the time. There are many reasons: safety, crew, weight and balance issues, weather, etc.
Make a reward offer like this: come over now, tear up your United card (critical, actually), we will put you into our lounge, we will upgrade you where we can, when we can; and more importantly, we will match 1/2 your United points on your one-year anniversary with us, and we will match the other 1/2 on your second-year anniversary.
That’s hilarious.
You are required to meet a challenge though.
LMAO
The seats should be first-come first-served basis, once all the boarding passes are handed out, that’s it.
When i arrived up front , i was told to exit the aircraft, there was a mix up . I naively just followed the instructions, thinking maybe i was on the wrong flight , and not realizing they would close the door behind me.
Back at the ticket counter , i found out they over sold the flight, and they had let two of us on the aircraft with the same seat ! So i had been chosen as the one to be kicked off! My luggage was on the plane and it was leaving! , This was a connecting flight so i was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a ticket to my destination 5 hours later, which eventually became 8 hours due to thunderstorms...
I finally boarded the last flight out that evening but it was not a direct flight like my original plan and on a different carrier . When i finally ended up at my destination, it was o dark thirty , my baggage had arrived earlier in the day and the airport baggage window was closed. So i figured i would just phone in the morning and have them bring my baggage to my hotel. So next morning i call for the baggage, and they said i had to pick it up in person because the flight i arrived air port was a different carrier than the flight my luggage arrived in. Needless to say i was pissed off at the situation. The free ticket voucher they gave me for kicking me off the flight was hardly worth the inconvenience.
These types of practices should be illegal , the issue like mine was they probably let too many people on the aircraft , which could have been avoided at the ticket counter before boarding so i don't blame the poor fellow for not giving up his seat.
“Fly JetBlue....where we won’t beat you ‘til you’re black and blue!”
“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.”
Wrong: he gets a check (the kind that you cash, for real money). Either two or four times what he paid up until a fixed amount. I have my facts just fine.
They aren’t “security.” They are police—big difference.
They don’t pick passengers out of job importance. Not how the world works bud.
He can protest and whine all he wants to, up in the terminal. Once given an order by POLICE to deplane, you do it the easy way or the hard way. He chose the hard way and got busted up; his own fault.
I think out of 130 or so passengers, when offered, say 4-6 vouchers for free flights, someone would step forward. It’s easy to say slippery slope etc., but in practice it won’t go too terribly far. For a 300 mile trip (Chicago to Louisville) I’d certainly have been persuaded by the time they offered 3 or 4 flight vouchers. Then I’d have rented a car and been in Louisville the same night. I realize that’s not for everyone, but I’m just saying it won’t go to the extremes you suggest.
It would have been a lot cheaper for United then all this horrible publicity to tens/hundreds of millions of people, plus the certain lawsuit.
Stop it. I’m losin’ here!
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