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United Airlines violently drags a doctor off a plane so employee could take his seat

Why do you fly United?


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guybrushfreeman

Unconfirmed Member
The contract you have with the airline is based around the T&C of your ticket. It's not as simple as "rights!". Being forcefully dragged down an aeroplane, and being hurt, is the issue here.

A lot of shit you won't/don't like is able to happen to your airline ticket. As emotions are high on GAF and across the web over this some are making a bit of a hash of understanding some legalities/terms here. For better or worse, they exist, and its best to report them accurately rather than just make things up.

I'm saying he had the 'right' to be there and that's true. T&Cs can say whatever they want they aren't the law. It's not clear that it would be legal to deny service to someone by force just because of T&Cs
 

IISANDERII

Member
So messed up. Like United's shit is universally more important than everyone else's. That policy needs to go.
It's America, the policy will be enhanced so that lethal force may be used and the costs associated will be billed to the next of kin.
 

Griss

Member
Interesting hearing people bad mouth American. I've only ever flown them internationally but they've always been fine. Not great, but fine. Better than Aer Lingus and British Airways who fly the same routes that I use - and I've been flying those routes on those three airlines for more than 25 years.

I'm guessing it's because their long-haul staff are the higher paid ones who've 'made it' and as such aren't pissed off or lackadaisical. But in terms of meeting me at the gate with a whole new rebooked itinerary and restaurant vouchers etc when arriving to an airport for a connection after a weather delay? American has done that for me multiple times.
 

Tripon

Member
C9EodqoXoAIQT9t.jpg


https://twitter.com/DSzymborski/status/851506529618591744
 

Lord Fagan

Junior Member
Not that anyone has the responsibility to. But how do people feel about there seemingly being no other passenger willing to help the guy? The videos show people screaming but their butt's attached to their seat

Interfering with the police performing their job as ordered is called obstruction of justice, which is a felony.

The real question is why did the police escalate to physically removing him? There were other solutions, and I'm thinking that doubling that cash offer past the psychological number of four figures is one fine option that wasn't exercised.
 

Audioboxer

Member
I'm saying he had the 'right' to be there and that's true. T&Cs can say whatever they want they aren't the law. It's not clear that it would be legal to deny service to someone by force just because of T&Cs

Airline aviation "law" does indeed allow both voluntary and mandatory overboarding requests. Both of which have compensation settlements for the travelers. My suggestion earlier to UA is when you randomly pick someone who is very adamant they aren't leaving it might just be best to move onto someone else. All while making it clear to the whole plane it's not taking off till some people accept compensation and a later flight. That's how you handle this mess, not calling on security and dragging someone off a flight.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
United is such a shit airline. On my last flight, they tried to aggressively downgrade me to Economy to 'fit the flight instead of being bumped out and waiting a day'.

I stood my ground, told the rep I consider selling economy seats as business class seats fraud and that I refuse the downgrade, and eventually I got on the flight, on the business class seat I paid for.

Needless to say, I will never fly United again.
 

RS4-

Member
When I was flying from O'Hare back to TO, they were offering I think $400? or so to get bumped off and just take the next flight.

I was considering it, but was worried about the weather in TO and what these fuckers at the airlines was offering me. If it was vouchers, would've told them to fuck off. Fuck United.
 

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
Right, but the whole system is insane.

I get it. People will miss connections, and you have some percentage of how often it will happen and you don't want empty seats on your flight.

But I didn't sign up to be part of an algorithm that assumes 10% of us will be late because you aren't on time from your previous flight. I intend to make it to my final destination, and have a ticket that you sold me that gets me a seat that will get me there.

If your algorithm breaks you need to keep offering more money until the plane isn't full. Or, you need to make it very clear WHO is last in line and sell me a cheaper ticket. "This ticket is half off, but you are first to be bumped. If you are bumped, we'll give you a hotel and put you on a guaranteed flight the next morning"

It needs to be clear what is happening because travel is a real pain in the ass already, and having the potential to have a ticket you pay money for not be honored by the people who sold it to you is fucking insane.

