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

[Dakine10 5,452]

3 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

I had a buddy in college that used to live to get bumped.  I used to regularly pick him up from the airport as he came back from visiting his family out East and I always knew I would get a call about two hours before he was scheduled to arrive the first time to let me know he was coming in later or the next day.

 

Personally, I generally would not take a bump especially on an outbound flight as I usually need to be where I am going.  I might consider it on a homebound flight depending on the circumstances.

 

 

    

   When I was younger I would have been more likely to go for the money, but it didn't seem to happen as much. Nowadays, as I get older, it doesn't seem worth the hassle.

 

 

2 hours ago, Teddy B said:

My ex and I volunteered to be bumped off a flight from Raleigh, NC to Boston back in the late 90's with the now defunct Midway Airlines. The payoff was two free round trip tickets anywhere Midway flew that must be used within one year of the original flight date. It worked out great because we only had to wait 3 hours for the next flight and we had a trip to Florida planned in 8 months that we hadn't purchased tickets for yet. We went to an airport restaurant, had a nice lunch and a few drinks while waiting for our new flight.

 

     Waiting a few hours at the airport would be more tolerable to me than having to come back the next day. I think with the current regulations they would have to offer twice your one way fare for bumping you to a flight 3 hours later. They always start lower in the hope that volunteers will take less than that though. The free tickets work if you know you are going somewhere for sure. Probably worked out better for you.

[yuna628 9,873]

This was an almost 70 year old man. I just keep coming back to that when I think of the disrespect and nature of his injuries. It's always easy to reflect and say surely the individual must be just some jerk and that the physical harm he suffered was somehow justified... it just isn't to me. The airlines just accuses him of being belligerent. Well of course he's going to be belligerent. He's an obstinate elderly gentleman that wants to get back to his hospital to help sick patients. He's being treated disrespectfully and may even feel singled out as to why he's being ejected from the plane compared to everyone else chosen. He paid for his ticket and it's not his fault the airline doesn't have enough room for their own staff. And what was the point of it all anyway? They put him back on the plane after assaulting him in the first place! Did they magically find a seat? http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/04/11/united-passenger-dragged-off-flight-id-d.htm

 

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/united-cites-wrong-rule-for-illegally-de-boarding-passenger/

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

10 hours ago, Jawaree said:

He purchased his ticket was allowed to board & seated,  United needed 4 seats for

employees who had to dead-head to work, after 3 volunteers were offered a free

ticket within the US & $800 (they claims) they were no more takers, the computer

picked his name, he advise them he had a surgery the next morning & would not

leave then 3 strongarm were brought aboard who proceed to drag this man by his

feet down the aisle, as passengers took pics

He should sue them out of the sky & will

 

They could have upped the offer as other airlines do & they would have a taker, cheaper 

than a lawsuit due to their incopetence

I agree it was ot good to be bumped after being seated. There are a couple of foot notes.

 

The police drug him off the plane, not united employees

The police dealt with him for some time in a reasonable manner before it escalated. It escalated when he resisted and started slapping the officers away.

It was a 4 hour drive. He could have rented a car and driven. Then again so could the crew.

Bad PR all the way around for United.

. 

[yuna628 9,873]

8 minutes ago, Nature Boy Flair said:

I agree it was ot good to be bumped after being seated. There are a couple of foot notes.

 

The police drug him off the plane, not united employees

The police dealt with him for some time in a reasonable manner before it escalated. It escalated when he resisted and started slapping the officers away.

It was a 4 hour drive. He could have rented a car and driven. Then again so could the crew.

Bad PR all the way around for United.

. 

How do you know the police dealt with him in a 'reasonable manner'? How did they respond? What did they say? Did they put their hands on him to provoke his alleged 'slapping'? This reminds me a lot of the training my husband had to receive to deal with difficult customers that would literally threaten to kill him and his family if he didn't do what they wanted. Do police not know how to do that any more? How do de-escalate a situation or how to deal with belligerent individuals?

 

And it all could have been avoided in the first place - not through the fault of the man - but by the airline.

[IAMX 3,055]

4 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

I had a buddy in college that used to live to get bumped.  I used to regularly pick him up from the airport as he came back from visiting his family out East and I always knew I would get a call about two hours before he was scheduled to arrive the first time to let me know he was coming in later or the next day.

