Man Dragged off United Flight

[Bonanzaman]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...film-moment-police-drag-man-United-plane.html

What a world...

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

United is having a pretty bad couple of weeks...

 

[Nark]

United is having a pretty bad couple of weeks...

How do you figure?

Passenger, wasn't aware of the contract of carriage. Then refused to listen uniformed crew instructions, then refused law enforcement instructions.

Gotcha. United.

 

[poser765]

How do you figure?

Passenger, wasn't aware of the contract of carriage. Then refused to listen uniformed crew instructions, then refused law enforcement instructions.

Gotcha. United.

There's like maybe 15 people that are aware a contract of carriage even exists.

Is united in the wrong here? No. You and I know that. Everyone else in the world would just read it as ua overbooking a flight intentionally then forcing travelers to screw up their travel plans when they don't have a seat they paid for.

Doing the right/legal/required thing doesn't always exclude bad press.

 

[thevideographer]

Intentionally overbooking is a pretty crappy thing to do...

 

[RDoug]

Seems United had an easy fix for this — "Sorry, Sir/Ma'am, but we're oversold and those who arrived early and boarded are now going to stay boarded. You're not on the plane, and it's staying that way."

Dragging off an already seated passenger? Real amateur hour.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

How do you figure?

Passenger, wasn't aware of the contract of carriage. Then refused to listen uniformed crew instructions, then refused law enforcement instructions.

Gotcha. United.

I understand that you're military, or prior military and used to immediately following orders, without question. But as a civilian, the person in question probably wasn't. He seemed to really want/need to get home. Who knows what exactly was happening in his life, that mandated him needing/wanting to get back home asap.

In this case you can be right, and still be wrong. At least according to social media. Like in last weeks yoga pants incident.

I have no easy fix to the situation. But vinegar and honey and all that.

 

[jynxyjoe]

Seems United had an easy fix for this — "Sorry, Sir/Ma'am, but we're oversold and those who arrived early and boarded are now going to stay boarded. You're not on the plane, and it's staying that way."

Dragging off an already seated passenger? Real amateur hour.

Yeah, getting the guy down there and then pulling him off is a bad place to put yourself in.

However, I wasnt there, maybe thats what the agent was given to work with.

 

[BWER]

Guess it was a crew that was needing a ride for the next mornings flight?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Nark]

I understand that you're military, or prior military and used to immediately following orders, without question. But as a civilian, the person in question probably wasn't. He seemed to really want/need to get home. Who knows what exactly was happening in his life, that mandated him needing/wanting to get back home asap.

In this case you can be right, and still be wrong. At least according to social media. Like in last weeks yoga pants incident.

I have no easy fix to the situation. But vinegar and honey and all that.

Sorry dude, being military has 0 to do with this.

Right about the time cops show up during any confrontation, you've lost the battle.
Being educated doesnt mean intelligent.

 

[RDoug]

Yeah, getting the guy down there and then pulling him off is a bad place to put yourself in.

However, I wasnt there, maybe thats what the agent was given to work with.

And, yet, that same passenger, now bloodied, is shown reboarding and taking a seat. At least that's what I got from reading the article. And if that's the case, why all the drama removing him to begin with?

As I said, real amateur hour.

 

[jynxyjoe]

And, yet, that same passenger, now bloodied, is shown reboarding and taking a seat. At least that's what I got from reading the article. And if that's the case, why all the drama removing him to begin with?

As I said, real amateur hour.

Jeesh... yeah. Guess I need to read to the end.

How do you get yourself in that position??

 

[MikeD]

Guess it was a crew that was needing a ride for the next mornings flight?

According to the article. The flight was apparently overbooked by 1. That was solved and pax were boarded. But then a need to get a crew to that destination now resulted in 4 more volunteers to been needed to deplane in order to make room for them. With not enough volunteers, pax including this guy were voluntold.

Sucks because this particular guy had nothing to do with anything or with UALs staffing issues down range. All he had done is buy a ticket, show up, board his flight, be calmly seated awaiting the flight he paid for, and no one would've remembered who he was under any normal circumstance.

But an apparently last minute need to send 4 crew needing a ride to the destination, now randomly became this guy's problem? That's UALs staffing problem, not his, or any other fare-paying pax (am assuming there no non-rev's or something to choose from). The concept of customer service needs a look here, as they shouldn't have to be paying the price, so to speak. A staffing need by the airline isn't an emergency that should get paying pax forcibly bumped. Volunteers? Sure. But after that, find another way, especially since the initial pax overbooking had apparently already been solved, and now was created again.

 

[RDoug]

According to the article. The flight was apparently overbooked by 1. That was solved and pax were boarded. But then a need to get a crew to that destination now resulted in 4 more volunteers to been needed to deplane in order to make room for them. With not enough volunteers, pax including this guy were voluntold.