I've never done anything else where I pay money for something and am told when I get there that its not gonna happen and I need to come back the next morning for the service I reserved and paid for.

I agree with you, I would rather have a couple of empty seats than overbook. But greed has taken over the airline industry. Passengers are just cattle at this point. Even with that in mind, there is NO WAY things should get to this point. Especially for some employees of the airline. Calling the cops because you overbooked the flight? Tell those employees they are going to have to be the ones inconvenienced.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
well i appreciate your wishing bad things on me, but there is no scenario where it isn't life or death were I would refuse the order of 3 officers to leave the plane.
Because heaven forbid you might momentarily think you could tell them your side of the story and that they might just listen and try to act as fair arbitrators who try to arrive at a settlement amicable to both sides, rather than just act as goons for hire for the corporation that summoned them.
 

Vengal

Member
My god man before my grandmother passed I remember taking her to the airport getting her set and to the gate (pre-911). She spoke no English. If they tried to get her off the plane I'm sure she would be scared and confused. This kind of thing is crazy that it wasn't caught early. What kind of business prioritizes employees to this extent?

Why aren't the worst seats on the plane in the back exclusively left for standby and/or employees and once everyone checks in if those seats are empty your guys get a free flight.
 
Free markets at work.

The amazing thing is that a free market could have fixed the problem!

None of the passengers were willing to give up their seat for an $800 voucher, but had United kept increasing the offer, eventually they would have had the 4 takers they needed. Instead, United called in the goons to manhandle a passenger. It's just absurd.
 

dskillzhtown

keep your strippers out of my American football
Holy fuck at some of the posters in this thread. How are any of you siding with United? What the fuck is wrong with you?

There is ALWAYS a defense force. No matter what the situation, the defense force pops up. I tend to think much of it is just an attempt to be contrarian though.
 

s_mirage

Member
I understand that overbooking exists, but they don't let passengers board if that's the case. They don't let them take their seats and then remove them. Usually they'll announce at the terminal that the flight is overbooked and ask people to give up their seats. Here they didn't do that until passengers were seated on the plane.

Just guessing but I'd bet on poor management. Perhaps a manager only realised, or was informed of, the problem as the plane was boarding. If it was their responsibility to make sure that staff got to another location, they probably made a panicked last minute decision. Customer service? To hell with that, their ass is on the line... Kick someone off!

No evidence whatsoever, but it wouldn't surprise me if it went down something like that. Kicking off paying customers to accommodate the transportation of staff is disgusting, and it certainly shouldn't happen once the aircraft has boarded.
 
looks like he might have a serious head injury that affected his memory. or he's got a serious fear of the police from a previous trauma perhaps? Maybe that's why he was resisting so much.its really sad things went down like that and he was hurt.

Yeah, but where's the tongue in cheek joke? I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but maybe you could make fun of the way he's holding on to that curtain like some sort of desperate baby? Or maybe something about his accent? That stuff always kills.

Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? How are you going to make light of human suffering in the name of excusing authoritarianism without some classic tongue in cheek yuck yucks?
 

jmdajr

Member
The amazing thing is that a free market could have fixed the problem!

None of the passengers were willing to give up their seat for an $800 voucher, but had United kept increasing the offer, eventually they would have had the 4 takers they needed. Instead, United called in the goons to manhandle a passenger. It's just absurd.

Morons. A couple of thousand bucks, or millions in litigation? Hmmm.
 
There is ALWAYS a defense force. No matter what the situation, the defense force pops up. I tend to think much of it is just an attempt to be contrarian though.

Yeah I always imagine that at least some of the people behind those posts are kids who just attended their very first debate class or just learned some form of "I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it" and then perverting it to apply to always taking, what they perceive, to be the underdog side.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
Yes, you do have the 'right' to be there. You literally do in fact have that right. It's crazy how people have let corporations blind them to their actual rights. You do in fact have a right to be on a plane you bought a ticket for. It is your legal right to be there. I can't believe I'm saying this

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx

It is not your legal right to be there. That's the contract you agree to when you buy a ticket from United.

Or are you going to go all Sovereign Citizen on me? If you tell them you're not flying, you're traveling, does that unlock secret text in the Declaration of Independence that means you can ignore these terms?

