Most Airlines just don't seem to care

[southsider2k5]

There's probably something in the contract language when you're buying your ticket stating that they can select you to be removed at random for an overbooked flight.

 

I am 100% certain that this is true. The problem isn't the legaleze being solid. The problem is that even if UAL had to give out 10k in vouchers, it was worth WAY more than the millions of dollars in bad publicity that they just generated. How many people watching that video won't book with UAL going forward? On top of that people are going to be remembering that video for a long time, so if UAL is going to bump people, it is going to be way more difficult and expensive for them to do.

 

It is penny-wise and pound foolish for United.

[StrangeSox]

Oh absolutely, and the way this was handled by CPD (if that's who the plain-clothes guy who dragged him off the plane was) is appalling.

[BigSqwert]

Some aftermath footage here.

[StrangeSox]

 

"he fell"

[BigSqwert]

God are they that dumb? How many people recorded the incident. He was literally being yanked out of his seat with brute force, like a rag doll.

[Dick Allen]

How the hell do they assign you a seat if you are the one going to be kicked off an overbooked flight? Why wouldn't it be the last ones to check in?

[caulfield12]

Forget the doctor part.

 

We're having enough problems in our country when we pick on seniors and that's not exactly the right image we want to send to anyone from a foreign country, either.

 

It's 4:21 a.m. in China, and I know when everyone sees this on Chinese social media, United will have hundreds of millions pissed off if they find out he's Chinese or Singaporean. They don't mess around. Just look at what they're doing to Lotte Department stores (most famous Korean Departmen Store/Real Estate company) when they sold the land to the ROK government to install the THAAD missile system. Maybe he's Korean or Japanese, but we'll find out soon enough when this goes out around the world.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-passenger...-134930951.html

 

There are already 14,000+ negative reactions just to this article, multiply that by a factor of 8-10x.

 

 

If you look closely in the second video, his left leg is trapped under the FOLDING arm rest. Instead of the idiot US Marshal lifting the arm rest first, he tugs the gentleman, while screaming as hard as he can until an audible snap can be heard. I am almost certain this man was screaming the way he was, then went instantly silent afterwords because his Femur has been broken, or dislocated. This is #$%$ disgusting, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, EVERYONE DESERVES TO BE TREATED LIKE A PERSON

Edited April 10, 2017 by caulfield12

[BigSqwert]

Maybe they'll release a video of the officer handing this poor guy a can of Pepsi.

[caulfield12]

And it's bringing out even more and more complaints about United from everyone they've screwed...Willits Tower protests against UAL corporate hq, coming soon. Greg, these stories are proof America is worse than ever after Trump was elected!!!

 

 

