> Like it or not, private businesses have the right to ask you to leave. <
Not if you have a contract with them! If I rent a car from you for, say, a day, then that car is mine, for that day. You cannot decide to pull me out that car just because a friend needs that car.
The question here is just what is the nature of the contract between this passenger and United. I’ve read that United has the right to bump someone who has not yet boarded. But once someone has boarded, that seat is his (excepting some safety issue, of course).
“Not if you have a contract with them! If I rent a car from you for, say, a day, then that car is mine, for that day. You cannot decide to pull me out that car just because a friend needs that car.”
You arrive there to pick it up, and they cant offer it to you (for whatever reason), but they give you a refund or compensation + an alternative car.
Yeah, they CAN do that.
Now if you want to stand there are pitch a fit and refuse the offer, they can ask you to leave because you have become a disturbance because you are holding up the line, and if you dont, they can have security or police toss you out.