United Airlines Forces Man off of oversold flight

[mom2rtk]

I highly doubt anyone on board had authority to "up the ante". This needs to be cleared with someone in a higher position of authority.

People need to stop saying this would have been over in a couple of minutes if theyd offered more cash.

There's a chain of command here folks, this isn't a game show.

No doubt. But if they routinely overbook, and routinely need to bump people, they better have a better plan than "just hope enough people take an offer below our approved amount". I would assume there's someone on call 24/7 who can authorize exceeding that amount if needed.

 

[Babs Johnson]

"Up to $1,000" might be their policy here. Pretty sure from stuff I read today that if bumped involuntarily, a customer has the right to get $1,350 in cash. So I don't know about this policy. And regardless... they CAN offer passengers WHATEVER AMOUNT THEY WANT TO. United might CHOOSE to cap it at $1K -- pretty stupid (and COSTLY) choice...

These internal communications so far are just making United look WORSE. "How not to handle a PR disaster 101".

For the 4 passengers on this flight, the amount of compensation due was 4 times the amount of their one-way fares, up to a maximum of $1350. Not all IDB passengers will get $1350.

If the OW fare was $150, they get $600. If the OW fare was $400, they don't get $1600, just the $1350 maximum.

Yes, but according to United's own documents it appears they had authorization to go up to $1000, but stopped at $800.

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Not quite. The $1000 was the amount actually paid to at least one passenger after being kicked off. It's likely that the other passengers received less.

The $800 was the last voluntary offer. I don't know if the gate agent had authorization to go to $1000. It's possible they didn't increase the offer over $800 because $3200 (4 x $800) was the total United would be required to pay out among the four passengers.

 

[Westcoastwild]

There's absolutely no chance the police would tell United to deal with themselves, nor would i want them to. This is air travel we are talking about and there is too much pressure around it since 9/11, law enforcement can't take the risk of saying "Na you got this"

And EVEN if it WASN'T air travel, security or the police are never going to say "deal with it yourself". Period. Say a meth head came to my cash register- security would respond right away if I requested backup and I'd get into big trouble if I didn't request back up before the situation escalated.

Schools, malls, office buildings all have protocols in place for suspicious behavior or a potentially violent situation. The guy could have decided to fight back, or get other passengers involved. You just don't know how people will react- if I was working somewhere and felt at risk, and security told me to "deal with it" , I'd call the police, then lodge a complaint and quit the next day if that didn't fix things.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I hope you're not trying to make light of this unconscionable oversight... ...

No just making a comment on people that don't care about others, yet when Disney forgets to fold one of their towel animals carry on.

 

[bcla]

thats the thing though, if he is an actual western doctors, i should be able to google him and find his profile... which is what leads me to believe he isnt. im just speculating though.

Isn't an active (albeit restricted) medical license enough? Maybe he's lying about having actual patients, but he's got the license. He's also win a small town, so they may not have too many options.

It certainly sounds like his wife supported the family for a while, and there's no cloud over her medical license.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

The most shameful part of all is that the police officers acted like they were bouncers hired from a bar. Shocking and shameful footage.

The airlines really need to get back to customer service care instead of the "we're doing you a favor" attitude that many of them have adopted.

 

[Wendy31]

Yes, it has come to that. Or worse as the case may be. Comply or Die.


That's because many on these boards lack even a shred of compassion or empathy. Someone they don't know gets their butt kicked. Meh they deserved it. Yet if Disney doesn't fold a towel animal for them, it's the end of the world.

Not true.

I have compassion & empathy for the passengers on the plane who witnessed the altercation. I have compassion & empathy for the front-line employees who were caught between a rock & hard place & possibly weren't given adequate training to handle the situation well & now are facing the backlash today. I have compassion & empathy for the doctor's wife who had to see her husband being dragged down the aisle & that her husband even put her in the situation in the first place. I have compassion & empathy for the officers who had to board the plane & deal w/ the passenger. I'm sorry the man got hurt after he refused to leave his seat, & I hate that he was recorded & the video is being shown everywhere because I'm sure he hates seeing himself that way - as does his family. I also hate how his entire past is now being dragged back up. It's an awful situation all the way around.

And I'm not the type to complain about towel animals.

 

[amberpi]

 

[JaxDad]

Sorry - we know no cash offer was made according to eyewitness on CNN. That was good enough for me, but I'll give you that might not be enough for others. The reddit thing is more suspect to me. I expect CNN to vet their testimonies.

You have more confidence in the media than I do, but that's cool.

I still have not read anything about the time from when the crew notified the passenger he was "selected," and the time they called in law enforcement. I wonder if they did make an effort to sweeten the pot. Something went down! I don't know what, and I tend to doubt if the CNN eyewitness really knows either.

