Don't fly United

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Believe me, I do my best not to fly on any American airlines.

...which of course if difficult to do within the U.S.!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I travel, I would need $10000 to change a flight. My time is worth that.

Why aren't you flying on private planes then?

In fact, United should have used a little puddle jumper to redeploy staff, rather than -- actually -- forcing revenue passengers off its flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing is, airlines (United being among the worst, but certainly they're not the only offender) make a strategic decision about things like this. A situation where: a) they are overbooked, b) they have crew who need to get to a certain destination by a certain time, and c) no one will accept the pittance that they are willing to bribe people with for taking a later flight will not arise often. When making policy decisions (e.g., overbooking, using the computer to bump passengers who have paid in favor of crew members), they bank on the majority of times where this is NOT going to happen.

There was no way for them to know which situation it was going to be where someone was going to actually refuse to move from their seat, but once it got to the point where there were airport cops standing around his seat, they were essentially committed to the course of action and the result that we see in those videos.

The policy doesn't have to be that way. Frankly, I don't think they should be allowed to sell more tickets than seats, ever, because they also often have cargo underneath that adds to the weight of the plane. I've been in situations where humans have been told that the plane was in an overweight situation due to cargo and that they'd have to take the next flight. I've accepted vouchers later travel in order to accommodate other people when I'm not in a rush. But the airlines themselves create this situation when they sell more tickets than seats. If they made a different choice, they would not find themselves in this situation at all.

United now has lost way more than $800 in good will and cancelled bookings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Not the PP, but I avoid flying through Chicago (O'Hare) on general principle. I'm from the midwest, and O'Hare is consistently a hot mess for whatever reason. If it's not planes getting bumped between gates with next to no warning such that you have to run, it's endless delays and rude customer service people. Several years ago, I was flying out of O'Hare with my 2.5 year old (DH was elsewhere). I checked in at the counter and was told that my 2.5 year old would be seated several rows behind me, in a middle seat. When I pointed out that this is a minor child who has a car seat to sit in and that per regulations, the seat could not be in the middle but had to be in the window, the agent snippily told me, "Well, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't any window seats available." She then suggested that I take it up with the agent at the gate who "might be able to do something about it."

[Anonymous]

The last United flight I took was such as cluster that I decided I was (1) never flying United again and (2) never flying when I could drive there in a day or less.

Some of the other passengers rented a van (they asked us if we wanted it) and made it to our destination before we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

They did. $800 to people who volunteered to get bumped, and some were probably on $150 tickets.

By free market rules that clearly wasn't proper compensation since no one took them up on the offer. And the price they paid for their tickets is only relevant to the price they are willing to accept for it at the time of service insofar as it affects their personal metrics about what they will accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Come on. If the police are called to remove a passenger from a plane, they're not going to ask why - they're going to do what they're there to do. This is all on United.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Come on. If the police are called to remove a passenger from a plane, they're not going to ask why - they're going to do what they're there to do. This is all on United.

They should ask why. They should 100% want to know why they are being brought in. I agree that there are plenty of situations in which the captain's word should be the law of the flight, but I do not believe that those decisions should never be questioned or even explained. There was plenty of time to at least explain the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Not the PP, but I avoid flying through Chicago (O'Hare) on general principle. I'm from the midwest, and O'Hare is consistently a hot mess for whatever reason. If it's not planes getting bumped between gates with next to no warning such that you have to run, it's endless delays and rude customer service people. Several years ago, I was flying out of O'Hare with my 2.5 year old (DH was elsewhere). I checked in at the counter and was told that my 2.5 year old would be seated several rows behind me, in a middle seat. When I pointed out that this is a minor child who has a car seat to sit in and that per regulations, the seat could not be in the middle but had to be in the window, the agent snippily told me, "Well, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't any window seats available." She then suggested that I take it up with the agent at the gate who "might be able to do something about it."

I avoid O'Hare for the same reasons. But I had a similar situation with a young child on USAirways out of DCA when we were flying to my dad's funeral. They're also on my Never Again list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Not the PP, but I avoid flying through Chicago (O'Hare) on general principle. I'm from the midwest, and O'Hare is consistently a hot mess for whatever reason. If it's not planes getting bumped between gates with next to no warning such that you have to run, it's endless delays and rude customer service people. Several years ago, I was flying out of O'Hare with my 2.5 year old (DH was elsewhere). I checked in at the counter and was told that my 2.5 year old would be seated several rows behind me, in a middle seat. When I pointed out that this is a minor child who has a car seat to sit in and that per regulations, the seat could not be in the middle but had to be in the window, the agent snippily told me, "Well, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't any window seats available." She then suggested that I take it up with the agent at the gate who "might be able to do something about it."

I avoid O'Hare for the same reasons. But I had a similar situation with a young child on USAirways out of DCA when we were flying to my dad's funeral. They're also on my Never Again list.

I think there is now a new law requiring families to be seated together? I hope we get another new law removing the limit on compensation and making it illegal to do what united did.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely appalling. I have to wonder if there was a language or cultural issue at play here. The guy seems stunned and terrified when he is forcibly removed. I bet he was thinking 'I paid for my ticket. I'm sitting here peacefully. Now these people are telling me I have to get off? That doesn't happen in this country.' I don't know how he got back on the plane, but that second video is heartbreaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:between this incident and the girls changing their clothes because of their leggings, i don't think I could book a United flight, even if it was significantly cheaper. Who wants to deal with a company that seems to have zero regard for their customers? Absolutely disgusting.

BTW - this a management problem. The attitude of their crew/staff comes from poor management at the top.

Will you also avoid flying through Chicago? It was Chicago Aviation Police that roughed the guy up, not United.

Not the PP, but I avoid flying through Chicago (O'Hare) on general principle. I'm from the midwest, and O'Hare is consistently a hot mess for whatever reason. If it's not planes getting bumped between gates with next to no warning such that you have to run, it's endless delays and rude customer service people. Several years ago, I was flying out of O'Hare with my 2.5 year old (DH was elsewhere). I checked in at the counter and was told that my 2.5 year old would be seated several rows behind me, in a middle seat. When I pointed out that this is a minor child who has a car seat to sit in and that per regulations, the seat could not be in the middle but had to be in the window, the agent snippily told me, "Well, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't any window seats available." She then suggested that I take it up with the agent at the gate who "might be able to do something about it."

I avoid O'Hare for the same reasons. But I had a similar situation with a young child on USAirways out of DCA when we were flying to my dad's funeral. They're also on my Never Again list.

I think there is now a new law requiring families to be seated together? I hope we get another new law removing the limit on compensation and making it illegal to do what united did.

There is no limit. Let's stop spreading this falsehood.

[Anonymous]

Awful; too cheap of offer more compensation. United should be ashamed.

I'll still with Southwest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg!!. They need to go bankrupt for treating a customer like this. !

I am not saying this is right but why should the company go bankrupt and tens of thousands of people loose their jobs over this one incident.
I am pretty sure the CEO of the airline did not direct the actions of these employees.

Should there be punishment...absolutely. Should people vote with their feet and dollars if they don't like it..absolutely
Should the company go out of business and put employees on the street..absolutely not.