Don't fly United

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Exactly! PP must work for United. His logic is insane. Maybe he needs to be dragged off a plane because someone decided they needed the seat for their own and his needs (or money paid) didn't matter.

If the crew or a police officer asked me to get out of my seat and explained why, I would definitely follow their orders. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I would then take it up with United afterwards.

[Anonymous]

This kind of crap happens too often. I was doing a weekend trip a month ago: IAD to West palm beach to watch spring training baseball.

I had a real cheap ticket. Got from IAD to ATL. ATL to PBI was overbooked, and with my cheapest ticket, I was bumped. They could not fly me from ATL to PBI until sunday; I would have four hours in FL before my return.

I worked with an agent -- MAI was full, but they got me on a flight that evening to TPA that night. This was a case where there were options. They even took care of the hotel room in TPA, and the car rental. I got to the stadium before the game.

Now, it is not far from Louisville to Cincinnati. Don't know if that would be a option.

With that said, they had to know about the problem before boarding the people. Inexcusable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing in either video appears to suggest that the man's head hitting the armrest across the aisle was an intentional act by the officers, but merely incidental to the man's removal from the seat and his subsequent toppling over across the aisle.

As has been said earlier in the thread, noncompliance with an officer's request, then order, will lead to use of force. If, in the course of a struggle against lawful use of force the resisting party sustains injuries, even serious/potentially life-threatening injuries merely incidental to the lawful use of force (such as a head incidentally hitting an armrest during the course of detainment), then that liability is on the resisting party...NOT the detaining officer in the course of his/her official duties.

It's no different than if, in the course of the use of lawful and non-lethal self-defense during a street encounter using a hand-to-hand technique, the offending party happens to be tripped over by the defending party and incidentally smacks his/her head on a curb, causing death by severe head injury...Courts (at least in the U.S.) generally hold that death or great bodily harm resulting incidentally to the use of non-lethal defensive methods against an offending party is not the liability of the defending party, as the defending party generally would not have reasonably known that the use of a defensive method established by law and precedent to be "non-lethal" would have resulted in death or great bodily harm.

I think part of what's disgusting about your defense of the airline and police actions here is that the police were acting at the behest of the airline, to protect their financial interests. This wasn't an unruly passenger who was a danger to others, this was a paying customer randomly selected for removal, because the airline refused to increase the incentive for being bumped. He was taken off to save the airline money, and the police were used to enforce United's corporate interests. That is disgusting, we should all be appalled, and their position is not defensible.

So the passenger who refused to comply with the crew's orders is going to comply with all their other orders when he's up in the air? Is he going to put his seatbelt on when requested; not smoke, etc? How do we know that, given he's already shown he's not willing to comply with one order?

You're an argumentative asshole with no common sense.

+100

[Anonymous]

I'm really shocked by United's response too. How can anyone view that video and not at least apologize for the rough handling of the passenger???

[Anonymous]

I'm curious if there is more (or presumably) less recourse if he purchased his ticket from a 3rd party?

My sister rented a car from Expedia or something like that when we came to visit me. And they literally had zero cars, even though she made a reservation.

BUT, it wasn't with the car rental company. Just curious. Wonder if Watson would also select that person first if it's possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there only one pro-United person on this thread? It's so weird that someone would defend them. This is a pretty ridiculous scenario. Oh and as for needing the seats for flight attendants, there area ALWAYS backup flight attendants ready to go at a moment's notice. They sit in the united lounge waiting to be called.

There were lots of cancellations and weather issues last week that are still playing out. http://www.ajc.com/travel/delta-flight-cancellations-continue-friday-was-like-madhouse/D4xg1oVDWwiuOU2kWNgQSI/

I would guess Louisville could have been affected and they might have needed pilots. Did United ask for volunteers pre-boarding? That's what I've seen them do plus over time they up the offers. This is weird.

I have seen United shift around people on flights. Customer of size issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This kind of crap happens too often. I was doing a weekend trip a month ago: IAD to West palm beach to watch spring training baseball.

I had a real cheap ticket. Got from IAD to ATL. ATL to PBI was overbooked, and with my cheapest ticket, I was bumped. They could not fly me from ATL to PBI until sunday; I would have four hours in FL before my return.

I worked with an agent -- MAI was full, but they got me on a flight that evening to TPA that night. This was a case where there were options. They even took care of the hotel room in TPA, and the car rental. I got to the stadium before the game.

Now, it is not far from Louisville to Cincinnati. Don't know if that would be a option.

With that said, they had to know about the problem before boarding the people. Inexcusable.

Do they tend to bump the people with the cheapest tickets first?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious if there is more (or presumably) less recourse if he purchased his ticket from a 3rd party?

My sister rented a car from Expedia or something like that when we came to visit me. And they literally had zero cars, even though she made a reservation.

BUT, it wasn't with the car rental company. Just curious. Wonder if Watson would also select that person first if it's possible.

