United Airlines doing United Airlines things

[Knight_Light]

I doubt the guy has much of a legal case. Once the Airline asks you to leave and you dont, you are trespassing. The police used force, mostly because that's what they do, but also because he was breaking the law. Overall, it's horrible customer service by United and a childish display by a grown man.

On this situation, they might have a case as the Dr bought a seat, was allowed to board and take his seat and was not in combative in anyway prior to the Police showing up.

This was an operations issue with United with 4 of their employees that they didn't want to rent ONE CAR for a 4.5 hour drive to Louisville.

United did not overbooked or oversell this flight. UA's Operations Division decided to take seats from paying get passengers who already boarded and give those to 4 employees instead.

Police should not have been called in this situation as UA could have easily handled this situation by upping up last financial offer for final seat and or "pay" an employee or two to drive to Louisville instead.

All of those options are cheaper by 1,000 times or more of the bad publicity and future litigation (which UA will settle out of court).

 

[NinjaKnight]

You're right. It's a larger problem with airlines and air travel in general.

Overbooking is not a problem, it's efficient. I personally think the rules could use some tweaking, they should move to some sort of reverse auction method of raising the voucher price until they have takers, but this self centered asshole refused to play by the rules and got what he deserved.

 

[SublimeKnight]

If this was handled at the gate, even the same way, no one would care. If this guy tried to rush the tunnel after being bumped, no one would care if he got tackled.
Once everyone had a seat, UA only option for handling this well was to keep raising the voucher price until someone took the offer or the rate got so high that it was cheaper to send their staff a different way. Like others have said, this has nothing to do with the practice of overbooking.

 

[Happy Hands]

On this situation, they might have a case as the Dr bought a seat, was allowed to board and take his seat and was not in combative in anyway prior to the Police showing up.

This was an operations issue with United with 4 of their employees that they didn't want to rent ONE CAR for a 4.5 hour drive to Louisville.

United did not overbooked or oversell this flight. UA's Operations Division decided to take seats from paying get passengers who already boarded and give those to 4 employees instead.

Police should not have been called in this situation as UA could have easily handled this situation by upping up last financial offer for final seat and or "pay" an employee or two to drive to Louisville instead.

All of those options are cheaper by 1,000 times or more of the bad publicity and future litigation (which UA will settle out of court).

There is not a single air carrier that could convince a flight crew to take a rented car for a four hour drive. The crew would just refuse to go. It's well outside of work rules and a giant liability for the company. I work for an airline and if they told me that they are renting a van for a four hour drive, I wouldn't go (not that it would be an option).

Just because you sat in a seat doesn't mean you can't be denied boarding. If any private business asks you to leave their property, you legally have to leave. You can worry about the morality it later. That guy made a bad choice, United will probably not press charges because of the PR problem.

It's an unfortunate problem, I've seen people taken off once or twice for flight crew that had to be moved. It wouldn't have been an issue if that guy had not acted like a petulant child. He would have been well compensated (the denied boarding rules require payment that day by check or cash and it would have been around 1000.00) and put on a flight in the morning.

 

[Sir Galahad]

There is not a single air carrier that could convince a flight crew to take a rented car for a four hour drive. The crew would just refuse to go. It's well outside of work rules and a giant liability for the company. I work for an airline and if they told me that they are renting a van for a four hour drive, I wouldn't go (not that it would be an option).

Just because you sat in a seat doesn't mean you can't be denied boarding. If any private business asks you to leave their property, you legally have to leave. You can worry about the morality it later. That guy made a bad choice, United will probably not press charges because of the PR problem.

It's an unfortunate problem, I've seen people taken off once or twice for flight crew that had to be moved. It wouldn't have been an issue if that guy had not acted like a petulant child. He would have been well compensated (the denied boarding rules require payment that day by check or cash and it would have been around 1000.00) and put on a flight in the morning.

You're kidding right? UA is going to be sued and they will settle so they don't look like bigger assholes then they already do. They sold a seat on their private property plane and invited the purchaser on the plane. UA is going to take a multi million dollar hit in PR just because they suck at logistics.

 

[UCFWayne]

You're kidding right? UA is going to be sued and they will settle so they don't look like bigger assholes then they already do. They sold a seat on their private property plane and invited the purchaser on the plane. UA is going to take a multi million dollar hit in PR just because they suck at logistics.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/un...illion-off-the-airlines-market-cap-2017-04-11

2.4% and around $550M currently.

 

[SublimeKnight]

You're kidding right? UA is going to be sued and they will settle so they don't look like bigger assholes then they already do. They sold a seat on their private property plane and invited the purchaser on the plane. UA is going to take a multi million dollar hit in PR just because they suck at logistics.

