United Airlines Passenger Dragged from Plane

[ViolaSebastian]

What in the holy hell. Just barbaric and disgusting. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/business/united-flight-passenger-dragged.html?_r=0

[GreyhoundFan]

I agree. It was a terrible situation. I can't believe they would be so stupid. There's nothing funny about the situation, but I liked one of George Takei's responses to the situation:

[mstee]

How unnecessary. They should be ashamed. The bottom of the article linked me to another story about United denying two teenage girls and one preteen girl- who were all wearing leggings- access to a flight  (I vaguely remember this story). United has some shit they need to deal with. 

[ViolaSebastian]

The CEO had this to say:

Quote

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."

"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation," he added in the statement.

I did not know that "re-accomodate" was a synonym for "beaten unconscious and dragged off."

[kacarlton]

The CEO had this to say:

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."
"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation," he added in the statement.

I did not know that "re-accomodate" was a synonym for "beaten unconscious and dragged off."

That's almost exactly what I tweeted in response to united.

[PennySycamore]

I hope that doctor sues United/United Express for every penny he can get.  

The practice of overbooking is just plain wrong.  The damn airlines won't lose any money by stopping the practice.  Maybe, they won't make as much, but since they don't refund the money if you miss your flight, they're not losing a  dime if they have empty seats.

I'm glad I'm not flying on United to Memphis later this week.  We're on Delta.

[Jilli]

I'm with you @PennySycamore in almost all cases like this I think the company should settle as fast as they can, but I hope he sues and wins. It's absolutely ridiculous. And no one wants to talk about it (police/Airline.)

 

I did sort of understand the legging issue if they were employee provided tickets and therefore seen as representing the company even though it's not a battle I personally I would have picked even though I strongly believe leggings don't qualify as pants. But if it is a battle your going to stand by, you should keep your head down. This story is going to tank them hard and it should. There is absolutely no doubt that man was assaulted and all he did was want to use there service. 

[anniebgood]

The flight was full, and UA needed to get a flight crew to the other destination. The gate agent knew this and should have made the announcement for IDB's at the gate before they were boarded. Rules say that once your butt is in a seat you don't have to move unless it's an emergency. UA is going to be digging into their pocketbooks, not to mention the city of Chicago who the police officers work for. 

The thing about the leggings didn't garner much sympathy. I flew on a pass on TWA for thousands of miles and always wore dresses or skirts and blouses. They changed the rules late 60's early 70's that women could wear pantsuits if they were coordinated and matching. I bought my first pantsuit at Sears in HNL to fly home in. When you're taking up a seat and representing the airline you follow the rules. If we flew first class, it was ties and dress shirts for the guys, except that after my dad retired (42 years) he wore a bolo tie. 

I'd rather fly Southwest or Jet Blue if they fly where I want to go. I can provide my own entertainment and just want to get from here to there. 

[Grimalkin]

   In my early twenties I loved when they overbooked a flight. I got free acomidations, meals, and tons of flying vouchers. I always jumped at the chance to get flying vouchers. In fact I met an Austrailian girl who spent a week at the hotel airport collecting vouchers every day for overbooked flights. She had nearly $8,000 in vouchers. I got $1,800. This was at the same airport this happened. I'm sure somebody would of gladly given Up their seat if the price was right. Certainly would of been a much better outcome for the airline.

[Mercer]

Regardless of who was legally in the right, how could the United employees possibly have thought this was the best way to handle the situation? 

Basically any other possible solution would have been better than the massive negative PR of a passenger getting publicly manhandled. 

[ScorpiousMalfoy]

I used to work in aviation and yes, we also had overbookings. But NEVER EVER, in every airline my company worked for,  anyone would ever forcibly deboard a passenger. You solve situations like this BEFORE boarding. And the way they did it is absolutely disgusting, poor man was treated like some criminal or worse. I sincerely hope he sues the hell out of United.

 

And overbookings are crap, I know. Airlines put check in and gate agents in really bad situation and leave them alone to handle the mess. (The financial reward for giving up your seat isn't that bad and I think I would volounteer if I didn't have to be somewhere very urgently. But I'm poor lol) This does not excuse the way United dealt with this situation - this is also  horrible for their PR and they will lose a lot of passengers and I'm sure they'll have to pay looooooots of compensation to the hurt passenger.

[Smash!]

I flew once long haul distance with united - never ever again!
They overbooked but we couldn't take the voucher because of a connecting flight in HongKong. Even tough we checked in super early there was no two seats together available for me and my ex - and I was terribly afraid of flying. I broke down in tears in the plane - that was when finally someone agreed to change seats so I could sit next to my then bf. The flight attendants just watched me breaking down and did nothing - they didn't try to comfort me nor trying to find someone who was willing to change seats. The flight itself was my worst ever. After we landed in Asia I never wanted to board a plane ever again.

So... this horrible event just proved my thinking about United.

[purplepeony]

http://news.sky.com/story/man-dragged-from-united-airlines-plane-in-overbooked-flight-row-10832911 

If this leaked memo is true then they don't really seem to care about the hurt to the passenger- just their public image.

[47of74]

I believe I already said this, but United might want to check the temperature in HELL if they ever think I'm going to fly with them again. 

[Howl]

8 hours ago, Grimalkin said:

I'm sure somebody would of gladly given Up their seat if the price was right. Certainly would of been a much better outcome for the airline.

