United's biggest mistake was letting everyone on the plane if they were oversold Their second biggest mistake was only going up to $800 in monopoly money Their third mistake was how their PR people have handled it after This is not great bobb
I'm not sure that they really escalated it. This shit happens all the time, but a passenger being a dickbag and refusing to get out of his seat after the cops are called is rare enough that it made headlines. But, yeah, I have no doubt that United regrets the fact that they randomly picked this guy to bump.
Everybody has a price. You're also assuming all 100+ strangers on the plane would figure that out and work together to force united to keep upping the bid. Somebody would jump in and take it, quickly. Instead, they saved a couple hundred bucks but now will have a tens of millions of negative impressions, this following other negative events recently.
I saw a good question on Twitter regarding the overbooking. Can the flight really be considered "overbooked" if all of the paying passengers had seats and it was standby status employees that needed a spot?
I think the story is that the employees weren't actually stand by, but essential personnel needed for a flight elsewhere.
I don't have any issues with their policy leading up to this at all. They overbooked, which all airlines do, they offered vouchers for volunteers, which all airlines do, and they went to plan B when that didn't work. 99/100 that will work and that's the end of it. But this time it didn't, and I just can't understand how once they realized it was going to be an issue... they just kept going down that path. If they even sell 5 fewer tickets because of this, it's more expensive to them than just continuing to up the offer.
Still not paying customers. I'm not taking a side on this question either way because I have no idea how overbooking is defined but if the guy sues it may come up.
When did they have the option to not go down that path? The others who were drawn at random got off the plane. Then, it wasn't like the police sought their approval between the time he refused to get up and they dragged his ass out.
The guy is not going to win a lawsuit against United. First, they'd never let it get that far for PR reasons. But, if they did, this would be very defensible from a legal standpoint.
Not sure how you would put the blame on the doctor for the delay in this situation... they have a 4 hour delay because of United employee's logistic problems, not the doctor.
Dude, I think most of us realize that UA is allowed to remove people, but that doesn't mean they should go about this way. Like others have said, they take no PR hit if they keep upping the offer/cash amount until they eventually find enough people. In addition to this, how many people read the fine print for their airline tickets? Do you read the entire EULA for every piece of software you download? I understand that ignorance is no excuse, but I'm betting this man had no idea what he may be entitled to under the contract of carriage and is instead not thinking entirely rationally (like so many of us do when flying).
still catching up but for the bolded part it's the fact that the guy was "bloodied and carried off the plane" that is why people are damning anyone. The damning is certainly going to the wrong place as you've stated it should be the police not United. It would still be a witch hunt if someone was denied that McDonalds, refused to leave, and the end result was the cops dragging him out bleeding.
This is standard policy as it's in their contract of carriage. School bears no responsibility for the actions of the cop, take it up with the cop if you have a problem as you should know exactly what you're getting when you step into the school. Also the school is indefensible here in a lawsuit, also fuck that girl for thinking her time is more important than the rest of her classmate's.
What does United Airlines tell a doctor with two black eyes if they need his seat? Spoiler Nothing they're too busy choking him!
The fact that they could have avoided it by offering even more than 4x the flight's fare doesn't mean that he isn't more responsible for the escalation than they are. I can see how he'd be pissed for being bumped. I can empathize with the couple who was also randomly selected and got off the plane without police intervention. I'm just not willing to give a guy a free pass who refused to give up his seat despite (1) getting a rescheduled flight, (2) getting a voucher four times the price of the fare, (3) being asked to leave by United employees, and (4) being asked to leave by Chicago Airport Police. I think it's perfectly reasonable for United to not expect him to end up assaulted by the cops.
You really don't think people would be furious if the a guy got pulled out of section 303 at a Lady Gaga concert because the United Center forgot they needed extra sponsor tickets?
I think that there's a difference here, but I think that people would be more inclined to blame the police over the entity that owned the arena if the cops were the ones who beat his ass in the process.
Im sure there's something in ~the contract~ that waives that part and let's (NOT MAKES, jeez!) you take a voucher Spoiler on threat of violence
You keep painting this scenario in shades of black and white, give me a break. Does the doctor know he's still entitled to vouchers after they "volunteer" him? Is it not possible he's confused as shit about what is going to happen and that may be why he's freaking out? Is this not almost entirely United's fault for letting people onto the plane before pulling this shit? He acted immaturely, I'll grant you that, but almost no one is happy on a plane while being treated like cargo. Regardless of whatever UA's policy is, it's fucking awful and not an excuse for letting the situation dissolve. It sounds like they could save some face and earn some goodwill by making it their policy to offer up cash/vouchers up to a certain multiple of the ticket's worth before calling the fucking rent a cops.