Rental cars are a different animal from flights. Airlines are regulated heavily and have a condition of carriage.

For rental cars, that can indeed happen. One trick I use is that some rental companies allow you to pre-pay (Budget for example). I do that, which seems to nearly guarantee a car since I've paid for it, and it's a bit cheaper that way also. I'm sure they are allowed to back out last-minute though -- I hven't read the fine print.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there only one pro-United person on this thread? It's so weird that someone would defend them. This is a pretty ridiculous scenario. Oh and as for needing the seats for flight attendants, there area ALWAYS backup flight attendants ready to go at a moment's notice. They sit in the united lounge waiting to be called.

There were lots of cancellations and weather issues last week that are still playing out. http://www.ajc.com/travel/delta-flight-cancellations-continue-friday-was-like-madhouse/D4xg1oVDWwiuOU2kWNgQSI/

I would guess Louisville could have been affected and they might have needed pilots. Did United ask for volunteers pre-boarding? That's what I've seen them do plus over time they up the offers. This is weird.

I think this is what happened. I can't see the United gate agent thinking "Ha ha! I'm going go board everyone, then pull someone off afterwards!" That just makes things more diffficult for them too. Usually they know if they are in this situation in advance. As I understand it, the crew who were needed in Louisville showed up last minute, after the boarding process had started. Then, they offered up to $800 for someone to get off, and no takers. Then the computer picked who gets tossed off.

My guess is the late-arriving crew already had a reservation on that flight, but since they didn't show up by the time boarding started, the agent assumed they weren't going to make it, then they did.

Another way to handle this would be to deboard everyone, then re-board all but the one person who will be kicked off, but that's going to delay things by at least an hour, and most people are not going to refuse to leave their seat when asked to do so by authorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This kind of crap happens too often. I was doing a weekend trip a month ago: IAD to West palm beach to watch spring training baseball.

I had a real cheap ticket. Got from IAD to ATL. ATL to PBI was overbooked, and with my cheapest ticket, I was bumped. They could not fly me from ATL to PBI until sunday; I would have four hours in FL before my return.

I worked with an agent -- MAI was full, but they got me on a flight that evening to TPA that night. This was a case where there were options. They even took care of the hotel room in TPA, and the car rental. I got to the stadium before the game.

Now, it is not far from Louisville to Cincinnati. Don't know if that would be a option.

With that said, they had to know about the problem before boarding the people. Inexcusable.

Do they tend to bump the people with the cheapest tickets first?

Yes. Cheapest ticket and lowest status

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there only one pro-United person on this thread? It's so weird that someone would defend them. This is a pretty ridiculous scenario. Oh and as for needing the seats for flight attendants, there area ALWAYS backup flight attendants ready to go at a moment's notice. They sit in the united lounge waiting to be called.

There were lots of cancellations and weather issues last week that are still playing out. http://www.ajc.com/travel/delta-flight-cancellations-continue-friday-was-like-madhouse/D4xg1oVDWwiuOU2kWNgQSI/

I would guess Louisville could have been affected and they might have needed pilots. Did United ask for volunteers pre-boarding? That's what I've seen them do plus over time they up the offers. This is weird.

I think this is what happened. I can't see the United gate agent thinking "Ha ha! I'm going go board everyone, then pull someone off afterwards!" That just makes things more diffficult for them too. Usually they know if they are in this situation in advance. As I understand it, the crew who were needed in Louisville showed up last minute, after the boarding process had started. Then, they offered up to $800 for someone to get off, and no takers. Then the computer picked who gets tossed off.

My guess is the late-arriving crew already had a reservation on that flight, but since they didn't show up by the time boarding started, the agent assumed they weren't going to make it, then they did.

Another way to handle this would be to deboard everyone, then re-board all but the one person who will be kicked off, but that's going to delay things by at least an hour, and most people are not going to refuse to leave their seat when asked to do so by authorities.

So United might not have known the crew needed that flight or could make that flight when the plane was boarding? Were the 4 people including the guy dragged off flying stand by? I would assume the people asked to deplane were stand by passengers .

[Anonymous]

Indianapolis is only 2 hours from Louisville. Cincinnati is 1.5 hours. They could have figured something out.

[Anonymous]

on Kayak United shows only 2 flights on Sundays from Chicago to Louisville. 5:40pm -8:02 and 9pm to 11:02pm.
Delta/American/SW. Midway also has Louisville flights.

Were the bumped passengers offered the 11:02 plus a voucher of 300-800 or would they have had to wait until Monday with a voucher of 800 plus free food, hotel, transport to hotel?

[Anonymous]

This is so bizarre.
https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/status/851228695360663552

The guy who got dragged out returns to the flight and is running around like a chicken mumbling " I have to go home". This guy is suppose to be a doctor?

[Anonymous]

So if you fly with points you get bumped first?