Exactly a restaurant can ask anyone to leave. They can also legally make terrible food, have terrible service, or only play nickelback. If you're a bakery you can refuse to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage. These are all completely legal, but poor business choices.
I don't know if this guy will see a penny from UA or the airport, but UA is going to lose a ton of money in lost sales. If they could go back in time, it would have likely cost them a lot less to offer people $1M to give up their seats.

 

[Happy Hands]

You're kidding right? UA is going to be sued and they will settle so they don't look like bigger assholes then they already do. They sold a seat on their private property plane and invited the purchaser on the plane. UA is going to take a multi million dollar hit in PR just because they suck at logistics.

I'm not sure what your first sentence means. I, for the most part agree with what your saying. I was just pointing out that the small print on a ticket gives airlines a lot of power.

I'm actually impressed by how unsavvy United us with its PR. The truth is that nobody at United did anything wrong in regards to how the situation should be handled. They screwed up in the media relations. It's hard to contradict a 30 second video that lacks context. Who knows how a better run airline would have handled this, but they certainly would have expressed some sort of empathy.

 

[UCFWayne]

I'm not sure what your first sentence means. I, for the most part agree with what your saying. I was just pointing out that the small print on a ticket gives airlines a lot of power.

I'm actually impressed by how unsavvy United us with its PR. The truth is that nobody at United did anything wrong in regards to how the situation should be handled. They screwed up in the media relations. It's hard to contradict a 30 second video that lacks context. Who knows how a better run airline would have handled this, but they certainly would have expressed some sort of empathy.

you and the united ceo might agree, but pretty much everyone else disagrees with you.

 

[MACHater02]

I'm going to boycott them after my vacation in May.*

 

[Knight_Light]

 

[Happy Hands]

you and the united ceo might agree, but pretty much everyone else disagrees with you.

I would say most people that are familiar with how the industry works would agree with me. It's just the truth. Again, it's a bad situation and somebody is going to get mad when they are taken off a flight (whether for crew relocation or weight and balance purposes). United's biggest problem was handling the aftermath.

This will make airlines think twice about calling security to pull passengers like this off the plane, which is a good thing.

 

[Knight_Light]

Our moral compass, aka Hollywood, this Star Trek star has chimed in and in this case , puts the blame squarely on the lone person responsible.



PS. While many brainwashed people on Twitter agrees with his comment, a few brave soles responded in more clever ways and their tweets are hilarious.

 

[UCFWayne]

I would say most people that are familiar with how the industry works would agree with me. It's just the truth. Again, it's a bad situation and somebody is going to get mad when they are taken off a flight (whether for crew relocation or weight and balance purposes). United's biggest problem was handling the aftermath.

LOL, so united's biggest problem was the apology, not the dude that got beat up?

 

[CommuterBob]

Overbooking is not a problem, it's efficient. I personally think the rules could use some tweaking, they should move to some sort of reverse auction method of raising the voucher price until they have takers, but this self centered asshole refused to play by the rules and got what he deserved.

Overbooking is a problem, though. Sure it's a strategy for the airlines to maximize seating and revenue and I get that, but they get burned by it when they displace customers. Granted far more often than not, it works to their advantage, but it's shitty customer service when it doesn't. Only conditioned air snobs agree with it. It's total BS to pay for a flight and then get booted to another flight (or even another day) for any reason, let alone a last-second reason once the plane was already fully boarded.

If you went to the drive through, paid at the first window, then went to the second window to get your food and they told you to wait until tomorrow because they had to give your food to one of their employees, but we'll give you $5, would you call that good service? No.

Yes the doctor was a petulant child and didn't handle it the right way, but hopefully this brings to light an important issue for the travelling public. The airlines' practice of overbooking screws over customers and there's no other way to spin it.

 

[KnighttimeJoe]

Our moral compass, aka Hollywood, this Star Trek star has chimed in and in this case , puts the blame squarely on the lone person responsible.

View embedded media

What a dumb tweet.

 

[Happy Hands]

LOL, so united's biggest problem was the apology, not the dude that got beat up?

That was out of there control. They asked him to get off. He didn't so they called the authorities. The authorities did what they do. He was hurt because he wouldn't obey lawful commands not because United denied him boarding. Maybe United should have passed the blame on to the airport cops. Who knows.

 

[NinjaKnight]

Overbooking is a problem, though. Sure it's a strategy for the airlines to maximize seating and revenue and I get that, but they get burned by it when they displace customers. Granted far more often than not, it works to their advantage, but it's shitty customer service when it doesn't. Only conditioned air snobs agree with it. It's total BS to pay for a flight and then get booted to another flight (or even another day) for any reason, let alone a last-second reason once the plane was already fully boarded.

