Claiming assault is enough to get the ball rolling, whether it holds up or not. And yes, bad press goes a long way. People aren't going to stop drinking Pepsi completely either but they pulled that ad pretty quickly. You can talk all you want about worse situations but in this case we have not just a narrative of a hard working doctor getting fecked over by an airline who overbook and give preferential treatment to their staff in favour of their customers, but also a viral video. He would need some balls to try and sue them but it's worth a punt.
United Airlines forcibly remove passenger from overbooked flight
- Thread starter Raoul
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The story will be used to tag on other stories that might not otherwise have gotten attention. I.e, I've only just learned that last week they stopped two young girls from taking their flights while wearing yoga pants, and that's going to keep happening. And it'll keep drawing attention to the fact that your ticket doesn't guarantee you a seat. All bad press.
Well, let's see how long your average flyer remembers those details when he's out booking his next flight.
You're folding your arms and smirking at your screen right now, aren't you?
And what? If you need to go somewhere you'd book a ticket and go. They know that.
Let's just wait a couple of days and see if this is still being talked about.
That one was acceptable. They were flying on employee discount passes and as such were bound to dress appropriately as defacto representatives of the corporation.
Just saying that the bloke shouldn't be expecting much out of it, unless he's really lucky.
They missed a potential advertising opportunity. Just put some airline branding in the arse of their pants, because it's guaranteed to be seen by the majority of pervy customers.
Yeah I added an extra sentence that you must have missed that put a better tone on what I was trying to say in the first place, that the guy legally hasn't really got a chance but if I was him I would at least try and chance it and hope the airline want to settle as soon as.
Just saying that the bloke shouldn't be expecting much out of it, unless he's really lucky.
Blokes were allowed on the flight with the same tickets wearing shorts though. They didn't come out of it well.
It is possible I suppose, or perhaps she had the wrong seat number. I didn't look at her ticket but at least one other person did, plus a crew member.
The employee tickets? Shorts might be acceptable, as long as they aren't Magnum PI length
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Selecting passengers to be removed is absolutely unfair. As others have said, the only fair way is to make financial offers that some people feel are worth their inconvenience.
Some passengers would never accept money for the seat, as they really need to be somewhere at a certain time (like this poor guy). Other folk have much more leeway. If you're going to select people to throw off a plane, then picking the last to check-in or the last to buy their tickets would be marginally fairer - but even then, people may be flying in an emergency.
Some passengers would never accept money for the seat, as they really need to be somewhere at a certain time (like this poor guy). Other folk have much more leeway. If you're going to select people to throw off a plane, then picking the last to check-in or the last to buy their tickets would be marginally fairer - but even then, people may be flying in an emergency.
More likely they'll be getting reached out to by the passengers lawyers.
They'll offer him a big pile of money now to avoid that i imagine.
I've been in an overbooked flight situation. But the negotiation was done at the gate before everyone boarded, way before the last call so there was plenty of time for the airline to sort everything out. It's ridiculous to remove someone seated in a full plane.
Its a random grunt doing a bad job of applying an established rule that's rarely an issue.
Whats the bets it was a late flight after most managers had left for the day?
The kind of managers with a bit of authority or balls to take initiative and increase the offer up a bit.
Or after talking to the guy randomly selected and realising that he really, really, really had to make the flight
could run it again and pick a different random person who it would inconvenience a tiny bit and who might moan about it
but wouldn't blow up in their face and leave a really bad taste for everyone involved
Whats the bets it was a late flight after most managers had left for the day?
The kind of managers with a bit of authority or balls to take initiative and increase the offer up a bit.
Or after talking to the guy randomly selected and realising that he really, really, really had to make the flight
could run it again and pick a different random person who it would inconvenience a tiny bit and who might moan about it
but wouldn't blow up in their face and leave a really bad taste for everyone involved
They just said that the seat vacated was for United Airlines employees. Horrible if true.
Presumably for another flight crew so that an entire flight doesn't get delayed or cancelled? Agree though the logistics should have been worked out better.
Feel bad for the guy, but he doesn't seem all quite there in the head. One could say his behavior in that video is the after-effects from getting assualted, but even the screaming noises he was making while getting dragged out were plain odd. Not excusing those who roughed him up, mind you.
Some people sticking up for the airline. fecking hell. They should be taken to the cleaners.
Imagine getting to Old Trafford and being told you couldn't get a seat because they've sold it twice in case some people couldn't get there.
"Oh anyone in the industry will know this happens" - not an excuse at all.
Imagine getting to Old Trafford and being told you couldn't get a seat because they've sold it twice in case some people couldn't get there.
"Oh anyone in the industry will know this happens" - not an excuse at all.
They did ask for volunteers.
The way social media work I can easily see a boycott United movement.
No what should happen is the regulations should change. Then these things would not happen.
The amount needed to take the airline to the cleaners far outweighs what the poor guy deserves.
Pretty much what's happening on reddit now. r/videos is dragging up older abuses (including of animals so that crowd will go) r/todayIlearned is people posting about the shitty things they've learned about UA, it also made the front page with posts from r/pics, r/news, r/jokes and r/funny (and possibly others I missed). And there's a lot of eyes on reddit, given it's the 4th most visited website in the world. A lot of people saying they're going boycott the company, and you'd expect at least some will follow through and hurt the company's bottom line.
I fly regularly enough in the states and I have to say I'm not all that surprised something like this happened. Of course I'm surprised and shocked at the exact manner of the passengers' removal. But honestly the way US airlines treat customers is woeful. The big surprise for me is that the flight wasn't cancelled, leaving everyone on board discommoded.
This did crack me up for some reason. Unless he's suffered a severe blow to the head why's he acting like that, as a doctor
To be fair pretty much every airline on the planet does this. Usually they offer incentives to move though. Glad to see United getting taken to the cleaners over the way they handled this.
Because hes panicked and lost his shit which is a pretty normal reaction to his circumstances.This did crack me up for some reason. Unless he's suffered a severe blow to the head why's he acting like that, as a doctor
If you got dragged off a flight by security staff and presumably beaten up, in a weird city, I'm sure you'd be very calm and rational
Probably thought that the airline taking his money, giving him a boarding pass and then allowing him on to the flight to take that seat meant he actually had the right use what he had paid for. I would have refused to move as it is completely unreasonable to be asked to get off.
Me too. He didn't do anything wrong. And most people seeing aggressive men in uniform would ask what they've done and then refuse to get off the fight they've paid for and say get off me.
He did nothing wrong. Wrong was done to him.
Hopefully he gets a nice payday, Mr muscles has his last payday, and the airline industry is forced into either stopping overbooking or having to use the incentive approach only.
Agreed but you should be highly compensated unless you're a volunteer.
Airlines overbook but they don't let too many people on to the flight because there are a finite number of seats and there should only be 1 boarding pass per seat. What happened here was either a) they gave out more boarding passes than there were seats (seems unlikely) or b) they decided after boarding that they wanted to change their minds because they wanted to put airline staff on the flight. In the later case this isn't overbooking.
Yes it is. Once they've sold a seat they should have to buy it back. It's considered sold because one you're sat down you can't just cancel and get all your money back.
I'm sure there are conditions set in the fine print that speak to this.