United passenger forcibly removed from flight after refusing to give up seat

[Dashinka 23,199]

I am glad I can usually refrain from flying United.  You would think they would go back and choose a different random passenger once this Dr. said he needed to be at the hospital the next day.

 

A United passenger was forcibly removed from a flight from Chicago to Louisville after he refused to voluntarily give up his seat.

Fellow passengers on the flight posted jarring videos late Sunday night of uniformed men dragging the man off of the flight after what United called an “overbook situation.”

“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked,” a United spokesperson told Yahoo News when asked about the incident. “After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-passenger-forcibly-removed-flight-refusing-give-seat-134930951.html

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Geeze united is having a rough ride this year...they're just used to giving them.

[bcking 3,157]

I'm sorry what?

“After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.”

 

That sentence doesn't even make sense. They were looking for "volunteers", and someone didn't VOLUNTARILY be a VOLUNTEER, and so therefore they forced him out?

 

Reading beyond it clarifies that a computer "randomly generated" 4 people to be removed, and he was one of those randomly picked.

 

Also from what I'm reading on other sources, it was "overbooked" because there were United Personnel that they wanted to place on the flight. 

 

Overbooking is the airlines problem, not customers. It should never resort to this. Even if they had to pay people 10,000 dollars.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Just now, bcking said:

I'm sorry what?

“After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.”

 

That sentence doesn't even make sense. They were looking for "volunteers", and someone didn't VOLUNTARILY be a VOLUNTEER, and so therefore they forced him out?

 

Reading beyond it clarifies that a computer "randomly generated" 4 people to be removed, and he was one of those randomly picked.

 

Also from what I'm reading on other sources, it was "overbooked" because there were United Personnel that they wanted to place on the flight. 

 

Overbooking is the airlines problem, not customers. It should never resort to this. Even if they had to pay people 10,000 dollars.

The only time I could see this as acceptable is if the staff is going for an emergent situation.

 

im wondering if there's more to the story, as well something seems off.  Overbooking sucks, but it's the nature of the beast.

[bcking 3,157]

Just now, Transborderwife said:

The only time I could see this as acceptable is if the staff is going for an emergent situation.

 

im wondering if there's more to the story, as well something seems off.  Overbooking sucks, but it's the nature of the beast.

It is the "nature of the beast", but it is the beast's (airline's) problem. When you are booking a flight on the website it doesn't warn you saying "Hey this flight is overbooked!". Customers don't make informed decisions to book onto an overbooked flight.

 

As I said, it is their problem. As far as I can tell they offered up to 800 dollars. If that wasn't enough, they need to offer more. They need to keep going until somebody truly volunteers. They messed up, not the customers. 

[Transborderwife 4,666]

I do wonder if the removed passenger had some trouble with the law due to United's statement and police presence: "We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."

 

either way I'm sure a lawsuit is coming 

[Dakine10 5,452]

  Were they really overbooked? It says they removed 4 passengers to get off so they could send a flight crew to Louisville. I'm not sure that's actually overbooking. 

 

   That was just brutal though. Poor, irresponsible behavior by the airline and by the people removing the passenger. Hope the guy sues United and law enforcement over this. The whole way they oversell these flights has gone way beyond acceptable.

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, Transborderwife said:

I do wonder if the removed passenger had some trouble with the law due to United's statement and police presence: "We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."

 

either way I'm sure a lawsuit is coming 

It seems like they contacted authorities because he was sitting in the chair and not moving. I guess they felt like they had to "escalate". If they really need him off the plane, eventually it was going to come to that. There should have just been another way, and the clearest way would be to continue to up the financial incentives until it works.

 

EDIT:

 

As for the method of removal, you can see in one of the videos the guy who did the "pulling" didn't even left up the armrest before he yanked the guy out. I dont' believe United armrests go up all the way, but they at least raise enough that it would have been less painful. With the amount of force he was using that at least caused abdominal bruising.

Edited April 10, 2017 by bcking

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Just now, Dakine10 said:

  Were they really overbooked? It says they removed 4 passengers to get off so they could send a flight crew to Louisville. I'm not sure that's actually overbooking. 

 

   That was just brutal though. Poor, irresponsible behavior by the airline and by the people removing the passenger. Hope the guy sues United and law enforcement over this. The whole way they oversell these flights has gone way beyond acceptable.

No indication if they were standby or regular customers.

 

as a business model overselling does make sense, as a customer it's horrible 

[Dakine10 5,452]

11 minutes ago, bcking said:

 

Overbooking is the airlines problem, not customers. It should never resort to this. Even if they had to pay people 10,000 dollars.

  I agree with that. They overbook to maximize their profit. They should be prepared to maximize the compensation as well. Eight hundred dollars would not be worth it for me in most cases.

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, Dakine10 said:

  I agree with that. They overbook to maximize their profit. They should be prepared to maximize the compensation as well. Eight hundred dollars would not be worth it for me in most cases.

Definitely not worth it to a doctor I'll say. While we don't work hourly wages, he may make more than that for a day's work and that doesn't even consider what it would mean for either his partners covering for him, or the patients who have to reschedule.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

1 minute ago, Dakine10 said:

  I agree with that. They overbook to maximize their profit. They should be prepared to maximize the compensation as well. Eight hundred dollars would not be worth it for me in most cases.

Many airlines offer no compensation especially Canadian ones other than "we will find you another flight".  Same with delays.  I had a flight going from Atlanta to JFK a few years ago that was delayed 6 hours.  They suggested finding alternative arrangements and had some minor snacks available.  It was an equipment issue but there was also a snowstorm so they pretty much were covered.

[Dakine10 5,452]

1 minute ago, Transborderwife said:

No indication if they were standby or regular customers.

 

as a business model overselling does make sense, as a customer it's horrible 

 

   I've read elsewhere it was to accommodate 4 flight crew that needed to get to Louisville. Not sure on the accuracy of that though since United hasn't released details. If that was true though, there were alternatives. United could have paid to send the flight crew on another airline.

 

  

[bcking 3,157]

4 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

No indication if they were standby or regular customers.

 

as a business model overselling does make sense, as a customer it's horrible 

"United had overbooked the flight and was looking for four volunteers to leave the plane in order to send four United crew members to Louisville."

 

Presumably if there were "standby" people they wouldn't have gotten on the flight in the first place since it was overbooked. My interpretation would be they were ticketed customers, and then an "unforeseen" circumstance arose where they needed to send their crew. I agree it might be some "emergency" where they really need the crew in Louisville, but again that is their problem not the customers. They need to be prepared to offer whatever it takes to make it happen. 

[bcking 3,157]

1 minute ago, Transborderwife said:

Many airlines offer no compensation especially Canadian ones other than "we will find you another flight".  Same with delays.  I had a flight going from Atlanta to JFK a few years ago that was delayed 6 hours.  They suggested finding alternative arrangements and had some minor snacks available.  It was an equipment issue but there was also a snowstorm so they pretty much were covered.

I believe it is typically different depending on the reason. If it is some "natural disaster" sort of situation, or even equipment failure, that is different than overbooking.

 

There is a reason why they offer compensation when they have overbooked. It is because it's their fault. It isn't a disaster, it isn't an "unforeseen problem", it is their own fault because they knew ahead of time they were selling more tickets than they had seats. That is why they offer money. The problem here is they stopped offering more money because they didn't want to "lose out" too badly for their own mistaske.