Overbooking On A United Flight

[emmie]

was this the only way for them to get this chap off the flight, surely not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39563570

[bednobs]

"Read what Cloverjo has said. It should have been sorted out at the check-in desk, not when everybody was seated and the plane due to take off. "
read what i said, i am essentially agreeing with that, it was handled in a terrible manner. I totally support the right of the captain to ask people to leave the flight. Refusing to leave and then making people have to pick you up and carry you off because you wont is not a reasonable way to protest IMO

[angie55]

//he was assaulted for trying to enforce his rights , his contract with United..NOT because he was acting in a childlike manner//

No, his "crime" was that he disobeyed the order of the captain. In aviation law, whatever the captain says goes. And yes, I agree that it was very badly handled by United. And yes I have also been offloaded by United, but that happened in the departure lounge.

[Old_Geezer]

The captain should only be allowed to ask a passenger to leave if there is a good reason for doing so, not on a whim (such as wanting their fellow employees to travel in the passenger's place). That it is being allowed simply shows that the rules/laws are not right. Being disruptive would be a good reason as long as a reasonable definition of "being disruptive" is used. Being told you have to leave the seat you have a ticket for when you are doing nothing wrong is not being disruptive. Asking someone to leave a seat they have a ticket for when they are behaving just fine, is being disruptive. The legal side can be debated for others, I think the moral side where the passenger is labelled as the bad guy because they are a convenient scapegoat, is surely beyond any reasonable discussion.

[Old_Geezer]

...Being told you have to leave the seat you have a ticket for when you are doing nothing wrong and refusing to do so, is not being disruptive. Asking s...

>>>>>:-(

[murraymints]

he was NOT asked to leave because he was being disruptive...there were absolutely no grounds to eject him...united broke their contract ..he reacted to their unjust treatment...

[Garaman]

I agree with bednobs on several pòints. Yes the fault is with the airline, and yes it was terrible handled, and should have been handled at check in. Sure they made a mistake but it shouldn´t have come to this. I would have been a bit miffed, but you wouldn´t have had to drag me off the plane. Also as bednobs says, the overbooking is done to keep ticket costs down and I am afraid that is what drives the average traveller these days. It used to be a nice way to travel and now it is awful thanks to everyone demanding cheap fares.

[murraymints]

all my friends in the States say the bad publicity and subsequent fall out has had a huge impact over there!

[Islay]

Don't know if this has already been said but the flight was not overbooked, they were removing them for a spare flight crew!!!

[jno]

I saw that, Islay, though they didn't mention it till last night, I don't think. I'm not impressed by their argument, though - they still had four more people than seats, and it was their own fault; the mere fact that they weren't technically "booked" doesn't make it any better.

[Islay]

Absolutely if anything it makes it worse!
At least if they were over booked you had 4 more people that had paid for their seats, in this case you just had bad planning on the part of the airline!!!

[Old_Geezer]

It's self created isn't it. The Captain starts by telling him to get off, for no justifiable reason, he refuses and that makes him liable to be labelled disruptive by the Captain (!) and after that his being disruptive is used as the excuse to tell him to leave. By the end he was told to leave for being disruptive i.e. for not going quietly when he was ordered to.

[Garaman]

No Justifiable reason? Presumably the captain had been told who should be on his plane. The airline got it wrong, but the captain was doing his duty and had justifiable reason to tell the person to leave his plane.

[pastafreak]

As I'm reading this,I'm wondering WHY him? Why that particular passenger out of several hundred? If he said no...Surely they could have asked/bribed some one else?

[Togo]

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/11/united-airlines-passenger-kentucky-doctor/

Hmmm.

[EDDIE51]

One point has had me puzzled on this, by the time the passengers were all seated on the aircraft the baggage should have been stored in the hold. If this man and the others had to get off what happens to his luggage? It would take a long time to unload the hold to get his bags off. Possibly this man and the others were chosen because they had hand luggage only so it would not have been necessary to unload the baggage hold?

[Togo]

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/11/united-airlines-doctors-dark-past/22035353/

Bit more here.

[emmie]

it was mentioned that they needed the seats for 4 flight crew.

[EDDIE51]

^ Thanks for the link Togo it explains a lot. If I had been on the flight and they offered me $800 to get the next plane instead I would not have had to be dragged off the plane!!

[emmie]

so what if had a dark past, that doesn't excuse what the airline did, even the CEO is suitably ashamed of those who were pulling the bloke off the flight.

[Garaman]

Eddies, my OH was on a plane last month when they were told they would be held on the runway for about three hours after they had already been held up before boarding. They were told that anyone who wanted could choose to leave and get a flight the next day. My OH would have missed her connection so took them up on the offer but was the only passenger to do so. They got her bag from the hold in no time she said.