We were on United from Hartford to Tucson with a stop in Denver on 12/17/16. There was a storm that messed up travel across US that day. We knew to leave for the airport early because of weather. Seems the flight crew didn't have that common sense. They arrived late for the flight so we sat on the plane as they fueled and de-iced and were late taking off. I don't know if that would have made much of a difference as by the time we were fueled, there was a ground hold in Denver. We sat on the plane for three hours waiting to take off. we had to be de-iced a second time. We finally landed in Denver and sat on the tarmac for another 1 1/2 hours waiting for an open gate. Of course, we missed our connecting flight to Tucson. We should have arrived in Tucson at 1:15pm on 12/17. United re-booked our connecting flight for 10:15 on 12/17, arriving in Tucson around midnight 12/18. We had scattered seats throughout the plane. There were two earlier flights at 4:00 and 6:30 and together but they were "premium seats". As i had booked and paid for "premium seats" on the flight we missed, I think I should have been allowed seats on these flights. I was told to go to customer service by a gate attendant. Customer service line was, no exaggeration, 400 people long with two people at the desk! I booked online and AGAIN paid for premium seats on the 6:30 flight. I tried to call United Airlines while we waited to see if I could be refunded the $160 that I PAID AGAIN for "premium seats" and was on hold for 1 1/2 hours until we stood in line to board our flight. We waited in line until 9:30pm to be finally told this flight was canceled. The temperature in Denver was -16 and just about every airlines was affected. We NOW had to wait in line at the dreaded customer service to book flights out of Denver to Tucson. We waited in line until 12:30am 12/18/16 when we FINALLY got our turn at the desk to be told there was one seat out on the 11:15 flight on12/18/16 and after that the best UA could do was place us on stand-by for 12/21/16. No offer of compensation FOR ANYTHING. Acoording to United Airlines, we were airport orphans for the next three days. They did give us a cute "amenities bag" of toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant toilette, a comb, mouthwash and laundry detergent. I guess we could wash the clothes we had on and sit naked in the airport until they dried. I was able to book seats on American Airlines for 5:30am on 12/18/16 using my frequent flier miles plus an additional $320 in fees to Tucson with a stop in Dallas from Denver. American Airlines was experiencing the same weather conditions as United Airlines but they had seats for a flight 4 hours later while United Airlines, the airlines that I was originally flying, couldn't get us flights until 3 DAYS LATER and that was stand-by only. No apologies from UA, NO OFFER OF EVEN A MEAL! We wandered Denver airport looking for food. We found out that airports have to have one restaurant open at night and that restaurant was in another terminal, McDonald's. And the line was over an hour wait with one poor employee serving all those stranded customers. She deserved a medal! LONG STORY SHORT- after that experience and treatment, lack of consideration, total lack of coordination by United Airlines, I WAS NEVER flying United Airlines again. After the incident with the girls in leggings at DENVER, I was certain to never fly UA. After this latest incident, of causing injury and forcefully removing a paying customer, I will make sure EVERYONE I know NEVER FLIES UNITED AIRLINES.

 

Source, yahoo comments section from article previously linked in post 33

Edited April 10, 2017 by caulfield12

[bigruss]

I'd have a really hard time not intervening with that s***, just complete abuse of power right there.

 

[southsider2k5]

If the above is coming from a source other than yourself, you have to properly credit/link the source.

[BigSqwert]

Apparently one of the officers involved is now on leave. Likely paid if I were to guess.

[Jenksismyhero]

 

"he fell"

 

Ha, they forgot the part where the guy got loose and then ran back on to the plane.

Edited April 10, 2017 by JenksIsMyHero

[caulfield12]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-...#nt=oft02a-1la1

 

Current front page story at the Tribune (United can sue their Pr firm now, too)

 

 

Videos of a United Airlines passenger being forcibly dragged from his seat to make room for airline crew members on a Sunday overbooked flight at O'Hare International Airport have been viewed more than 1 million times, and the airline's CEO on Monday called the incident "an upsetting event to all of us here at United."

 

"I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened," United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement Monday. Munoz said the airline is trying to reach the passenger to "further address and resolve this situation."

 

....

 

Hobart said United tries to come up with a reasonable compensation offer, but "there comes a point where you're not going to get volunteers."

 

At that point, United's contract of carriage says the airline can select passengers to bump to a later flight, based on a priority system that can take into account how much passengers paid, how often they fly, whether missing that flight could affect a connecting flight and how early they checked in. People with disabilities and unaccompanied minors are generally last to be bumped (anyone over 60 or 65 is not also on the priority list? My comment).

 

Usually, passengers — however angry — comply with the airline's orders. But even if it's an unusual situation, it raises questions about what rights passengers have when being removed from a flight against their will, Harteveldt said.

 

 

 

So another point about the lawsuit is not following their own procedure to instead randomly select...which will probably be proven over time to be untrue as well since they would never randomly select anyone in a section other than coach/economy class to kick off.

Edited April 10, 2017 by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

Not sure if people realize this, but you get some nice compensation if you get bumped from an oversold flight and do not accept their offer. I was the last man bumped on a Vegas flight a few years back for the NCAA Tournament and I ended up getting +$1,000 in cash (not vouchers) plus a direct flight about four hours later. Sucked missing the first round of games, but ended up with a ton more in gambling money. So if you ever think you're going to be the one left without a seat, make sure to pass on the travel vouchers and force an involuntarily denied boarding.

