Airlines are so stretched, in terms of employees, that when an employee goes sick, the airlines have to hotshot employees wherever they can.
The main failing for the airline was that they didn’t have designated seating for employees who are being hotshotted. If every plane had a certain number of seats reserved for employees, up to the entire plane if need be, in emergency situations, then the people unfortunate enough to have those seats can be bumped before they get on the plane.
If United had that, they wouldn’t have had a problem because you’d be agreeing to that in the event that they had to send somebody to fill a position on another flight.
That maybe where it got a little sticky.
United personnel working the gate, Republic working the plane and it was a Republic crew that demanded to be put on the full aircraft when it was already loaded.
Chicago is the United headquarters, but would they have a procedure for putting Republic personnel in a United Chevy Suburban and drive them to Louisville? Or put them in a United corporate Kingair?