If you went to the drive through, paid at the first window, then went to the second window to get your food and they told you to wait until tomorrow because they had to give your food to one of their employees, but we'll give you $5, would you call that good service? No.

Yes the doctor was a petulant child and didn't handle it the right way, but hopefully this brings to light an important issue for the travelling public. The airlines' practice of overbooking screws over customers and there's no other way to spin it.

1) Terribly analogy, don't try those anymore if you clearly don't understand how they work.

2) 90% of the time I'm travelling I hope they overbook. It all depends on the delay and how much they are offering of course, but generally If I can get a $500 voucher for waiting up to 6 hours I'll do it. I don't know about your but making $100 an hour for sitting at an airport is a pretty good ROI for me. Overbooking is almost always a win/win.

 

[CommuterBob]

1) Terribly analogy, don't try those anymore if you clearly don't understand how they work.

2) 90% of the time I'm travelling I hope they overbook. It all depends on the delay and how much they are offering of course, but generally If I can get a $500 voucher for waiting up to 6 hours I'll do it. I don't know about your but making $100 an hour for sitting at an airport is a pretty good ROI for me. Overbooking is almost always a win/win.

It's a perfect analogy. You're just a conditioned shill who can't see that you're getting screwed. You've been conned into thinking delays in your schedule caused by poor logistics from the airline are acceptable. They shouldn't be. Paying customers shouldn't be shuffled around because of poor planning. You think sitting around an airport is making you money. It's not. Sure you get a voucher, but you lose productivity, family time, sleep, etc. Do you put up with this shit in other areas of your life?

 

[CommuterBob]

Third time's a charm. Here's a better apology from the United CEO (but only after his company's stock lost around $1B in the last 24 hours).

 

[NinjaKnight]

Do you put up with this shit in other areas of your life?

If someone is paying me $100+ an hour, yes. It's called work dumbass.

 

[UCFKnight85]

If someone is paying me $100+ an hour, yes. It's called work dumbass.

No, it's called involuntary coercion. Working for $100/hour is one thing- being told you're going to get $100/hour for something you don't want, and didn't sign up for, is another thing. It's actually quite low when you consider that the airline is f*cking you with absolutely no regrets.

When I come home from long trips the last thing I'd ever want to do is sit around an airport all because the shitty airline thinks that paying for a ticket in a seat shouldn't mean anything.

I was once bounced off a United flight in Cleveland- they gave me $350. I waited 4.5 hours, then the flight got delayed 2 hours. I missed my other connection and the day turned into one giant nightmare shitstorm. I would have burned all of

 

[CommuterBob]

If someone is paying me $100+ an hour, yes. It's called work dumbass.

Your regular job calls for you to get paid to wait around and do nothing? Must be nice. And you're not getting paid $100 an hour. You're getting a voucher which will almost invariably get you spend even more money with the airline/airport, not to mention the other lost time I noted above. Maybe you would have spent it anyway, but maybe not. I'm glad you have so much free time on your hands.

And again, you mentioned only a 6 hour delay. The flight in question would have been almost a full day delay (3 PM Monday flight instead of Sunday afternoon). Even the $800 + hotel offer is under $40/hour (I'm not counting the cost of the hotel because that is only decency to offer a real bed if forcing me to stay overnight). If I had to be home on Monday morning, I would consider that offer bullshit.

 

[UCFWayne]

No, it's called involuntary coercion. Working for $100/hour is one thing- being told you're going to get $100/hour for something you don't want, and didn't sign up for, is another thing. It's actually quite low when you consider that the airline is f*cking you with absolutely no regrets.

When I come home from long trips the last thing I'd ever want to do is sit around an airport all because the shitty airline thinks that paying for a ticket in a seat shouldn't mean anything.

I was once bounced off a United flight in Cleveland- they gave me $350. I waited 4.5 hours, then the flight got delayed 2 hours. I missed my other connection and the day turned into one giant nightmare shitstorm. I would have burned all of

how long did you end up waiting total? Im just trying to do some ninja math to determine if you got a good ROI....

 

[mwcga]

I would say most people that are familiar with how the industry works would agree with me. It's just the truth. Again, it's a bad situation and somebody is going to get mad when they are taken off a flight (whether for crew relocation or weight and balance purposes). United's biggest problem was handling the aftermath.

This will make airlines think twice about calling security to pull passengers like this off the plane, which is a good thing.

Why don't the airlines implement auction method once inside the plane? That's little money given that it doesn't happen often. I check in early so I know I'll get a seat but now I know I can still be removed from the plane. That's not right.

The guy is a jerk. If I were on that plane, I'd probably think: just get the fxxx off, take one for all of us. But he did raise awareness of this horrible airline practice and should be applauded.

