United Airlines forcibly drags man out of seat; man gets villified by some

[s_stabeler]

yes, even if he legitimately paid for the seat- part of being bumped is you are compensated, including being rebooked on the next flight. Fundamentally, SOMEONE is going to have to stay behind despite paying for a ticket on that flight.

as for it exacerbating the problem: airlines don't usually overbook all of their flights- they overbook the most popular ones (as in, they might overbook the 9AM flight, but not the 10AM one)- however, yes, this can happen. However, i'm 99% sure that if you're bumped, you're guaranteed to be on the next flight, so there's a limit to how much any one person is delayed. Plus, eventually, either the airline'll send a larger plane (for the bigger airlines) so that they are no longer overbooked, or they find an airline that does have spare seats

[mjr]

yes, even if he legitimately paid for the seat- part of being bumped is you are compensated, including being rebooked on the next flight. Fundamentally, SOMEONE is going to have to stay behind despite paying for a ticket on that flight.

The problem with that is that sometimes it's hours before the next flight. In the United case referenced in this thread, the "next flight" was something like 24 hours later. Something like that.

I don't know if that's reasonable.

[Canarr]

The flight wasn't overbooked. A lot of background here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/...ment-fail.html

[TheHuckster]

yes, even if he legitimately paid for the seat- part of being bumped is you are compensated, including being rebooked on the next flight. Fundamentally, SOMEONE is going to have to stay behind despite paying for a ticket on that flight.

And the way to get SOMEONE to do that is by upping the reward until someone volunteers. They got up to $800 and then gave up. You shouldn't force anyone to give up a seat they paid for, especially if it's to accommodate your own employees.

However, i'm 99% sure that if you're bumped, you're guaranteed to be on the next flight, so there's a limit to how much any one person is delayed.

I'm 99% that wasn't the case here. His next flight was 24 hours later, however this shows five daily flights between O'Hare and Louisville via United (Skywest and Trans States are United regional partners). At the very worst, if that was the final flight of the day, he should have had to sleep over and take the first morning flight. That clearly wasn't the case here.

United was 100% in the wrong here. Even if the guy might have been a little too stubborn, the fact is United shouldn't have even given him the opportunity to be that stubborn.

[Rapscallion]

The one thing that I do note on this with my jaw gaping down is that some people tried to smear the doctor. Even if it was true, then it wouldn't matter as the staff attending (police and cabin crew) couldn't have noticed this, and even if it was known then they're not the judiciary and able to mete out punishments.

Rapscallion

[EricKei]

The guy actually did volunteer/accept the $800, and then changed his mind once he was told it would be 24 hours. The computer (supposedly) then selected him randomly.

[mjr]

...and more from United...

http://www.khou.com/news/local/bride...ston/431644313

Looks like in this case they did do something they weren't supposed to do (sit in different seats), but complied when asked to move...

Then an Air Marshal asked them to deplane.

[raw1989]

he was knocked out for the person saying he was delusional. So when he reboraded he really wasn't with it. Second his past has nothing to do with this incident. I also think I would have gave my seat up but if the rebook was 24 hours I would change my mind when. I grantee if they went to 1000 they would have got more people also from my understanding this flight was pretty close I think I have heard like 3 hours to the dentation by car so if that's the case why didn't united just hire a limo or a service and have its crew taken that way yes I understand they loose some hours but this sound like poor planning on united's fault. And id want proof I was randomly picked by the computer bet they cant find it I wonder if they will try and use retaliation in the law suit. However I do know I will never fly united looking up policy for bigger people they are not friendly about it.

[Nunavut Pants]

One interesting point is that the flight was being operated by Republic Airline, rather than United proper. I don't know how that affects any of the circumstances of this case, but it may be a factor.

Note that buying an airline ticket is not actually buying a place on a given flight. If you check the agreement (which used to be printed on the back of the ticket, not sure if it still is) you have fairly few rights about specific aircraft or whatever. They are fully within their legal rights to boot you off the plane at any time for any reason--or no reason at all.

That said, this was a total PR Charlie-Foxtrot that was 100% avoidable by United. The Chicago PD (or whomever were the security folks they brought in) certainly fulfilled their stereotypical violent overreaction to anyone defying their authority... (See "Police Riot" in 1968 during the DNC.)

[Dreamstalker]

How soon did the deadheading crew need to be in Louisville? Time is generally a factor in crew transfers, and we don't know which departing flight they had to be on so the "hire a car" idea may not have worked...also, it would cost the airline additional $$ which they probably didn't want to do.

[raw1989]

they ended up in the end I think delayed for more then an hour so I don't think it would have mattered I think they would have made it faster. They had to deplane everyone how long did that take? I then heard it took over an hour to clean the plan and re borad how much more time did that take pretty sure it would have been faster by car at that point but I do know there's several factors in it that's why I said that as to any story delta, same day had a family give up there seats but I think they were offered a generous amount and rebooked then the next day they needed people to get off the rebooked flight so this family again gave up there seats and ended up making 11,000 it was a family of 4 on deltas money. So it just goes to show if they offer more people would be willing be cheap and no one wants to give there seats up. Also the crew was late they should be like any other person who would have been told we are sorry but you missed your flight.....

[taxguykarl]

So what are the tax implications to winning a lawsuit and owning an airline??

That's kinda where this seems headed...

Lawsuit settlements are generally taxable. In this doctor's case the underlying legal theory boils down to income that he would have but for the airline's questionable action. Legal expenses are deductible.

[Dreamstalker]

A bit old, but here's a pilot's perspective.

[s_stabeler]

it's worth noting that the crew put on the flight may well not have been n standby, but it was a repositioning flight- i.e. they needed to be flown somewhere so they could crew another flight. Usually, that's because of a cancelled flight somewhere, and they are considered high priority, since it can cause more cancelled flights. THAT may explain why someone had to be bumped. (it was either bump one person, or cancel the flights of a planeload of people) HOWEVER, since it seems it was airline policy not to go above $800 in rewards, THAT policy is at fault for the situation. (I can, however, see a limit being placed. The issue is, if there's no limit at all, people might hang on until it gets ridiculous. I would still suggest the limit should be a couple grand, at least. (Honestly, I'd peg it to the ticket price.Compensation for being bumped should start at a refund on the ticket (on top of being guaranteed a free seat on the next available flight and accommodation costs) and go up from there to maybe 10 times the ticket price?)