It needs to be clear what is happening because travel is a real pain in the ass already, and having the potential to have a ticket you pay money for not be honored by the people who sold it to you is fucking insane.

That's always going to be a risk when flying. Weather, mechanical failures, even such issues halfway across the country can all interfere with your plans. And they're all far more likely to interfere with your plans than the scenario in this instance.

Don't let this anecdote get you down. Your odds of a successful flight are 98% right now, and if they stopped overselling seats they'd go up to, what, 98.01%? Being on an oversold flight, that nobody's willing to volunteer for, and having your number come up: this is ridiculously unlikely. Not worth worrying about.
 

Audioboxer

Member
The amazing thing is that a free market could have fixed the problem!

None of the passengers were willing to give up their seat for an $800 voucher, but had United kept increasing the offer, eventually they would have had the 4 takers they needed. Instead, United called in the goons to manhandle a passenger. It's just absurd.

The figure does seem to have a cap, although figures I dug up earlier said $1200. Even at that if no one comes forward then sure, do random picking. If people refuse after being picked move on while reminding the whole plane it is not taking off till 4 people leave. Whatever late fees need paid or charges for sitting on the runway are the fault of the airline to pay. I can assure you eventually people will accept decent compensation if the whole plane is left in a stalemate stating no take off. The worst case scenario here should be the flight ending in complete cancellation before anyone is dragged down an aisle.
 
Just guessing but I'd bet on poor management. Perhaps a manager only realised, or was informed of, the problem as the plane was boarding. If it was their responsibility to make sure that staff got to another location, they probably made a panicked last minute decision. Customer service? To hell with that, their ass is on the line... Kick someone off!

No evidence whatsoever, but it wouldn't surprise me if it went down something like that. Kicking off paying customers to accommodate the transportation of staff is disgusting, and it certainly shouldn't happen once the aircraft has boarded.

Yeah, I agree. Poor logistics and management is probably the culprit here. I mean, they originally only asked for 1 volunteer, then increased it to 4 after everyone had boarded. The flight was minutes from taking off, and they just realized they needed to get 3 more employees to Louisville on it? Extremely poor planning.
 

Barzul

Member
Yeah I never fly United. I only fly American when I have to. Generally avoid them both. I'd rather fly in a diff day than use United tbh or pay more.
 

sphinx

the piano man
I understand that overbooking exists, but they don't let passengers board if that's the case. They don't let them take their seats and then remove them. Usually they'll announce at the terminal that the flight is overbooked and ask people to give up their seats. Here they didn't do that until passengers were seated on the plane.

what has happened to me is that when trying to check-in online, the site misteriously says "unable to check-in online, please talk to one of our employees at the airport".

at that point you know it's overbooked and that you'll be greeted with "sorry, it's overbooked, will put you in the next flight".

like you say, noone ever gets to board and then be removed, that's insane.
 

Socivol

Member
Good grief. Just in case United didn't look terrible enough, here's the CPD to remind everyone that police statements are utter horseshit 90% of the time.

Wooooow. CPD gonna CPD. CPD is the worst police department I've ever had to deal with when it comes to getting something done. They just do not give a shit and are so apathetic about the issue like you're inconveniencing them by asking them to do their job.
 
I think the airline has the right to remove him as stated by the airline. If he refuse to leave, they have the right to forcefully remove him as federal law says all passengers must obey the flight crew. I don't know what the outrage is here. They were all doing their jobs. The man needed to get the fuck out.
 

Iceternal

Member
I think the airline has the right to remove him as stated by the airline. If he refuse to leave, they have the right to forcefully remove him as federal law says all passengers must obey the flight crew. I don't know what the outrage is here. They were all doing their jobs. The man needed to get the fuck out.

You guys can't be for real..
 
I think the airline has the right to remove him as stated by the airline. If he refuse to leave, they have the right to forcefully remove him as federal law says all passengers must obey the flight crew. I don't know what the outrage is here. They were all doing their jobs. The man needed to get the fuck out.

Please be sarcasm. Please be sarcasm... pleasee
 
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