Glad this guy got roughed up. He's an asshole and could've handled this through available channels like every other person that gets completely bent over by the airlines. Instead he chose to act like a petulant child and found himself getting fucked up by a bunch of c team cops. It's a double win bc united is coming out as a big loser in this as well. Terrible airline and they deserve all the bad pr they have coming their way.
Do enjoy that United tried to save $500 under the legal requirement and it will cost them so much in bad PR.
Keep reading. They can offer vouchers, but you can refuse them and demand a check. Spoiler Airlines may offer free tickets or dollar-amount vouchers for future flights in place of a check for denied boarding compensation. However, if you are bumped involuntarily you have the right to insist on a check if that is your preference. Once you cash the check (or accept the free flight), you will probably lose the ability to pursue more money from the airline later on. However, if being bumped costs you more money than the airline will pay you at the airport, you can try to negotiate a higher settlement with their complaint department. If this doesn't work, you usually have 30 days from the date on the check to decide if you want to accept the amount of the check. You are always free to decline the check (e.g., not cash it) and take the airline to court to try to obtain more compensation. DOT's denied boarding regulation spells out the airlines' minimum obligation to people they bump involuntarily. Finally, don't be a "no-show." If you are holding confirmed reservations you don't plan to use, notify the airline. If you don't, they will cancel all onward or return reservations on your trip.
I don't think you can find a comparable situation honestly. When they oversold the Super Bowl/Wrestlemania, people went nuts on Jerryworld. And people take travel more seriously than, say, a concert, due to how much a flight can impact your life
If they failed to explain it to the guy, then I'd agree they fucked up there. Assuming the article is correct, and he said he was calling his lawyer, I can't imagine that he was confused by what the cops were asking him to do. I'm pretty sure that's what they did.
I think you're misreading that. It's 400% of the one-way fare up to $1,350. They offered close to 400% of what my juggsian research found a round-trip fare costs for that route.
Coming from someone who flies an average of once per year, I had no idea how this voucher system works and didn't know that you can refuse the voucher for cash instead. I'm betting that this isn't all 100% clear to the passenger who actually ran back onto the plane after he was bloodied up. Yes they did offer some vouchers, but as everyone else here is telling you it wasn't near enough for them to escalate this to calling the Paul Blarts. It may be worth rewriting said policy to go up a significant more before forcing random people off an already boarded plane. I'm mostly annoyed that you're framing this as a "both sides equally bad" argument especially after all your posts in the Trump thread. The guy acted immaturely, but you can't view this in a vacuum, UA shares the vast majority of the blame here.
In unrelated news, family of four makes $11000 in a weekend and avoids traveling to Florida, bloodshed by volunteering to be bumped off Delta flights https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurab...-to-fly-to-florida-this-weekend/#465b01704de1
You keep saying that these were rent-a-cops. Those were the actual police. And I don't think this has anything to do with Trump or my politics. I fly once or twice a month. Involuntary bumps aren't that common, because you typically have people take the voucher and reschedule. When you don't, involuntary bumps happen and the cops don't have to be called. This guy's reaction was rare, and I'm not sure that United could have (or should have) planned for it. I'm sure that they will now.
Whatever these cops were they shouldn't have had to be called in the first place if someone doesn't want to take $800. I'm willing to bet that four people would have moved for a better price and it will cost them much less than the PR hit they're taking right now. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are framing this as equal blame on both sides. In my mind this guy should have gotten up and out peacefully but that's maybe 10% of the problem. You instead decided to state that United is shitty but didn't do anything legally wrong, the rest of us are saying they're doing something very morally wrong and they deserve all the blame they're getting for the guy getting fucked up.
this is so goddamn weird, they just let him back on the plane (as you asked)? or did he go mission impossible style and sneak back on? he gets back on, scampers down the aisle mumbling "i hafta go home, i hafta go home, i hafta go home" and nobody bats an eye. so weird.
No, I'm not saying equal blame on both sides. I'm saying that the guy who refused to get off the plane is more to blame. If he had done that like a normal human being and then pitched a huge hissy fit over it in the terminal, I'd be team that guy because United sucks.
damn I know people will argue anything on here, but I'm still genuinely surprised people are defending the airline right now.
I'd be less likely to defend the guy if they didn't already board the plane. That fuckup alone led to all of this.
Maybe he was a plant the whole time. Like you choke out one Ken Jeong lookalike in front of an audience you've prob got a lot more people willing to play ball after that