Sucks because this particular guy had nothing to do with anything or with UALs staffing issues down range. All he had done is buy a ticket, show up, board his flight, be calmly seated awaiting the flight he paid for, and no one would've remembered who he was under any normal circumstance.

But an apparently last minute need to send 4 crew needing a ride to the destination, now randomly became this guy's problem? That's UALs staffing problem, not his, or any other fare-paying pax (am assuming there no non-rev's or something to choose from). The concept of customer service needs a look here, as they shouldn't have to be paying the price, so to speak. A staffing need by the airline isn't an emergency that should get paying pax forcibly bumped. Volunteers? Sure. But after that, find another way, especially since the initial pax overbooking had apparently already been solved, and now was created again.

Or, to put it another way, as former NATCA President John Carr was fond of telling the FAA, "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

 

[Bonanzaman]

According to the article. The flight was apparently overbooked by 1. That was solved and pax were boarded. But then a need to get a crew to that destination now resulted in 4 more volunteers to been needed to deplane in order to make room for them. With not enough volunteers, pax including this guy were voluntold.

Sucks because this particular guy had nothing to do with anything or with UALs staffing issues down range. All he had done is buy a ticket, show up, board his flight, be calmly seated awaiting the flight he paid for, and no one would've remembered who he was under any normal circumstance.

But an apparently last minute need to send 4 crew needing a ride to the destination, now randomly became this guy's problem? That's UALs staffing problem, not his, or any other fare-paying pax (am assuming there no non-rev's or something to choose from). The concept of customer service needs a look here, as they shouldn't have to be paying the price, so to speak. A staffing need by the airline isn't an emergency that should get paying pax forcibly bumped. Volunteers? Sure. But after that, find another way, especially since the initial pax overbooking had apparently already been solved, and now was created again.

Exactly. This looks bad for the airline regardless of if they were legally "in the right."

The business of transporting massive amounts of people is such a crap show.

 

[wheelsup]

Something tells me if airlines started offering CA$H to volunteer to get off flights they would never have an issue.

As it is, if you're a business traveler your company gets the credit. Screw that.

For $800 I'd drive a car between the two, it's only 4:30.

I really cannot believe the lack of customer service in our industry. Go to a hotel and have the folks at the front desk treat you like agents and FAs treat you, would you ever stay at that chain again?!?

 

[Cptnchia]

Looks like it was on an RJ. This is what happens when you don't completely control the product you put your customers on. Throw in using outsourced above/below wing ACS. Whether Eagle, Connection, or Expeess, they all have the ability to give the mainline a black eye.

 

[JEP]

I understand that you're military, or prior military and used to immediately following <lawful> orders, without question<see lawful ordersUnited said airline representatives chose four passengers at random when no volunteers agreed to leave the overbooked flight. They requested law enforcement assistance when one of them refused to leave.. But as a civilian, the person in question probably wasn't. He seemed to really want/need to get home. Who knows what exactly was happening in his life, that mandated him needing/wanting to get back home asap.

In this case you can be right, and still be wrong. At least according to social media. Like in last weeks yoga pants incident.

I have no easy fix to the situation. But vinegar and honey and all that.

Fixed it for you Max.....

 

[JEP]

According to the article. The flight was apparently overbooked by 1. That was solved and pax were boarded. But then a need to get a crew to that destination now resulted in 4 more volunteers to been needed to deplane in order to make room for them. With not enough volunteers, pax including this guy were voluntold.

Sucks because this particular guy had nothing to do with anything or with UALs staffing issues down range. All he had done is buy a ticket, show up, board his flight, be calmly seated awaiting the flight he paid for, and no one would've remembered who he was under any normal circumstance.

But an apparently last minute need to send 4 crew needing a ride to the destination, now randomly became this guy's problem? That's UALs staffing problem, not his, or any other fare-paying pax (am assuming there no non-rev's or something to choose from). The concept of customer service needs a look here, as they shouldn't have to be paying the price, so to speak. A staffing need by the airline isn't an emergency that should get paying pax forcibly bumped. Volunteers? Sure. But after that, find another way, especially since the initial pax overbooking had apparently already been solved, and now was created again.

Associate Press article states overbooked by 4. A quote from the article that posses a question:

".....United said airline representatives chose four passengers at random when no volunteers agreed to leave the overbooked flight. They requested law enforcement assistance when one of them refused to leave."

Why would they choose them at random? I I was checked in on-time, ahead of time I would be pretty pissed if I got bumped at random. Would they not choose who to bump based on when someone checked in? Random bumping seems like a mess to be avoided. Now if everyone checked in on-time- ahead of time it might make sense but I would have a hard time believing that everyone was checked in on-time.....

 

[Der rote Baron]

Stupid way to handle such a situation. Make an offer somebody can't resist/offer enough cash and you'll find your volunteers.