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“Denied boarding” means exactly that, argues Banzhaf – a passenger may be prevented from boarding an over-booked flight providing the compensation required by law is offered. But this passenger was clearly not ” denied boarding ,” since he had already been permitted to board, and to take his seat.
Having boarded and been seated, a passenger is generally entitled to keep a seat and remain on the flight, except in rare instances: e.g., a legitimate concern about terrorism, unruly or drunken behavior by the passenger, it is suddenly discovered that he is ill, is using a forged or stolen ticket, etc. Here, none of these rare exceptions applied, so the carrier had no right to eject him once he had validly boarded, says Banzhaf.
Just like I have been saying over and over, the guy was already on board and seated. United had NO grounds from any legal or written standards to forcefully remove him. They kicked off paid and boarded passengers on the whim of seating crew members.
And let me say that many in the public are rightfully upset and siding with this poor man, contrary to the blind and hypocritical United supporters on here.
Have you ever even flown? It is perfectly written right in their and every other policies about getting bumped from a flight. They have all rights to bump people from a flight. If a person does not like this, they are welcomed not to purchase a ticket.
It's not a ticket to fly, it's actually "seat lottery" where you may or may not be able to fly even after you've boarded the plane and sat down.
Good to know...
One positive thing has come out of this and that is to expose the fine print on the ticket and what rights as a paying passenger you have which is a really simple 6 word statement. "You have the right to pay", that's all you have a right to.
Because the airline has the right to remove anyone they want from the flight. I'm sure he was told by the officers that the airline asked that he give up his seat due to the situation that had obviously been explained to every passenger as they asked for people to give up their seats for vouchers.
If there is any justice at all in this world, the next time you fly, you will miss an important appointment due to an airline's poor planning. Then maybe you will have some empathy.
I didn't think it would, because at the end of the day people need to fly, and they're usually going to choose price over brand. Plus people have short memories.
But now reading that people in China are upset over this, they could take a bit of a beating for this. Chinese consumers, unlike Americans, could be the type to hold a grudge about this.
This will not help American/Chinese relations!
Quote:
Donald Trump shakes hands with Oscar Munoz (United CEO) during a meeting with airline industry executives in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, February 9, 2017.
If 2 or 3 police officers tell me to leave, I'd want them to tell me why. Police aren't supposed to just haul you off for no good reason. This isn't Russia.
The guy knew why, he refused to comply with orders from the flight crew. Law enforcement arrived and he still refused to comply, so they had to use force.
Flight crew stated he has been selected to be bumped, and need to leave the plane; I do not see how anyone can interpret this anything other than that. He refused to do as instructed, so the flight crew had to call for law enforcement.
Go do this in any store and see what happens, the same thing will occur. Go sit in Walmart and refuse to leave when the staff tells you to, they will call the cops. If you fail to comply with the cops, they will use force. You can go try this out this weekend and please report the results back to us.
In reading about this incident, as well as various reports about how the airlines typically 'overbook' a flight (on the assumption that a certain number of people will not show), got me to thinking: is this 'overbooking' explanation still valid?
We shall ignore, for now, the United incident. From what I read it was not a true 'overbooking' situation, but rather they needed the four seats so United employees could get to their work in another city.
Now, I have been flying since the 1970s. It used to be, you called your travel agent (or the airline) and reserved seats on a particular flight, although I do not recall actually being assigned a particular seat number or row. No money was required, or paid, until you arrived at the airport.
Indeed, I have read that back in the 1950s and 1960s (and probably into the 70s), it was not uncommon for travelers to reserve seats on multiple flights (since no money was required up-front), and then decide later which flight they would actually take. Hence, overbooking a flight back then would be common.
Here is my point: nowadays, when I travel, I go directly to the airline website (usually American, since I am in Fort Worth). I look at my flight options for each flight (to and from) and make my flight selection; I am then taken to a chart showing the 'available seats', and I then make my selection of seats; I then finish up and charge the fare to my credit card.
My presumption is that American (and the other airlines) are only showing me, on said charts, seats that are actually available for purchase. It seems unlikely that American would show seats 13A and B, Row 15, for instance, if said seats were already sold. When all seats on the flight have been purchased, then said flight would no longer be available.
Of course, people may still show up at the airport and get on 'stand by', since people do still fail to appear (like me, once, when I became ill the day before).
Does anyone have actual knowledge about the procedures today? Do airlines engage in the tactic I mention, i.e., show as 'available' seats that have already been purchased? I do not see how an airline, in this modern computer age, can 'overbook' seats.
Oscar Munoz (CEO of United Airlines) was recently named the communicator of the year by PR Week.
Upon announcing Munoz as the recipient of this award, PR Week said that Munoz has “shown himself to be a smart, dedicated, and excellent leader who understands the value of communications. His ability to connect and share with employees his vision for the airline, and get them to rally behind it, is a key reason PRWeek named him 2017 Communicator of the Year.”
In a statement, United said that Munoz’s selection was proof that his communication strategy has been working.
“Since taking the reins of United in late-2015, Munoz’s communication strategy has been based, in part, on speaking openly and honestly about improving the airline while inviting customers and employees to contribute their ideas on how the company could better serve them,” United in a statement. “So far the results have confirmed that he’s on the right track: through the end of 2016, United boasted record-breaking on-time performance and has seen its customer satisfaction scores climb.”
I am certain that large medical centers will no longer be booking their staff on United. Many doctors fly with tight lecture and patient care schedules. Often a doctor will fly after doing surgery to give an evening lecture. We don't have to become third world.
Interesting. Yesterday, I looked up "best airlines." With the exception of lists that were limited to American carriers only, companies based in the US were woefully underrepresented.
Just like I have been saying over and over, the guy was already on board and seated. United had NO grounds from any legal or written standards to forcefully remove him. They kicked off paid and boarded passengers on the whim of seating crew members.
And let me say that many in the public are rightfully upset and siding with this poor man, contrary to the blind and hypocritical United supporters on here.
There is no reason to "side" with a raving lunatic who thought he was more important than the dozens of other people on that flight. While United has a bad policy, they have every right to enforce it until the courts say otherwise. The police in this case needed better training in how to handle the situation, and the "man" involved to me is the most unreasonable part of it all. I've flown enough to see how entitled people feel, and this guy is the height of that behavior.
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