[Chicago White Sox]

While I will not defend the forceful nature in which the passenger was removed from the plane, I'm still not sure what United did wrong here. They have internal polices in place on the dollar amount of travel vouchers they can offer in these situations and no one ended up biting. By law they are allowed to remove passengers from the flight. This passenger decides he's not getting off the plane and caused United to force him off instead. I don't really see what the alternative was for United.

 

IMO, the issue here is an overzealous police officer who simply got way too physical in removing said passenger from the plane. I really don't see why so many people are ragging on United over this other than some residual tied to that stupid legging drama.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Chicago White Sox

[BigSqwert]

And the winner for worst take goes to.....

[BigSqwert]

By law they are allowed to remove passengers from the flight.

 

Are you sure this is true? I'm reading a ton of discussion on this and quite a few people are saying that once he boarded they no longer had a right to do that. They could have refused to let him board and provided him an alternative to getting to his destination.

[Chicago White Sox]

And the winner for worst take goes to.....

This directed at me? If so, at least quote my post if you're going to take a dig at me without providing a single counterpoint.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Chicago White Sox

[greg775]

United and Delta are trash.

 

Southwest is the best.

I will say in my experience, about 10 flights a year is all, maybe 15, the ONLY airline flights I've ever taken without feeling horrible afterward is on SWA. I know I'm going to have a flight from hell on there sometime but I can truly say as a customer I feel like they respect me just a little bit, or tolerate me, and do not act like I'm scum. I feel like the other airlines are truly horrible, though I will say I had no complaints on the last trip to Hawaii on AA. For now I'd just like to praise SWA and say I just don't like the other airlines very much at all. United really screwed me over one time on an automatic rebooking after a cancellation and I never forgave them for that.

 

Wow, what a disaster. Someone is getting fired for thinking this is a good idea. No matter what they had to offer to get people off of this flight, it was worth less than the PR disaster they are watching all over media and social media today.

Exactly southsider. You keep going up and up on the offer for compensation to give up your seat. Increase the offer, United! Eventually somebody's gonna take a fricking 2000 dollar voucher for gosh sakes. Reason with people, joke on the PA system. Have some fun with it but work with the passengers and say 'What's it gonna take for four of you to give up your seats?" Trust me, somebody's gonna give up their seats if you hit 2000 dollars of free airfare!!

 

Whatever happened to just increasing the amount of the travel voucher until you had enough volunteers?

 

My wife and I bailed on coming home for a day once for $1,000 each on American. Of course it cost a little bit for the extra day, but it was well worth it.

Exactly. Somebody will bite on 1000 or 2000 dollars for gosh sakes.

 

I am 100% certain that this is true. The problem isn't the legaleze being solid. The problem is that even if UAL had to give out 10k in vouchers, it was worth WAY more than the millions of dollars in bad publicity that they just generated. How many people watching that video won't book with UAL going forward? On top of that people are going to be remembering that video for a long time, so if UAL is going to bump people, it is going to be way more difficult and expensive for them to do.

 

It is penny-wise and pound foolish for United.

Oh, so true. And my gawd, to forcibly remove the guy is insane. Look, if one of the four people was complaining, you WORK with the guy. And guess what? If he's that pissed you actually let him stay. Call a f***ing supervisor up front and explain the f***ing situation. The solution cannot be, "Call the cops and drag his ass off our plane!" When that's the solution, this is what happens, thankfully caught on tape. I think most of us feel the passenger should win a huge lawsuit. Excessive force. Especially if it's true he's a doctor with patients to see (is it true?)

 

Oh absolutely, and the way this was handled by CPD (if that's who the plain-clothes guy who dragged him off the plane was) is appalling.

Totally appalling. No force necessary. If the passenger is that irate, you find another passenger to give up their seat. Trust me, not everybody is going to be combative in a full flight. If you hit a combative person you have to work with them.