 

Personally, I generally would not take a bump especially on an outbound flight as I usually need to be where I am going.  I might consider it on a homebound flight depending on the circumstances.

Shoot, after reading stuff like this on here and RFD, unless we need to be somewhere that's time-specific, I'll gladly take the free tickets and hotel stay. My gain.

[Dakine10 5,452]

20 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

This was an almost 70 year old man. I just keep coming back to that when I think of the disrespect and nature of his injuries. It's always easy to reflect and say surely the individual must be just some jerk and that the physical harm he suffered was somehow justified... it just isn't to me. The airlines just accuses him of being belligerent. Well of course he's going to be belligerent. He's an obstinate elderly gentleman that wants to get back to his hospital to help sick patients. He's being treated disrespectfully and may even feel singled out as to why he's being ejected from the plane compared to everyone else chosen. He paid for his ticket and it's not his fault the airline doesn't have enough room for their own staff. And what was the point of it all anyway? They put him back on the plane after assaulting him in the first place! Did they magically find a seat? http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/04/11/united-passenger-dragged-off-flight-id-d.htm

 

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/united-cites-wrong-rule-for-illegally-de-boarding-passenger/

 

   The second link is something I was wondering about yesterday. One of the issues is it doesn't actually seem to qualify as an overbooking scenario. The criteria for removing someone from a plane are different and there does not appear to be grounds for legitimate removal. One of the witness accounts also said the man who was removed was on the phone with his lawyer asking for advice, so perhaps he was aware that United's decision may have been incorrect and trying to determine what to do. 

[Dakine10 5,452]

  Aviation Attorney Questions United Passenger’s Forcible Removal

 

  LoRusso questions if United Airlines was within its legal right to ask flight 3411 passengers for their seats because standby crew should not have priority over paying customers.

“Were we really dealing with selling more tickets than we had seats? It doesn’t seem like that’s the case, at which point the overbooking protocol seems to be unwarranted,” LoRusso said.

[OriZ 3,165]

31 minutes ago, Nature Boy Flair said:

I agree it was ot good to be bumped after being seated. There are a couple of foot notes.

 

The police drug him off the plane, not united employees

The police dealt with him for some time in a reasonable manner before it escalated. It escalated when he resisted and started slapping the officers away.

It was a 4 hour drive. He could have rented a car and driven. Then again so could the crew.

Bad PR all the way around for United.

. 

I agree with the first 2 points. Regarding the third, if the crew needed to get there to fly a plane, from their perspective it is "do we inconvenience 4 people, or do we hold up a full plane for 4 hours". Obviously they will choose inconveniencing less people instead of having the other plane leave even later. However I do think they should have offered more money first.

[Teddy B 17,252]

2 minutes ago, OriZ said:

I agree with the first 2 points. Regarding the third, if the crew needed to get there to fly a plane, from their perspective it is "do we inconvenience 4 people, or do we hold up a full plane for 4 hours". Obviously they will choose inconveniencing less people instead of having the other plane leave even later. However I do think they should have offered more money first.

The 4 person crew should have flown in the cargo hold with the pets.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

Just now, Teddy B said:

The 4 person crew should have flown in the cargo hold with the pets.

Is that legal?

[Dakine10 5,452]

2 minutes ago, OriZ said:

I agree with the first 2 points. Regarding the third, if the crew needed to get there to fly a plane, from their perspective it is "do we inconvenience 4 people, or do we hold up a full plane for 4 hours". Obviously they will choose inconveniencing less people instead of having the other plane leave even later. However I do think they should have offered more money first.

 The flight to Louisville was delayed for 3 hours vs a 4 hour drive. I bet United is wishing right now that they rented a car and drove their flight crew to Louisville. 

[Dakine10 5,452]

2 minutes ago, Teddy B said:

The 4 person crew should have flown in the cargo hold with the pets.

  Apparently the 4 crew suffered quite a bit of verbal abuse on the flight. They may have preferred alternate arrangements. Unfortunate as it wasn't really their fault. 

[Teddy B 17,252]

3 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

Is that legal?

Who said anything about legal?

[Dakine10 5,452]

3 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

Is that legal?

  No.

[yuna628 9,873]

5 minutes ago, Transborderwife said:

Is that legal?

Well if airlines think it's safe to stick our poor pets in there, I'm sure it could work!