United Airlines – Overbooked flight…

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 121 total)

  • Swissdiver
    Participant

    Useless to say I agree with all your comments. What I don’t get is why Munoz is standing by so closely, exposing himself.


    stevescoots
    Participant

    I would sue the pants off them. unfortunatly anything to do with flying in the US now is a licence to be treat like something scraped off your shoe by everyone involved


    PhilipHart
    Participant

    Here’s The Atlantic’s take on it – The Deeper Scandal of That Brutal United Video.

    Of course United has past form on treating PAX and their possessions with disregard. One guy even made a music video – United Breaks Guitars – detailing his experience. It has had nearly 17M views. Who says that there is no such thing as bad publicity!


    Ah,Mr.Bond
    Participant

    I am sure anyone would become “disruptive” if asked to leave for no reason whatsoever. That being the case, I hope this doctor takes UA to the cleaners for millions.

    Simon Calder seems to think this is OK behaviour as well as the UA CEO!!…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39563570

    “Can an airline really treat passengers like this? – by Simon Calder, travel correspondent for the Independent

    Yes. The captain is in charge of the aircraft. And if he or she decides that someone needs to be offloaded, that command has to be obeyed. From the moment that the unfortunate individual in this case said, “I’m staying put”, he became a disruptive passenger.

    From that moment he was disobeying the captain’s command. Officials were legally entitled to remove him, and as the videos show, he was dragged from the plane.”


    JohnHarper
    Participant

    This is shocking. I don’t travel to the US but if I did it would never again be on United.

    That their CEO is defending this situation based on their own overbooking and their desire to prioritse their crew tells me it’s not a company I want to do business with. Given that the gentleman had paid for his ticket and was in his seat United should have found another solution.

    Surely they knew before boarding that this situation was occuring and could have stopped it at the gate. If they did not know that then should they be operating an airline?


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=801616]I am sure anyone would become “disruptive” if asked to leave for no reason whatsoever. That being the case, I hope this doctor takes UA to the cleaners for millions.

    Simon Calder seems to think this is OK behaviour as well as the UA CEO!!…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39563570

    “Can an airline really treat passengers like this? – by Simon Calder, travel correspondent for the Independent

    Yes. The captain is in charge of the aircraft. And if he or she decides that someone needs to be offloaded, that command has to be obeyed. From the moment that the unfortunate individual in this case said, “I’m staying put”, he became a disruptive passenger.

    From that moment he was disobeying the captain’s command. Officials were legally entitled to remove him, and as the videos show, he was dragged from the plane.”

    [/quote]

    Calder thinks he understands the law, but does not. With the doors shut and particularly in the air, the captain has a great deal of authority, but on the ground, with doors open, the situation is not the same.

    I think this case will end up with a major out of court settlement and could lead to change in the way US airlines do things.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    @stevecoots – “unfortunately anything to do with flying in the US now is a licence to be treat like something scraped off your shoe by everyone involved”

    Steve, never a truer word said & this thread is just one example. On my flight to the USA yesterday, I witnessed a senior cabin crew member (an American airline) threatening a passenger mid flight, that on ANY other western (and non US airline) would probably have resulted in the Captain being called to intervene. Truly truly shocking & not all these incidents are in the name of “security”…


    peter19
    Participant

    How did it even get to the stage it managed to..

    Check in staff
    Gate Staff
    Cabin Crew
    Captain
    Police
    being dragged off the plane..

    Even if all passengers had boarded I presume a call could have gone out to offer passengers some sort of compensation for off boarding..I imagine somebody would have put up their hand if it was enough cash!

    I have not read all the articles or facts but how did this passenger get picked? Was anything anything else done before the stage of forced removal to prevent the situation? It all seems far too out of hand..


    travelworld
    Participant

    Apparently the flight was full but they needed to get four airline staff on it as well, presumably for a flight the following day. No one volunteered to give up their seat for them “so a computer selected passengers at random”. Surprised they had a software package that could do that…


    Edski777
    Participant

    Apparently United Express used a method where they exclude unaccompanied minors and families (quoted from a statement made by United spokesman). I suspect that they will also exclude high mileage frequent fliers and those sitting in a premium cabin.
    That leaves any single traveller or pair, depending on the number of “volunteers” required, in economy open to being picked to be offloaded. It just requires going through the list of passengers and their status, no complicated piece of software required.

    Overbooking and trying to entice passengers to give up their seat in exchange for vouchers and a guaranteed seat on the next flight seems to be more common in the USA than in Europe, although it happens.
    I trust this passenger will sue United for the behavior of its personnel. Interesting to see how this develops. It may change the business practice in the USA on overbooking.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    What is making this more newsworthy than normal is the fact this passenger was NOT denied boarding. He was legitimately boarded but then forcibly ejected…


    rferguson
    Participant

    Not that i’d ever want to contradict the expert Simon Calder but what he said about Captains authority is not explicitly correct (well not in europe anyway).

    The Captain has command overall of the aircraft and its passemhers and crew once the door is closed and the aircraft is under its own power. Whilst parked on stand and door open law of the land still applies.


    drflight
    Participant

    IATA have published guidelines for Unruly Passenger Prevention and Management which can be read here:

    http://www.iata.org/policy/Documents/2015-Guidance-on-Unruly-Passenger-Prevention-and-Management.pdf

    And just when you thought flying to/from/within America could not get any more stressful, potential flyers should note the new TSA security ‘pat downs’ are now even more intimate. So much so the TSA has warned local police authorities to expect more complaints from passengers:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-06/tsa-warns-local-police-about-its-new-airport-pat-downs

    I believe airlines seriously underestimate how stressed out many of their passengers are before they’ve even reached the aircraft. Now it is clear even once inside the aircraft and seated there is still no guarantee you will actually be flown or reach your destination. Did the Captain and crew just stand by and watch all this unmoved?


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    I agree on the stress point.

    I’ve said before that when I see the state of some people at the airport I wonder why they bother flying to go on holiday at all.

    As for business travellers, the reactions they have in the cabin (and in the lounges) makes me think they must be under a lot of pressure.

    I know many of us enjoy travelling, but if you are stressed about a meeting, then that stress is likely to go up a notch if the meeting is not in your home city but a 2/3 hour flight away and it’s an early start or a tight connection.

    None of which excuses any of what happened in that video, of course.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=801654]Not that i’d ever want to contradict the expert Simon Calder but what he said about Captains authority is not explicitly correct (well not in europe anyway).

    The Captain has command overall of the aircraft and its passemhers and crew once the door is closed and the aircraft is under its own power. Whilst parked on stand and door open law of the land still applies.

    [/quote]

    Calder is not an expert, RF, you know more than he does about this…… and you’re right.

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