Doctor dragged off flight was convicted of trading drugs for sex (Plot Thickens)

NY Post ^ | April 11, 2017 | Natalie Musumeci

[Alberta's Child]

Airlines never had many of the problems that are commonplace now. One reason for it was that the airline industry was heavily regulated. Under deregulation, airlines now operate like any other business that looks to maximize its revenues and minimize its costs by chasing the lowest common denominator. It's the opposite of a monopoly. So airline tickets are more affordable than ever, and airline travel basically stinks. Welcome to the world of Yugo cars.

If someone wishes to get from NYC to LA in a few hours, one absolutely MUST take a plane. There are no other options. It is a monopoly, granted special rules that do not protect of provide for the passengers rights or humanity.

I'll offer a couple of options:

1. Fly a private jet.

2. Fly first/business class.

Option #1 is very expensive, while Option #2 is much more affordable and eliminates 95% of the problems you have when you travel in coach steerage class.

The basic problem here is that everyone wants to pay coach fares, but nobody likes dealing with all the nonsense that comes with it. That's why I fly as infrequently as possible. I prefer to travel on MY terms, which is absolutely impossible when you're getting on a passenger jet owned and operated by someone else.

[Thumper1960]

1st class tickets for an hour and a half flight.

I suppose that would be appropriate for the self important.

[Alberta's Child]

In this case -- between the check-in process, boarding, flight time, and alighting -- the guy probably spent a minimum of three hours ... for a trip that would have been a four-hour drive. And that assumes everything went according to plan, and there were no flight delays.

If that's the kind of thought process that goes into his airline travel, then he may as well have taken a rickshaw and saved everyone (including himself) a lot of grief.

[Oztrich Boy]

United should have kept upping the money offer until 4 people volunteered. Surely at 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or $10,000 offer, 4 people would volunteer to give up their seats.

I think they wanted him to volunteer.

Asking for volunteers from the whole plane for $1000 real dollars (not United voucher dollars) would probably been enough,

[Thumper1960]

RE: a three hour drive. The same can be said of the other passengers AND the four United employees. Why weren’t THEY just driven to Louisville, KY? Why inconvenience PAYING customers. Regardless of whether any particular passenger paid discount fare or full fare or sat in coach or “1st class”. The seating structure and the payment structure are the creations of the airliner. The airline works to fill paying seats, by many mechanisms. This particular flight wasn’t overbooked. It was simply full. United created this mess, their kneejerk use of violent force is their own creation. Whatever bad befalls United over this incident is wholly self inflicted and well deserved.