I’m even thinking a one time super offer that makes headlines would have some like my sister deciding only to fly United in hopes of that possibility. It could have been good PR.
My sister has never actually received a check, just a $ amount to use toward future flights. Isn’t that how it always works? It doesn’t really cost the airline that much. If I understand correctly.
Just another pubic relations nightmare. One would think the people making these decisions would have more intelligence and foresight.
For VDB, an airline may choose to offer either or both credit toward an additional flight or money, in addition to a seat on another flight. “Credit toward an additional flight” may be either $ that can be applied to the ticket price, or “free flight” which may be subject to limitations similar to the more restricted frequent flyer tickets.
Obviously money is more valuable than the same amount of $ that can be applied to another flight. “Free flight” may be less valuable than it seems if availability is restricted like that of the most restricted frequent flyer tickets.
Hopefully some more facts will come out on this confusing story.
It seems quite odd to be offended by something that you know didn’t actually happen. 
The video of the man getting back on the plane is even more disturbing than the removal.
I’m sure more details will come out on this. Perhaps it’s another made up story. Who knows if he really was a doctor, but either way, the passenger considers himself a Very Important Person, who has more of a right to be there than anyone else. And it is more important to get an aircrew somewhere to work another flight (and not strand hundreds of passengers) than any one person.
The reality is, you want the airlines to overbook. The flights need to be full as possible to make money, and they know the usual number of people who do not show. If they don’t overbook the flights (and they should do it reasonably), many people who wanted to be on that flight, wouldn’t get on (while there would be empty seats), and ticket prices would go up. It is very rare that they actually have to take people off who are not volunteers. I also doubt it was random, the computer uses some combination of frequent flyer status, cost of the ticket, who was last to check in, etc.
I am no defender of United and was unable to view the video, however, if this passenger was taken off roughly, it wasn’t by the airline employees, but by airport police, was it not? And dude…have some pride. Fighting and screaming? Just get your butt off the airplane and deal with it later. As I used to tell my kids…use your words. Don’t fight the police trying to remove you. I don’t see any self respecting doctor behaving that way. And by the way, if it is absolutely critical that you MUST get back to your patients in the morning, don’t book the last flight out.
More like the same right to be there as anyone else.
Has United yet apologized for causing this poor guy a brain injury?
@busdriver11 The only reason we even found out about it was because it was done in a very public way that complete strangers knew what was going on. I was not aware that the woman who broke the story was related to the 10 year old.
Why do you feel it was done in a private way?
As often as flights are cancelled or delayed, no one has anything near a guarantee that they will be at point X by time Y. He could just as well have been delayed by the weather.
Because…there are private jets just standing by all over the world to fly aircrew around at a moments notice, if they can’t entice enough customers to give up their seats? The gate agents can just use their special phones with a direct line to a charter service and say, “Nope, short one seat, gotta fire up the jet!”
That’s about a five hour drive or so to Louisville. And that’s not included in the crew’s rest time, so whatever amount of time it takes them to get to their destination delays the start of their crew rest, and the next flight. Sometimes these things happen at the last minute, they don’t know if another crew is going to be delayed, diverted, or illegal for their next flight, and getting a crew in position, legal and rested so they can fly, is more important than getting one passenger there. Delaying one person is better than delaying hundreds, it really is. It is unfortunate that it had to be done involuntarily, they should have offered more.
?The story about the 10 year old concluded that the child was not “publically shamed” by the gate agent at all, or even spoken to. Supposedly her mother told her to put on a dress. End of story.
Re: 19
I have never been on a flight where takeoff was delayed due to the difficulty of putting bags into overhead bins. That doesn’t mean it never happens, of course; just seems fairly rare/unlikely.
Multiple times I have sat in my seat for 60 minutes or longer prior to takeoff, and it was never because we were waiting on Joe Blow to wedge his suitcase into a bin. De-icing and other weather-related issues, poor airport/flight scheduling (seems the most common reason, presumably…), and plane repair are reasons that flights i’ve been on have been delayed – reasons that I know of, anyway.
Did United employees drag him off the flight, or was it the airport police?
Would any of us on here do that? Does anyone here really think that there is no possibility that on an oversold flight that there is no way that we might be the person selected to lose our seat? Everyone knows it is rare to get involuntarily bumped from a flight, but one would have to be completely naïve to think they are too important for it to happen to them. I would have to wonder if there was some mental instability or substance issue going on here.
@busdriver11 It never would have gone viral if it was done in a proper private way. We just see it differently. No harm there.
Add me to the list of people really surprised that nobody was volunteering to be bumped when offered $800. I see people volunteering all the time for $200.
I never volunteer, but $800 would certainly have me thinking about it. Regardless, I totally agree that United should have gone higher. I understand the max required compensation for IDB is $1350 (up to 400% of the one-way price paid), so they should have gone up that figure at least before forcing someone off.
Anyway, as far as kicking and screamimg… there’s that pesky federal law about interfering with a flight crew so making a fuss on a plane is really something to think twice about.
I wasn’t there, I can’t say. But things go viral all the time, and sometimes they are untrue. Sometimes all it takes is one person making a mountain out of a molehill. I can’t possibly criticize a parent for telling her child to put on a dress.
In full disclosure, I have to admit that I won’t fly on United unless I have no other option. I’ll fly two legs instead of one, take an inconvenient routing, anyone else but United. I think I’ve flown on them once in the last ten years (and was actually shocked because the flight attendant was so nice to me). But I’ve been rudely treated by flight attendants, gate and ticket agents, and I am polite, compliant and helpful…not a troublemaker. So I just avoid them. However, this story sounds fishy.
I volunteer when I don’t have to be at my destination, but I admit that I would be FURIOUS if I needed to be on that flight, was already seated, and then told to leave. To me, there’s a big difference between having a seat assignment and sitting on the flight, than to be waiting at the gate, particularly without a seat, and told that I couldn’t get on.
But no, I wouldn’t need to be dragged out. And I only fly United if desperate. I’ve been unhappy with them for years.