 

Forget the doctor part.

 

We're having enough problems in our country when we pick on seniors and that's not exactly the right image we want to send to anyone from a foreign country, either.

 

It's 4:21 a.m. in China, and I know when everyone sees this on Chinese social media, United will have hundreds of millions pissed off if they find out he's Chinese or Singaporean. They don't mess around. Just look at what they're doing to Lotte Department stores (most famous Korean Departmen Store/Real Estate company) when they sold the land to the ROK government to install the THAAD missile system. Maybe he's Korean or Japanese, but we'll find out soon enough when this goes out around the world.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-passenger...-134930951.html

 

There are already 14,000+ negative reactions just to this article, multiply that by a factor of 8-10x.

 

 

If you look closely in the second video, his left leg is trapped under the FOLDING arm rest. Instead of the idiot US Marshal lifting the arm rest first, he tugs the gentleman, while screaming as hard as he can until an audible snap can be heard. I am almost certain this man was screaming the way he was, then went instantly silent afterwords because his Femur has been broken, or dislocated. This is #$%$ disgusting, and it doesn't matter who you are, where you are from, EVERYONE DESERVES TO BE TREATED LIKE A PERSON

If that person had a limb broken ... wow. Over this?? United deserves what it gets if this guy got hurt.

 

While I will not defend the forceful nature in which the passenger was removed from the plane, I'm still not sure what United did wrong here. They have internal polices in place on the dollar amount of travel vouchers they can offer in these situations and no one ended up biting. By law they are allowed to remove passengers from the flight. This passenger decides he's not getting off the plane and caused United to force him off instead. I don't really see what the alternative was for United.

 

IMO, the issue here is an overzealous police officer who simply got way too physical in removing said passenger from the plane. I really don't see why so many people are ragging on United over this other than some residual tied to that stupid legging drama.

No one ended up biting on the offer?? Then increase the f***ing offer. Keep increasing it. You don't stop and say in effect, "OK motherf***ers, we tried. Now we're kicking people off. Just watch us."

Edited April 11, 2017 by greg775

[juddling]

At some point as the chaos was escalating, you would think someone would have said "Let him stay...I'll go....."

 

Though I am pretty sure the officers wouldn't have cared by that point

[greg775]

At some point as the chaos was escalating, you would think someone would have said "Let him stay...I'll go....."

 

Though I am pretty sure the officers wouldn't have cared by that point

Poor guy was bleeding. I tell you what there should be additional lawsuits from people claiming they were traumatized. If I get blood of another human being on me, I'm suing.

[caulfield12]

"Everybody has their price. If they had allowed the agent to offer a higher incentive, we may never have heard about this," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and founder of Atmosphere Research Group.

 

...

 

United was in a classic no-win situation: having security remove the passenger or allowing him to disobey their legally permissible request. Both have bad outcomes," DePaul University School for Public Service professor Joseph Schwieterman said in an email.

Passengers sometimes think airlines will give in to avoid a scene, but that's usually not the case, he said.

 

Others thought the airline could have resolved the situation with a lot less disruption if it had been willing to be a little more flexible.

 

United could have asked passengers why they were traveling or considered moving to the next name on the list when a passenger flat-out refused to budge, said George Hobica, founder and president of Airfarewatchdog, an airfare listing and travel advice site.

 

"If United had crashed a plane, it would have been less of a PR disaster than this. It just looks so cruel, and inexplicable and arbitrary," he said.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-...0410-story.html

Edited April 11, 2017 by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

Poor guy was bleeding. I tell you what there should be additional lawsuits from people claiming they were traumatized. If I get blood of another human being on me, I'm suing.

Wow, this post is exactly what's wrong with this country. If someone is traumatized over watching this, then they must have lived the most sheltered life possible.

[Rowand44]

How is it legal in the first place to overbook a flight and then force a paying customer off? That by itself is beyond f***ing stupid.