United Training Video...
It would be pretty interesting to see what happens if this goes to trail. Personally I think United would win but who knows. They would be insane to even try, but it's United...
14 CFR Chapter 2 is generally the federal law which concerns commercial flights. They refer to boarding also as "enplaning" versus "deplaning".
14 CFR Part 217 and 14 CFR Part 241 define an "enplaned passenger" as a passenger who boards a plane at any particular airport.
49 CFR Part 1510 also defines "passenger enplanement" as "a person boarding in the United States in scheduled or nonscheduled service on aircraft in intrastate, interstate, or foreign air transportation".
14 CFR Part 158 defines it as essentially the same.
Under federal law, this passenger would be considered "boarded" or "enplaned".
It is true that the plane is considered "in flight" when the doors are closed, but this has nothing to do with whether the passenger was already "boarded" or not.
This is a bit different than what we are talking about though. Airlines have virtually an absolute power to remove passengers if it's due to safety reasons. A weight restriction would be a safety matter.
Here the debate about boarding and "denied boarding" has more to do with the contractual aspects.
But again like I said, I bet to the FAA or DOT, United will "officially" claim a reason other than simply denied boarding due to overbooking as the reason they removed this man.
Since the US Transportation code was raised earlier, which I take to mean the U.S. Code section on Transportation, 49 USC Section 42301(i)(3)(A) would seem to contradict the earlier statement that passengers are considered "boarded" only when the aircraft doors have been closed.
The section states in part:
"awaiting takeoff after the aircraft doors have been closed or after passengers have been boarded if the passengers have not been advised they are free to deplane"
If aircraft doors closing and passengers boarded were one and the same, the code would not have treated the two as two separate events. The language of "or after passengers have been boarded..." would imply that a passenger can be considered "boarded" prior to the closing of the aircraft doors.
The good news is, with all these combative passengers self-selecting themselves from flying with United in the future, it's far less likely that you'll witness a similar situation on United going forward.
The bad news is, if any other airline needs to bump people, the populace is being prepared to be as uncooperative as possible.
Cheers, is it a website or document you're pulling all that from? The language used drives the brain mental, but welcome to the world of law. Everything procured and labelled in certain ways and terms.
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
All reports say it was $800, so someone lied in their report.
They don't offer cash. It's always travel vouchers.Damn, $1,000 cash. Like I said, though, if someone is resisting something like that just move on and select someone else. I guarantee you if you only need 1 more person someone is going to take 1 grand. All of this including dragging someone off by force without the foresight to accept there will be another passenger quick enough to accept. 3 already had.
In United vouchers also, which isn't mentioned in the report either.All reports say it was $800, so someone lied in their report.
Yeah, had they offered cash or gift cards instead of the shitty travel vouchers with expiration dates, someone would have gone for it.In United vouchers also, which isn't mentioned in the report either.
They don't offer cash. It's always travel vouchers.
I've travelled with them for years.
These people are clueless.
Yeah it was 800, but not 800 cash, it was 800 dollars in United credit for more flights etc.
In United vouchers also, which isn't mentioned in the report either.
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
Pfff It's UnitedAwman, the legal documents all say involuntary bumping is cash, on the spot. Voluntary is supposed to be vouchers.
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
Awman, the legal documents all say involuntary bumping is cash, on the spot. Voluntary is supposed to be vouchers.
Pfff It's United
But in this case, the passenger was already onboard and the airline wanted to take him back off, presumably in order to put another passenger in his seat. Does United have the right to do that? Yes, because Rule 25(A)2(b) of Uniteds Contract of Carriage gives its boarding priority rules:
The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passengers fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.
In this case, United said the passengers were being removed so that the airline could add crew members that needed to position to Louisville for flights in the morning. But in other instances it could be a passenger who had a more critical itinerary (perhaps a connection that would be missed) or even a higher elite status.
We spoke to Alexander Bachuwa, a New York attorney who has written for TPG in the past on legal issues regarding travel. The bottom line is that airlines hold the power to deny someone boarding and to remove someone from the flight, Bachuwa told us. The legal issue may be whether the police used unnecessary force in dealing with the situation. I highly doubt they will be held liable. The passenger was asked to leave and did not, as bad as that sounds.
The email doesn't say anyone was offered $1000. It just says it's part of the process. No one was offered any money in this situation but those who were involuntarily removed would've been eligible to receive 'up to $1000' afterwards. Whatever that means. Even $0 would count by the standards set out in the email
Know your rights for involuntary bumping
If you are bumped involuntarily and the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to get you to your final destination (including later connections) within one hour of your original scheduled arrival time, there is no compensation.
If the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to arrive at your destination between one and two hours after your original arrival time (between one and four hours on international flights), the airline must pay you an amount equal to 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination that day, with a $650 maximum.
If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (400% of your one-way fare, $1300 maximum).
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
True, but within law it states cash on the spot is the requirement.
Also I dug up another take on the in cabin debate
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/04/your-rights-on-involuntary-bumps/
Aviation law covers you legally for a minimum payout if you're forced to travel on another flight. I think the only way they can say no compensation is if it's under 2 hours you need to wait for another flight.
You mean treating passengers as people instead of cattle?So are United not going to take any responsibility for why this happened to begin with? It seems like they did some piss poor staffing and tried to fix it at the expense of paying customers. An oversight on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
It kind of annoys me that a lot of the news stories seem to make a big point of the passenger being a doctor as if that makes this worse. It really shouldn't matter if he was a doctor or not in this story, IMO. It's bad regardless.
But since it is brought up: Has any story identified the man, said what hospital he works at, what kind of doctor, etc? All I've seen is very generic "Doctor who had to see patients the next day" which leads to a lot of questions in my mind that absolutely don't matter in the case but I am still curious.
Dude, have you ever flown United? I don't think you have, otherwise you wouldn't be defending them like you are.True, but within law it states cash on the spot is the requirement.
Also I dug up another take on the in cabin debate
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/04/your-rights-on-involuntary-bumps/
Aviation law covers you legally for a minimum payout if you're forced to travel on another flight. I think the only way they can say no compensation is if it's under 2 hours you need to wait for another flight.
(via twitter)
(via twitter)
(via twitter)
southwest is legit. love them.
If I were these other Airlines, I'd be offering a free flight or two to the dude just to rub salt in United's PR wound.
Dude, have you ever flown United? I don't think you have, otherwise you wouldn't be defending them like you are.
(via twitter)
(via twitter)
Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.
This is the CEO's email to his employees:
That's not real? Is it?