Don't fly United

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering what all the other passangers (who are now coming forward with videos) were doing. I mean - the "police" who were security were dragging this man off the plane and they did nothing? But film?

No one stood up for him?

What would you have done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It should be illegal to deny a person their flight if they paid for the ticket and checked in on time. We need a law. This incident makes this obvious.

Would you be willing to pay 25% more for your tickets for this? Most airlines overbook since they get many no-shows. If they didn't oversell, they'd need to raise prices.

Well, most tickets are non-refundable, so even if you don't show up, the airline still gets your money.

And what other industry is allowed to sell people something that doesn't actually exist? The airlines make a choice to oversell; fine. But they should bear the costs of that, not their passengers. If that means shelling out 4 times the ticket price when they have to kick someone off a flight, then that's what it means.

A lot of them. Cellphone companies and internet providers sell "unlimited data" but it won't actually work if everyone tries to use unlimited data that much -- the network can't handle it.

Same with the phone company. If everyone tried to make a call at once, the system couldn't handle it. They know that no one really would try to do that (except on 9/11.. then everything came to a halt because of being overloaded).

Or the water company. They dont' have enough water pressue if everyone were to take a shower and flush the toilet at once. But I don't see them advertisign limits on water.

How about the Dulles Toll Road? I pay a fee to use the road, but in rush hour, I barely move. I thought I'm paying to get from point A to B in a speedy manner?

The difference of course is that nobody has a reasonable expectation that traffic will flow. But 99.9% of the time this will not happen to you on a flight. Also, travel is still very expensive and very painful. It is a much bigger deal to miss a flight than it is to get stuck in the occasional beltway jam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

I believe those limits are higher than $800 though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

really? which ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

We need to change those laws. Let's write our congressmen. How can this law possibly be anybody's interest but the airlines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering what all the other passangers (who are now coming forward with videos) were doing. I mean - the "police" who were security were dragging this man off the plane and they did nothing? But film?

No one stood up for him?

Big talk from afar. Intervene how? Impeding law enforcement may be illegal in its own right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering what all the other passangers (who are now coming forward with videos) were doing. I mean - the "police" who were security were dragging this man off the plane and they did nothing? But film?

No one stood up for him?

What would you have done?

Sucked it up and offered my seat and left the plane in his place rather than allow a 69 year old man be dragged out on his back. Sure maybe they all thought the airline would up the price or that they were just whistling dixie but if I saw this happen I couldn't look away.

BTW I read the flight wasn't oversold. But that the 4 united employees needing a seat created an oversold like situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

We need to change those laws. Let's write our congressmen. How can this law possibly be anybody's interest but the airlines.

There aren't limits on compensation. Read that article on the woman that made $11,000 in one weekend getting bumped from Delta.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

I believe those limits are higher than $800 though.

Yep. I was paid $1500 a few years ago to hop on the next flight. I HAPPILY accepted. I was thrilled actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

We need to change those laws. Let's write our congressmen. How can this law possibly be anybody's interest but the airlines.

I would actually be more interested in seeing reciprocity agreements in situations like this between airlines. Can't fit everyone on the United flight from Chicago to Louisville? Maybe Delta or American have seats available and/or passengers who are willing to take a later flight. There were any number of ways to solve this problem other than simply throwing money at it or strongarming (read: bloodying the face of a senior citizen) passengers to get out of seats they booked and paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

really? which ones?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

We need to change those laws. Let's write our congressmen. How can this law possibly be anybody's interest but the airlines.

I would actually be more interested in seeing reciprocity agreements in situations like this between airlines. Can't fit everyone on the United flight from Chicago to Louisville? Maybe Delta or American have seats available and/or passengers who are willing to take a later flight. There were any number of ways to solve this problem other than simply throwing money at it or strongarming (read: bloodying the face of a senior citizen) passengers to get out of seats they booked and paid for.

Agreed, this used to happen more often and I thought there was an actual law or fliers right act that if a flight is cancelled or you cannot fly, absent a weather delay, the airline must try to find the next available flight on another airline. This has happened to me three times at DCA when th flight is cancelled due to a plane malfunction. I seem to always get put on air Canada instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The airlines could easily solve this by upping the pittance. There is always a price that will get somebody off (well, except maybe if people are fleeing a new war zone)

They offered $800 but there are indeed Federal regulations on this, which limit compensation.

We need to change those laws. Let's write our congressmen. How can this law possibly be anybody's interest but the airlines.

I would actually be more interested in seeing reciprocity agreements in situations like this between airlines. Can't fit everyone on the United flight from Chicago to Louisville? Maybe Delta or American have seats available and/or passengers who are willing to take a later flight. There were any number of ways to solve this problem other than simply throwing money at it or strongarming (read: bloodying the face of a senior citizen) passengers to get out of seats they booked and paid for.

but this happens so rarely... the airlines won't be affected at all by upping the amount. The amount needed to get somebody off this flight would be lost in the noise of the airlines budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It should be illegal to deny a person their flight if they paid for the ticket and checked in on time. We need a law. This incident makes this obvious.

Would you be willing to pay 25% more for your tickets for this? Most airlines overbook since they get many no-shows. If they didn't oversell, they'd need to raise prices.

Well, most tickets are non-refundable, so even if you don't show up, the airline still gets your money.

And what other industry is allowed to sell people something that doesn't actually exist? The airlines make a choice to oversell; fine. But they should bear the costs of that, not their passengers. If that means shelling out 4 times the ticket price when they have to kick someone off a flight, then that's what it means.

A lot of them. Cellphone companies and internet providers sell "unlimited data" but it won't actually work if everyone tries to use unlimited data that much -- the network can't handle it.

Same with the phone company. If everyone tried to make a call at once, the system couldn't handle it. They know that no one really would try to do that (except on 9/11.. then everything came to a halt because of being overloaded).

Or the water company. They dont' have enough water pressue if everyone were to take a shower and flush the toilet at once. But I don't see them advertisign limits on water.

How about the Dulles Toll Road? I pay a fee to use the road, but in rush hour, I barely move. I thought I'm paying to get from point A to B in a speedy manner?

That is a ridiculous argument and you know it. Everyone knows that all of those services you mentioned are never going to be used by all people at the same time. But when you have 250 seats on a flight and they sell 260, supposedly all of those passengers are going to be expected to fly on the flight you sold them. If not, you need to compensate properly