This was discussed last night on one of the news shows.  Apparently, they could have offered up to $1300, but instead offered only (depending on who you talked to) between $400 and $600.  Instead of going up to the max to induce someone to give up a seat, they now have a public relations nightmare that will cost them a fortune, because they will be sued, or they will preemptively offer a large amount to settle and people will forever associate their airline with this incident.  I've seen this clip now maybe 8 times on last night's news and now on GMA.  It doesn't cease to be horrifying. 

Apparently, the employee (stewardess?) who was eventually seated got a raft of sh*t from the passengers. 

[Screamapillar]

Things that would convince me to "volunteer" to give up my seat: "This is your Captain, we are looking for volunteers to give up their seats to a family in need/group of nuns with sick kids/courier transporting live organs to a hospital."

Things that would not convince me: "We need to accommodate four of our employees. Get your ass up or else."

There's a Simpsons Episode, "Fear of Flying" with the following quote; "Attention Passengers, due to our policy of overbooking flights, this flight has been overbooked."

[47of74]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

This was discussed last night on one of the news shows.  Apparently, they could have offered up to $1300, but instead offered only (depending on who you talked to) between $400 and $600.  Instead of going up to the max to induce someone to give up a seat, they now have a public relations nightmare that will cost them a fortune, because they will be sued, or they will preemptively offer a large amount to settle and people will forever associate their airline with this incident.  I've seen this clip now maybe 8 times on last night's news and now on GMA.  It doesn't cease to be horrifying. 

Apparently, the employee (stewardess?) who was eventually seated got a raft of sh*t from the passengers. 

Yeah, that's gonna cost United a lot of money.  Not only when the guy's lawyers take United to the woodshed, but also in lost revenue from people who will not fly United now.  I wouldn't fly them even if they had directs to MSP or STL now for $20 bucks round trip.

[Dandruff]

I thought United was supposed to be the "friendly" skies.

I predict a burst of ads from them by the end of the week.

[zygote373]

This is so stupid.

My hometown is a Delta hub, so I usually fly Delta. Flights are overbooked sometimes, but it's always handled before boarding and they just keep increasing the dollar amount until enough people volunteer. I've never seen anyone get picked involuntarily in that situation.

I have also experienced a different kind of overbooking during the holidays, where everyone got on the plane and then they realized the plane was too heavy (Christmas gifts? Too much turkey at Thanksgiving dinner?). In one case, they needed 7 people to get off before we could leave. Again, they just kept offering more and more money until people cracked. There was a point where they said if we didn't get one more volunteer soon, somebody would be picked at random. Then a single guy in army gear got up and walked off the plane to a round of applause from his fellow passengers. (Frankly, I would have volunteered myself if I didn't have plans with friends who were only in town for one night right after the flight landed.)

This situation makes no sense. The flight wasn't even overbooked, they just needed some staff at the final destination for a flight the next morning. Why didn't they sort this out before everyone boarded? Why didn't they have their staff drive instead? Why didn't they find seats for their staff on another airline? Why didn't they increase the dollar amount for volunteers? Why didn't they fly in a crew from another hub? There are so many things they could have done to handle the situation better. They never should have gotten themselves into a position where people were involuntarily selected, because people will refuse. 

[2manyKidzzz]

I read that the man was 69 years old. His face was bloodied. This was barbaric and beyond strange. 

[warriorblade8857]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

Apparently, they could have offered up to $1300, but instead offered only (depending on who you talked to) between $400 and $600.  Instead of going up to the max to induce someone to give up a seat, they now have a public relations nightmare....

Precisely. This is a story of gambling.

Airlines routinely schedule more passengers than seats, then bet on these passengers not flying. Unfortunately, when one gambles, one runs the risk of losing. With airlines, that means the risk of having to shell out $1350 in cash versus a few hundred in useless vouchers. United obviously likes to gamble, but doesn't like to pay up when it loses.

So, because they're cheap, United makes a second gamble: "Can we get away with not paying and just call security to haul somebody off the plane?" This betting game of "lets see what can we get away with in the pursuit of the almighty dollar" is one that corporations play constantly. However, United Airlines was incredibly stupid to believe that they could ever win that game in the age of social media.

[mango_fandango]

United CEO claims that the passenger was disruptive and belligerent. And that employees followed established procedures.

If "established procedures" mean forcibly manhandling someone and dragging them out on the floor, then fuck United. The guy wasn't disruptive or belligerent. CEO is trying- and failing- to make it seem like this guy is in the wrong.

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

[RosyDaisy]

This is assault, a crime, plain and simple. There is no justification for this. Nope, none whatsoever.

[Pasta]

I like watching companies try to make it seen like they're in the right. There's a video. We know what happened. Stop lying United. They're stock has already dropped. I hope it drops much lower. 

[hoipolloi]

The videos of the assault -- which is what it was -- are horrifying. 

I'd hope that the passenger & all affected will sue UAL (and the mall cops who committed the assault) up the wazoo but given that UAL's contract of carriage is so heavily skewed in favor of the airline, it's hard to say if plaintiffs would prevail.

One possible positive from this shitstorm is that maybe, just maybe, Congress* will get the whole "over-booking" scam on its radar & change the law to stop or curtail this legalized theft. In what other business does a customer pay in full for something only to have it taken away on the whim of the seller with little or no recourse? 

*Not holding my breath about these fuckwads, though. Also, if a lawsuit over this situation got to SCOTUS we all know how so-called Justice Gorsuch would rule...