As I've posted, I think United handled this (and continues to handle this) horribly. Really, really horribly...like this-should-be-a-case-study horrible! However, there has been conflicting information reported on this event all over all media, and I'm just naturally skeptical of anything I read. I throw it all in the information pile and process it based on my own experience.

I definitely wasn't trying to criticize you, and I really do appreciate you bringing more information to the thread. I'm an aviation industry junkie, so this story has interested me.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Not true.

I have compassion & empathy for the passengers on the plane who witnessed the altercation. I have compassion & empathy for the front-line employees who were caught between a rock & hard place & possibly weren't given adequate training to handle the situation well & now are facing the backlash today. I have compassion & empathy for the doctor's wife who had to see her husband being dragged down the aisle & that her husband even put her in the situation in the first place. I have compassion & empathy for the officers who had to board the plane & deal w/ the passenger. I'm sorry the man got hurt after he refused to leave his seat.

And I'm not the type to complain about towel animals.

Inquiring minds want to know: do you have compassion for people who do complain about towel animals?

 

[Wendy31]

Inquiring minds want to know: do you have compassion for people who do complain about towel animals?

I probably don't.

Edited to Add - Of course, there might be some legitimate reason to complain, I suppose, for not getting a towel animal, & I might commiserate then.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Hey. I just joined a new United Frequent Flyer club. It has exclusive seats.

 

[amberpi]

I definitely wasn't trying to criticize you, and I really do appreciate you bringing more information to the thread. I'm an aviation industry junkie, so this story has interested me.

I didn't think you were. I was trying to be specific about my sources because that stuff is important. I'm an aviation industry news junkie too because I have to deal with flying a couple of times a week. Today has been a great news day as I'm just on conference calls listening to someone I'm mentoring and making sure they don't screw up. ALL THE NEWS ALL THE TIME!

 

[mefordis]

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Not true.

I have compassion & empathy for the passengers on the plane who witnessed the altercation. I have compassion & empathy for the front-line employees who were caught between a rock & hard place & possibly weren't given adequate training to handle the situation well & now are facing the backlash today. I have compassion & empathy for the doctor's wife who had to see her husband being dragged down the aisle & that her husband even put her in the situation in the first place. I have compassion & empathy for the officers who had to board the plane & deal w/ the passenger. I'm sorry the man got hurt after he refused to leave his seat, & I hate that he was recorded & the video is being shown everywhere because I'm sure he hates seeing himself that way - as does his family. I also hate how his entire past is now being dragged back up. It's an awful situation all the way around.

And I'm not the type to complain about towel animals.

I said many, not everybody. Perhaps you missed that before rushing to post not true. Because what I posted is true.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Where is that written though? No one has put that anywhere in this thread. I'm willing to believe they broke the rules, I just haven't seen anything indicating that. (Judging by my last few flights, they have a LOT of leeway when it comes to RoC.)

Well I did pages back link the government page for the Department of Transportation along with other information on that page that was too long to just paste in here. Not exactly the Contract of Carriage but the DOT's regulation on your flying rights.

The verbage used for part of the description for Voluntary Bumping (which is what the whole thing started as) is "At the check-in or boarding area, airline employees will look for volunteers when it appears that the flight has been oversold."

The verbage used for part of the description for Involuntary Bumping (which is what the whole thing ended up being) is "Those travelers who don't get to fly are frequently entitled to denied boarding compensation in the form of a check or cash."

Statement on the page: "DOT's denied boarding regulation spells out the airlines' minimum obligation to people they bump involuntarily."

So basically the verbage used for DOT is 'denied boarding'. By essentially everyone's thoughts this wasn't denied boarding as they had already boarded the plane. I really have no idea if the 'denied boarding' verbage has a more expanded definition when speaking in terms of legality though.

 

[Wendy31]

I said many, not everybody. Perhaps you missed that before rushing to post not true. Because what I posted is true.

Point taken.

But, since I've been on this thread making a couple of statements as to how I feel the passenger escalated the situation himself by refusing to vacate his seat, I felt your statement was directed toward me.

At any rate, just because I may feel the passenger (in addition to United) was wrong in how he handled himself, doesn't mean I also don't have compassion for him & others involved in the situation.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Inquiring minds want to know: do you have compassion for people who do complain about towel animals?

Disney didn't give Squidward his towel animals.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

 

[anniemae]

OMG I was cracking up at the meme's online earlier! It felt so wrong, so I didn't post them here, then I saw the ones above and I almost spit my soda out. LOL! It's sooooooo wrong, but I can't stop. Jimmy Kimmel did a hilarious fake ad for United, you can see his whole monolog and the ad if you google it.