Goldenroad
Member
The policy change should be simple: Don't overbook flights. I don't read anywhere where they say they will stop overbooking, so nothing will change.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
United Airlines investigation on dragged passenger: "Many things went wrong that day"
- Thread starter nature boy
- Start date
- Status
30yearsofhurt
Member
"mistakes were made"
Sounds like saltybet.
Sounds like saltybet.
The problem was the Airline's flight policy towards overbooked flight not being overbooked itself. If these changes are real then I don't see how this is not a real change to creating better customer service when problems like this occur in the future.
shawnbuddy
Member
Overbooking should be illegal. If you buy a ticket to ride on something, you should be guaranteed a spot to ride on that thing. That's not an irrational concept.
Chezzymann
Member
What if he refuses any amount of money
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Then he's an idiot.
Chezzymann
Member
I dunno, maybe he doesn't need money and wants to screw over united as much as possible
There might be huge restrictions like a 1 year expiration date, restricted to north america or whatever. Not to mention i don't have enough vacation days to travel 10000$ worth of flight within a time frame and afford to make a trip out of it. it's still a crap deal and they're not obligated to give you the full amount.
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Enough of his personal information it out to know that he's not super rich. The kind of money United will throw at him for settlement will be life-changing money. He's also an older guy, and if he pushes this to trial, it'll drag out. Settlement money could be in his hands quickly. He could immediately retire and travel the world (but not on United or partner flights).
Chezzymann
Member
There's some upper middle class people who are fine with their life style and have a good retirement savings already saved up, maybe he doesn't really want a dramatic life change and cares more about damaging the company as a response and recognizes that taking this to trial would hurt them more than any settlement money would. You're probably right, but its not impossible he could refuse any amount of settlement money and not be an idit.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
I don't know how applicable this is but banks will typically settle out of court if they think they only have like a 75-80% chance of winning. When they don't settle and do go to court, that means they're very sure they're going to win.
If United's lawyers are doing similar math, it's entirely possible that United could still win and the guy won't get anything other than a legal bill.
Also his lawyers could be pushing him to take the settlement because they might not like their chances too much compared to a guaranteed payout
SuperBowser
Member
There's no way United can win this lol.
Ignoring everything else (because literally everything that could have gone wrong in this case did go wrong), United have publicly stated on multiple occasions they were in the wrong.
sugarhigh4242
Banned
lol something about the thread title make me think United Airlines was going to say they "had a big bowl of chili for lunch" that day, care of Alex Jones.
TangoAlphaLima
Member
It's a little more complicated than that. The expected chance of prevailing is a factor, but so is the projected exposure and the plaintiff's settlement demand. Also, defendants take matters to trial for various reasons, and some are more logical than others.
Also, the plaintiff generally won't owe anything from losing. His attorneys front the costs and pay for litigation.
In this case, punitive damages are a big concern for United. This is a very public case with a lot of bad P.R. for United. The venue for the trial should also be in Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), and I bet jury verdicts are pretty good for plaintiffs there. And Illinois law in general is pretty plaintiff friendly from my understanding. I don't think United wants this going to trial at all.
Ziltoidia 9
Member
United Airlines probably has a XBL gamer tag so when they play COD and fall off a cliff, it says MISTAKES WERE MADE
united chose to bump 4 passengers because they wanted a FREE ride on their own flight instead of paying to get 4 tickets
They could have bought a ticket like a normal person who needs to be somewhere, there's ALWAYS a way if you're willing to pay, hell every single commercial flight in the US could be 101% full and you can charter a 6 seater prop plane to take you wherever the fuck you wanna go
bet it wasn't worth the cost of 4 somewhat expensive tickets NOW though
I have flight attendant friends here in Canada, the airlines have deals to take each other staff in situations like this if there are vacant seats.
I assume it is the same thing in the US so it probably would not have cost a cent if there was another airline with vacant seats
My favorite part from the report:
Finally, the report said the airline has not provide regular training for employees on how to deal with denied boarding situations.
He wasn't denied boarding ... He was on board and in his paid seat lol that was their first mistake. From a two year old with a lollipop to a 100 year old with a bingo card, you don't give a person something they paid for, then take it away. There will be anger.
Finally, the report said the airline has not provide regular training for employees on how to deal with denied boarding situations.
He wasn't denied boarding ... He was on board and in his paid seat lol that was their first mistake. From a two year old with a lollipop to a 100 year old with a bingo card, you don't give a person something they paid for, then take it away. There will be anger.
Dreams-Visions
Member
You fucked up, United. You fucked up badly enough to become a meme.
David Dao got paid that hush money to the point he can't even disclose it.
RPGCrazied
Member
He settled.
RPGCrazied
Member
Bet its 6 figures at least.
dragonyeuw
Member
I would safely assume enough to not have to work another day in his life, very comfortably I should add. Good for him.
Suikoguy
I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Interesting that he got them to admit wrongdoing.
100% it's 7+, likely 8 if it's wrapped up already.
BoogieWoogie
Banned
Shieett I bet it's at least 5 mil.
I'm going with 8, a new thread should be made for this since we are derailing this one.
My money's on 8 figures given how bad this was for United.
If we're guessing, I'm going to go with 15 million. This was an unmitigated disaster for United and they were probably ready to pay whatever it took to make this go away.
"Here pls accept one year's salary for us breaking ur face and humiliating u in front of the whole world"
Justin Bailey
------ ------
No way it was in the millions on a settlement. 6 figs, maybe even 5.
Why would he settle for that little? If this went to court he'd almost certainly win and easily get somewhere around 7 or 8 figures.
Justin Bailey
------ ------
He'd also have to pay for a legal team to spend years to get there, after the appeals went through, and not even get guaranteed "7 or 8 figures."
Anyway, no real point in arguing it since it will never get released to the public.
Diablohead
Member
BBC news said there was a settlement agreement but it's not disclosed.
BoogieWoogie
Banned
The optics of United taking this guy to court would be DEVASTATING for them. They lost a billion in a day in stocks thanks to this, what's 20 mil to stop the bleeding?
lol that's McDonalds money, fam.
This dude is caught on camera being dragged off bleeding from a United airplane. United is going to be spending crazy money on "new focus" and "putting the customer first in everything we do".
He's AT LEAST getting millions. His LAWYERS will be seeing 5 or 6 figures.
poppedcollar69
Member
moving this post to the more deserving thread...
The company's stock price wouldn't be able to survive a protracted court proceeding. If anything they were more likely to be pushing for a settlement than the doctor.
TangoAlphaLima
Member
I´m pretty sure that if they´d had the will to, they could´ve found another way to get the crew there, get a replacement crew or find any other solution. Besides, only 2 people are required to fly a plane, not 4 and 2 people had already given up their seats. Also, note that nowhere has it been stated that the crew were pilots, they may even have all been stewards, which would´ve made it even easier to find replacements for the flight next day. And if anything failed, they didn´t have to fly until the next day and Louisville is only a 5 hour drive away if everything else failed.
They had a lot of options before having to consider denying service to a customer. They didn´t consider any of those for a second, because it was much easier to just take 4 passengers out, probably because for them their customers´satisfaction was at the very bottom of their priorities.
No, they'd work on a contingency
They just announced they would pay up to $10k in travel vouchers for any future (I)DBs, and you think the guy that was assaulted and forced them to change their policy would walk away with $90k. Get real.
- Status