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So it would have been okay if the refusing to leave passenger was 39 rather than 69?
And it does seem like the plane would be on the ground indefinitely if no one was willing to give up their seat. I do agree that United should have gotten the crew members to Louisville some other way...
Yes, if they were going to have someone violently assaulted, they should surely know that doing it to an old person is going to have much worse optics than doing it to a young person.
And before you say they didn't intend for him to be assaulted, the airline called the police and should be darn well aware of their associated protocols for physically removing passengers.
I have flown this route from ORD-SDF and it sucks even under normal circumstances. The airlines use a smaller commuter plane that is packed with people and luggage. One time they had to move some of the luggage from the bottom cargo pit to the passenger compartment just to get the weight and balance correct.
This does not even seem to be a classic case of overbooking. They wanted to take 4 passengers already seated to provide room for a Ua crew that was to be used in alight from their destination
Once they did that it is no longer random as they gave their own personal. Priority.
Moreover, why was that crew boarded ahead of all passengers. That would have prevented the incident.
But aren't the tickets non-refundable if you cancel?
So the airline still makes money whether the passenger actually gets on the plane or not.
I can speak about how it worked at the cruise lines. We did help pax book their airfare as part of the deal...it was usually a bit more than you could find on the market, but what it did was ensure that you would get a full refund or credit if, for some reason, the flight did not get you to the pier on time through no fault of your own.
In this case, if the doctor was on his way to his cruise ship, and UA booted him off despite him not volunteering, we would have accommodated him because it was through no fault of his own. If they bought the airfare separately, and they missed the ship, we were under no obligation to help. USUALLY we offered something anyway because I didn't work for a company that was a pos like UA.
Because of certain restrictions on cruises, they would not be able to pick up the cruise part way through. If you weren't there at the beginning, you didn't get to go.
As for no shows...they didn't get anything. People who canceled at the last minute...death in the family, accident, something serious like that, we accommodated them. They did not get a full refund, but we would typically give them back a certain amount. But it had to be for something serious, not just "Eh, I don't feel like going on this cruise."
We always told people to buy travel insurance because...at least at the time, I've been out of the cruise business for a bit...the travel insurance covered them if something happened on the way to the cruise, in addition to during the cruise. You never know what can happen.
I do not know all cruise lines' policies, I only know the ones I worked for...and I do believe it is common practice.
In the end, yes, 99% of the time, the company will still make money if the person doesn't show. For cruise lines, it's more about the whole "crowd drawing a crowd". You don't want people coming back and writing on Cruise Critic that the ship was only half full.
Airlines want to sell as many seats as possible. They overbook because some people don't show, and yes, they will still make money. However, if they have an empty seat, they want it filled. That's just business. If you ran a business, and you had the opportunity to sell an empty seat, you would do the same. A lot of people hate "over booking" and I'll admit, my first cruise line I worked for, I also thought it was highly unethical to lie to people...that's how I saw it...but after working there for awhile, you would be amazed at just how many people canx last minute or just don't show up at all. So, overbooking happens. It's a business move and more often than not, it works out.
UA just didn't handle this right in any way, shape, or form. They're going to wish they had, though.
UAL over books a flight and then wants to haul paying passengers off the plane to give those seats to who, exactly? Other paying passengers who showed up late?
What the hell?
Why are the late arrivals given priority?
Employees being given priority over paying passengers?
And then they strong-arm some old guy who refuses to go along with this stupidity?
This is way beyond bad PR.
Man, does UAL deserve every bit of bad press that they getting.
Your whole attitude about this is messed up. You're acting like the airline is doing the passengers some kind of favor by allowing them to ride on a flight for which they have purchased a ticket. People depend on those flights, they have weddings and funerals and job interviews to get to, and this kind of conduct could completely wreck those plans. The last time I flew, it was because I was moving, the trip could not be made by car, and I had eight animals with me. Airlines will generally only allow two per flight in the cabin. If they had tried to remove me from that flight, forcing me to have my pets, who had already been loaded, sitting in the airport at my destination unattended until the next day, they would have had to pry me out of the seat with a crowbar and drag me off the plane in handcuffs.
I don't think they should be allowed to overbook in the first place, and they certainly shouldn't be able to bump paying passengers because they neglected to reserve enough seats for their own employees. Their incompetence, their problem.
Agree 200%!!!! Airlines should not be allowed to do this at all. Passengers are the ones that keep airlines in business.
If I know ahead of time that I may be bumped on a flight re: a certain airline, I'll got to another airline.
As I mentioned in another recent post on this issue, I have been on flights where they will offer to bump people by giving them incentives like a free flight (in the future) & a free night in a hotel near the airport; if enough people choose to do this, then they don't have to force people off.
And, in the above cases, if they had bumped people they would have done so AHEAD OF TIME - so they wouldn't already have gotten on the plane & gotten their seats. It's bad enough to be told you can't have a seat on the flight before you get on, but at least at that point you're not already on the flight. However, it's much worse to be kicked off after you've already gotten your seat. I think it's reasonable to believe that once you sit down in your seat, it's yours for the remainder of the flight.
Airlines that do this don't deserve to be in business!!!
Last edited by The Big Lebowski Dude; 04-10-2017 at 08:10 PM..
Sooner than later this man will discover that the sad and humiliating treatment will give him 15 min of fame and very well deserved pay check.
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