 

[Knight_Light]

Do you put up with this shit in other areas of your life?

If someone is paying me $100+ an hour, yes. It's called work dumbass.

Problem is, the scenario you gave ($100 per hour for 5-6 hours) was not the scenario in this case.

This was the last flight of the day to a small/medium size airport, Louisville, hence why even for $800 offer, others did not take them up the offer.

Any gate manager had authority to keep offering more $$$ till they finally got ao.eo e to say yes but UA did not do that and instead, they didn't call security but the Chicago PD to do their dirty work, all to save the giant corporation a few hundred dollars.

Chicago Police Departments should not be used to cover operational employee shifting decisions by UA or any other airline.

 

[UCFhonors]

Did HE GET THE $800 or NOT?

 

[UCFWayne]

Did HE GET THE $800 or NOT?

$800 doesnt matter, hes going to get a whole lot more than that

 

[Knight_Light]

New popular hastag:

zHeroInterest
@zHeroInterest
3h
Hey @United, my ex is flying from Atlanta to San Antonio, Flight 2145, Row 12, Seat D... do your thing. #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos


Deplorable Ranchers
@OrganicRanchersReplying to @RealJamesWoods
"Putting the Hospital in Hospitality" #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos

 

[Knight_Light]

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

 

[Knight_Light]

 

[reddog4720]

 

[chemmie]

United was legally allowed to do this; however, companies die based on bad business practices. United will most certainly lose market share due to this situation. That's actually the greatness of capitalism - if a company doesn't perform for their customers they become less profitable and are forced into new business practices to survive.

The last industry that you should be using as a shiny beacon of capitalist success would be airlines.

 

[OmniKnight]

I honestly struggle with all the vitriol being pointed at UA as an entity. Yes, their policies and procedures need an updating, and yes employees are representatives of the company, but the decision to deplane four individuals for the sake of crew transport was made by one person or a very small group of persons. This idea of corporate culpability for the actions of a single employee has gotten a bit overzealous. It has its place, but calling all of United evil for this decision seems like a hell of a stretch doesn't it?

The really disturbing actor here is the savage that physically ripped the man out of his seat and concussed him, then dragged him down the aisle of the plane in front of screaming families. What a f***ing disgusting excuse for a human being. This guy needs to be brought under charges and sentenced fully

 

[jetsaholic]

What a child that guy is. Take your 800 and hotel stay and shut up. He got hurt because he refused to leave. The plane is over booked, so someone has to go.

This might be the stupidest post ever on this forum. Think about how bad that is, considering Honors has been posting for years.

 

[jetsaholic]

What a dumb twat.

FIFY

 

[UCFKnight85]

The last industry that you should be using as a shiny beacon of capitalist success would be airlines.

Wow. Yet again, you post something asinine and wrong.

This isn't 1990 anymore. The big airlines have been absolutely pushed into new, better practices by airlines like Southwest, Allegiant, JetBlue, and foreign competitors. Yea they whine about it but they're being pushed all the same. Southwest and Allegiant have forced them to offer more affordable fare options since those airlines are amongst the most profitable with a non-hub business model.

Gulf airlines forced the big US airlines into better service options since Etihad and Emirates provide top level service on board.

Then you've got EU airlines such as Norwegian and Aer Lingus that started offering highly reduced fares to Europe which forced US airlines to start layering their fares in order to reach more price sensitive customers.

 

[KnighttimeJoe]

I honestly struggle with all the vitriol being pointed at UA as an entity. Yes, their policies and procedures need an updating, and yes employees are representatives of the company, but the decision to deplane four individuals for the sake of crew transport was made by one person or a very small group of persons. This idea of corporate culpability for the actions of a single employee has gotten a bit overzealous. It has its place, but calling all of United evil for this decision seems like a hell of a stretch doesn't it?

The really disturbing actor here is the savage that physically ripped the man out of his seat and concussed him, then dragged him down the aisle of the plane in front of screaming families. What a f***ing disgusting excuse for a human being. This guy needs to be brought under charges and sentenced fully

Probably because it took their dumb ass CEO 3 or 4 different tries (I've lost count) to get an apology correct. First, it was the passenger's fault. Then he defended his employees. He talked about the belligerence of the passenger who they tried to "re-accommodate" (whatever the fukc that means). And let's not forget that UA has a fairly shitty history of stuff like this.

So yeah, maybe this was executed by few, but the chain of responses from the head dude in charge make this company look like it's run by a bunch of insensitive idiots.

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

The last industry that you should be using as a shiny beacon of capitalist success would be airlines.

The last person that you should be using as a shiny beacon of capitalist knowledge would be Chemmie.