Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Point is people fly because they are on a tight schedule. No one flies with the thought that a day missed here or there isn't an issue.
Fly enough and you learn that it WILL happen. That being said, United involuntarily denied boarding to less than 4,000 passengers out of 86 million in 2016. That really isn't a lot.
The people who get ripped off airplanes when they're already seated always bought the cheapest tickets on the plane. By law, the airline has to give them cash compensation. They're always going to pick the guy flying on the $89 junk ticket since the compensation is capped at 4x the price of the ticket. So if you don't want to get bumped, don't fly on those junk tickets. Just paying a few extra bucks for early boarding, an aisle seat, or extended legroom will make it so you have extremely low odds of getting bumped.
I used to do 100K+ miles per year on airlines in my road warrior days. At that level of FT status, I could change flights at the last minute on an oversold flight for no change fee and they'd bump people. The more you spend, the better they take care of you. Since the dawn of time, United has never bumped a 1K, Platinum, Gold, or Silver.
What if you bought the ticket with reward pints and you get bumped? Do you get 4x the points back? Or you get a cash compensation equivalent to the average price a passenger paid?
The one thing to note is the United flight was NOT overbooked. All paid passengers were seated in their assigned seats. The overbooking was caused by the 4 standby United employees (presumably last minute add-ons).
They were not Stand By Employees. Sounds like they were Deadheading Crew. They had to position the Crew on that flight, therefore overbooking the flight.
They were not Stand By Employees. Sounds like they were Deadheading Crew. They had to position the Crew on that flight, therefore overbooking the flight.
Fact remains all paid passengers had assigned seats and were already seated. I'm ok with getting bumped, but not when I'm already seated on the plane. I understand the airlines can do whatever they want but dragging a bleeding passenger down the aisle to remove them has to be way down there on the list.
At least this will ensure that future bumping of passengers will NEVER happen if paid customers are already seated. You can almost certainly guarantee once you are seated on your plane you're good to go. No one wants to dare to strike lightning twice.
Fact remains all paid passengers had assigned seats and were already seated. I'm ok with getting bumped, but not when I'm already seated on the plane. I understand the airlines can do whatever they want but dragging a bleeding passenger down the aisle to remove them has to be way down there on the list.
At least this will ensure that future bumping of passengers will NEVER happen if paid customers are already seated. You can almost certainly guarantee once you are seated on your plane you're good to go. No one wants to dare to strike lightning twice.
Bumping will still happen... they'll just have to offer enough compen$ation to get volunteers first.
In a twisted way, they give passengers an incentive not to volunteer. If you're going to get less compensation for volunteering, then why would you volunteer? If you wait to be told you're getting bumped, you get more $$... that's how it goes with some airlines anyway, not sure about this one.
Someone posted the rules regarding "bumping" and it is supposed to happen
BEFORE passengers are seated (like when people are waiting to queue for boarding
It is not supposed to be for crew deadheading--but for paying passengers
And some other specifics...
I think United like other airlines has gotten accustomed to full capacity flights and not withholding some seats from sales to have available for last minute overflow or crews deadheading...
And they have gotten away with it most of the time
Think this is likely to rebound on them and other airlines so that there are some really specific rules for what happens if passengers are not willing to get off...
Right now I think airlines/gate agents and captains might have been making up rules on the fly and not following specific FAA regulations---
Believe me--that passenger was not causing problems before HE was singled out to be kicked off the plane---and while he was part of the problem--calling in the security guards to twist his arm was NOT the appropriate response...
I guess I am surprised that they didn't try to claim he was making terrorist threats to clear their actions...
Bumping will still happen... they'll just have to offer enough compen$ation to get volunteers first.
In a twisted way, they give passengers an incentive not to volunteer. If you're going to get less compensation for volunteering, then why would you volunteer? If you wait to be told you're getting bumped, you get more $$... that's how it goes with some airlines anyway, not sure about this one.
I understand bumping will happen, hopefully just not after passengers are seated. It was a shart storm brewing...
They were not Stand By Employees. Sounds like they were Deadheading Crew. They had to position the Crew on that flight, therefore overbooking the flight.
There is a semantics difference between "overbooked" which refers to PAYING passengers and "over capacity"...
And United is not being forthcoming about WHY those people needed to get on that plane--vs another at another time going to same location...
My take--and until I get clarity I am sticking with it--is that someone in scheduling screwed up and made mistake that resulted in that confrontation...
There is a semantics difference between "overbooked" which refers to PAYING passengers and "over capacity"...
And United is not being forthcoming about WHY those people needed to get on that plane--vs another at another time going to same location...
My take--and until I get clarity I am sticking with it--is that someone in scheduling screwed up and made mistake that resulted in that confrontation...
Agreed. All the paid passengers got there on time and seated in a timely manner. If the 4 standby United employees notified the flight or proper personnel earlier things would have been handled at the gate and not while paid passengers were already seated.
Or are we going to make excuses for why the late notification of the 4 United employees? Sorry, if you're late you don't get on or find other accommodations. All seats are already taken by paid passengers. Other airlines will take on crews from competitors at a very discounted rate. There were many flights later on flying from Chicago to Louisville.
Heck, should have called me. I would have drove them down to Louisville personally and I wouldn't have charged them the $1B+ they are set to lose
I checked in for a flight on a U.S. carrier, (can't recall which one), from LHR to TPA via IAD once.
In the departure lounge an agent said that the flight was overbooked, and said that if I was willing, they would put me on a BA flight to IAD that would connect okay with my flight to TPA, the inducement was $800 of flight vouchers.
At the time I was going to Florida twice per year for vacations, and/or occasionally to NYC, so I almost bit her hand off.
She wrote a large V on my boarding pass, but in the event, they didn't need me to switch flights, and when we boarded, another agent said, "Volunteer huh? You're bumped up to Connoisseur class."
After that, it broke my heart to go back to sitting with the po' folks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
