Was it definitely free cash or vouchers for flights. The last time I flew (and will ever voluntarily fly) American, they offered like $600 each to stay an extra night, but it was in flight vouchers that had to be redeemed in the next 6 months. So really not worth a whole lot.

Howard,

They always try to get people to volunteer. Only when they hit the max threshold they are required to pay for involuntary bumping do they select a passenger to bump. At that point, what do you suggest they do when that person refuses to leave the plane? Just sit there forever til he changes his mind or someone volunteers?

I agree with Howard overall.

I think while what they did can definitely be argued as pretty reasonable, the fact it was due to 4 United employees having priority over passengers, and that they didn't continually escalate the reward and instead moved to police action both seem quite bad for a company that is so directly tied to customer service.

mullen,

They always have the right to bump you from a flight, they just need to compensate you per these rules:

https://www.transportation.gov/airco...ts#Overbooking

I think an auction would be a great solution. $800, $850, $900, etc until you get a volunteer.

if he needed to be on the flight so bad he should have paid another passenger to leave

[/economist]

Even if they legally have the right to, it's an idiotic PR move by the company. Increasing the compensation incrementally would've cost them maybe $1,000-$2,000 at the absolute most. This incident will cost them a lot more.

for more hot economist takes, see: https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/...e-video-is-wow

On the bright side, they didn't replace the Asian guy with a white guy once the cameras started rolling!

Larry,

Voluntary compensation they always start by offering vouchers, then go up from there to also include upgrade on your rescheduled flight, cash instead of vouchers, etc.

They always try really hard not to end up at involuntary bumping because it costs them the most $$$ and looks bad on their stats.

I've seen that happen many times.

mullen,

This situation comes up a lot. ~500k voluntary bumps, ~50k involuntary bumps in US annually. That is just overbooking - weather and mechanical don't count.

Maybe you disagree with the 4x or $1350 cap. OK, so make it $2000, $3000, whatever. But at some point you need a policy that lets you get the flight off the ground when overbooked. Or change the law so overbooking is illegal, which would result in higher airfares for everyone.

Now, they were probably idiotic about not planning correctly for that crew transport. As I've said, United sucks and that type of oversight wouldn't surprise me at all. But when you are the unlucky one in that situation, it's not reasonable to just refuse to go IMO.

El D,
What makes this situation different to me is that dude was already boarded. I've never seen this situation of, "sorry everyone that's already on the plane, some of you need to get off". That seems quite different from involuntary bumps that happen before boarding.

It's reasonable to object. It's not reasonable to actually refuse because you're just never winning that battle.

That all makes sense and is reasonable.

I do think him being a doctor and being specifically concerned for his patients brings a fold into the situation. I think I would be very sympathetic to arguments that ethically it was completely reasonable for him to refuse and attempt to force a different passenger to get off the plane. Certainly, I would have a hard time arguing that missing a few meetings about sales related things would have a greater impact than a doctor missing patients that he clearly believes he needs to see.

Along that same grain, I think it won't get much play, but other passengers not volunteering to take his place after he announces he is a doctor with an obligation to his patients on the next day is probably just as bad on the ethical scale as the way United acted in forcing him off.

Sorry. Being a doc doesn't buy you a pass here.

Being forcibly removed is horrible on several levels though. I agree with the bid until you find a taker option--that is the price you pay for being greedy by overbooking. Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose. Pay up and get them damn wheels up!

I suspect that the costs to United from dragging this guy off the plane massively exceed what it would have cost the airline to continue to bump the comp until someone took it. I think hat's especially true of the captain announces that they're only going to bump comp every fifteen minutes, which forces everyone to wait and raises everyone's cost. I believe the threshold is statutory, but so what?

lol, so what did they do, flip a coin? or did they just go straight for the first non-white they thought they could abuse?

**** united. they should have boarder their stupid ass employees first...or learned to COUNT.

At some limit, I agree. But as a practical matter, that seems unrealistic. I would imagine the airline would get a volunteer 100 per cent of the time once the price reached 5k or so.

That's a strange situation in which every passenger within earshot thinks someone else will volunteer. There's no realistic way for others to rank their preferences against one another, even though we all likely agree that the doctor is the last guy we'd pick if given a choice.

The doctor is kind of a tool, too. He's unreasonable to not get off when he was randomly picked.

Why don't they just make the whole plane out of seats

Howard,

It doesn't work like that. You have specific takeoff windows during which you can depart. It's not like a flight scheduled for 3pm can just chill out til they're all set at 5pm and then say "ok airport, we're gonna take off now."

LOL, what are you smoking? Nobody there thought anyone else was gonna volunteer.

Thin,

Assuming it hasn't changed recently, the bump algorithm kicks out a non frequent flyer with a low fare ticket.

*slow clap*

The laundry is weighed then bagged. We then use "house quarters" to do the laundry and put baskets in front of the machines that are in "house use". They are then folded and shrunk wrapped and into a fresh bag.

We rarely screw up but definitely have. You should never end up with a random sock or a missing sock.

You are more likely to end up with a 20lb bag of bath towels instead of your 20lbs of clothes.

That generally happens because two bags weigh the same and someone ****ed up the tickets. Most likely the owner trying to help.

To answer your question, no it should not be standard but mistakes do happen.

I regularly end up with a random sock, missing sock, or a missing article of clothing and I live alone and only my laundry gets done in the machine.

Given that, it seems pretty likely that in a giant room full of laundry you'd regularly lose something or get something that doesn't belong to you.