Fedup
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
This guy is a nuisance to other people in my point of view. He caused a scene and delay to other customers.
I think the doctor just got his early retirement pass.
...They select the ones who paid the lowest fare and fly the least frequently. So if you fly the airline a lot and/or paid a higher fare you're least likely to get bumped.
Something smells with this story. The bumps were to accommodate repositioning some United employees for the next day. There was another flight 3 1/2 hours later.... or it is a ~5 hour drive.
What I can't figure is if they were offering $80 each for 4 people why wouldn't people take it, rent a car and drive for 5 hours? Or better yet, why wouldn't United tell the employees to rent a car at company expense and drive?... its only 4 hours more than flying.
First, if you have your lawyer on speed dial, and he will take your call immediately, at around 5:40 pm ON A SUNDAY, well.... even for a Doctor, this sounds unusual.
Was watching online a segment on a cable station asking will the passenger have a case for a lawsuit? Pretty much was a consensus, "Yep!". The show host pointed up, this really isn't a case of overbooking. Not as if there were too many customers but the airline wanted 4 more seats for the crew.
An analogy I can think if is as if you bought a ticket to go to a concert but folks at the venue needed a seat so security or a bouncer roughs you up and tosses you out after you don't agree to give up your seat for a price.
.... Evidently the crew came late - after everybody was already boarded and said they needed to get on the flight. ...
IF that is the case then the crew and United are bad actors and while I
can't condone what the doc did, at the same time we would never know about the crew and United's abuse of the system if he had complied.
If that is what happened and I was United's CEO then that crew would be spending some time looking for work... as would the gate agents that let them get away with it. I hate cheaters.
That's remarkably insulting and uncalled for. You owe me an apology.
The airlines offer was only 10% below the maximum they would spend for an involuntary bump. That explains why they did not go higher.
Yup. Reasonable cops would have gone back to the airline and said "this guy REALLY does not want to get off the plane, are you sure you want us to remove him at all costs ?" If they did and United say "go ahead", I suppose I can believe it, given the contempt that most airlines (and some big corporations, in general) have for their customers. But even so, it's hard to believe the UA employees involved could be bone stupid enough to have created this PR nightmare. I think it's more likely the cops were happy to rough someone up, because that's what the job is, for too many of them.Lets be clear, it was NOT united employees who dragged this guy off the plane. It was airport POLICE. Put the blame for the rough handling where it belongs.
Wow, the wording of this is very telling. A corporation ORDERED the cops to physically coerce one of their customers. Yep.UA called them in and told them to remove the passenger. The cops did not have discretion on whether to follow the order or not.
They can "involuntarily" deny you boarding anytime they want to, it's in the C of C, in fact they pay less for that then they do a voluntary bump.The guy can say "No" all he wants to and it means nothing.I've known people that boarded and got put off the plane for weight and balance issues.
The random thing,perhaps they bumped the last ones to check-in, I've heard of that happening too.
That's remarkably insulting and uncalled for. You owe me an apology.
Life isn't fair. That's no excuse for behaving in an antisocial manner and thinking yourself above the law. If you don't like the law then get it changed. If you cannot then accept it as your own failure. If you want to protest the unfairness then do so and peacefully comply with the authorities when they take you into custody. Protest is Noble because it involves a personal sacrifice. It isn't abject Self Indulgence.I don't really even know what your post means. But to clarify, I'm saying a lot of our laws originate in one way or another by industry lobbyists. So what is legal is not always what most people think would be fair from a consumer point of view.
Reliance on rudeness says as much about a point as anything, and calling out the rudeness underscores that. Or would you prefer to all discussions just be a back-and-forth trading of vapid mudslinging?To sensitive. "owe". That's funny.
Your argument fails in two ways. First, if all you had to do to avoid an involuntary bump was say no then who would ever accept an involuntary bump? The rules exist for reasons. They're baked into the pricing model and operational plans for not just the airline but for the industry as a whole. Second, what you're saying would be as if someone runs out of the Best Buy with a $200 television under his arm that he hadn't paid for and when the police try to take it from him he says no. He resists, he refuses. Effectively, you're saying that the police should let him steal it with impunity.Yup. Reasonable cops would have gone back to the airline and said "this guy REALLY does not want to get off the plane, are you sure you want us to remove him at all costs ?"
..... Second, what you're saying would be as if someone runs out of the Best Buy with a $200 television under his arm that he hadn't paid for and when the police try to take it from him he says no. He resists, he refuses. Effectively, you're saying that the police should let him steal it with impunity.