This event happened because each link in the chain of events was presided over by different people, each of whom probably felt uncomfortable but didn't feel they had the authority to break a rule to avoid the upcoming trainwreck (while hoping someone else would.) I don't think it had anything to do with capitalist overlords. In fact I would bet if there had been a high United executive present he would have stepped in to stop it. If the company is to blame it is because they want their employees to behave like automatons rather than exercise judgement (something that BP now proudly announces they no longer do, but only after losing several billion) And in this case at least, the same was true of the police.

Oh, they would settle alright. No way United wants this dragged through the courts. Also, not sure if they have the right to bump a passenger once he's actually seated on the plane. They must have known they were overbooked before the passengers boarded.

If the info about having to relocate crew members is correct, they weren't "overbooked". They just decided to throw some paying passengers off the plane for their operational convenience.

They probably lied to airport security about the details of this "overbooking".

All involved in the decision making process should be sacked.

Also as the CEO says

"Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this"

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

I would contend that the airline should lose its operating licence.

Maybe the fact that United calls in goons to beat the **** out of its own customers gave passengers second-thoughts about how much they value a United voucher.

This 100%

His posting ITT is some of the worst I've ever seen in this forum.

This is sort of the fundamental problem with the airline industry that leads to the systemic and ritual humiliation and dehumanization of its own customers. It's probably why you get to these scenarios where they end up beating the piss of out of people that give them money and keep them in business.

You hit the nail on the head: those vouchers are ****ty. They are proof that airlines fundamentally don't respect the people they serve and the vouchers are prima facie evidence of that. Literally ALL of their customers know it, which is why no one got off the plane in exchange for a garbage coupon but we all agree if a booking agent or flight attendant just flashed half of that in actual cash, they'd have probably got a dozen people to give up their seat.

That is, one big problem here is that everyone knows those vouchers are going to come with some onerous, annoying restrictions and be time-limited and is not nearly as valuable as actual cash. The whole practice of overbooking is obviously severely consumer unfriendly and the vouchers are glorified scams that consumers are naturally wary of. Only morons, the naive, and inexperienced travelers give up their seats to take them.

Obviously completely unnecessary and excessive force was used here, but we should not forget how utterly terrible airlines are and how the dehumanization of their customers extends back to earlier in the scenario. We shouldn't forget that subtly, probably minor but as someone who flies 30+ times a year is surely extent and contributed to this: part of the stress of the scenario is that everyone on that plane is deeply suspicious United is trying to **** them somehow and that their presence on the plane during an overbooked scenario was them beating the system. Just marvel that this is a business in a free market economy that conducts themselves this way, that a plane full of however many people (dozens? hundreds?) would not take a purported $800 in exchange for whatever, ~6 hours of their time. You know why? Because ain't no one buys for a moment that they're actually gonna get $800 of value out of the thing. They suspect they are being scammed.

Delta's system for this situation is just so much better and not at all hard to implement. Whenever you check in for a flight that's overbooked they ask you what $ travel voucher you'll accept to be delayed and then accept the offers of the lowest respondents. Everyone leaves (or waits a few hours in the airport) happy, and nobody gets bloody!

I guess it doesn't work when you already board the plane and then decide a few of your employees should take priority over paying costumers though.

was it full refund plus garbage voucher or just garbage voucher?

Maybe if lol airlines weren't scumbags such that the $800 voucher is only available for class F domestic coach fares with flight numbers ending in 7 on odd days of even numbered months, things would go better.

That is awful.

The one time a situation like this has affected me British Airways offered around £250 cash plus a room in a hotel.

should have kept the plane on the ground eventually people have to go to the bathroom and with the plane toilets closed they gotta get off the plane. problem solved

Amazingly, this won't even hurt United. Everyone assumes the other airlines are just as bad. And they're probably right!

This was my attitude for the longest time. But there are better airlines. No airline is going to be perfect, but sure as **** you can reduce the number of ****ty experiences you have.



United obviously ****ed up, but let's assume they stick to their guns and want the passenger off. What's the reasonable escalation here for the police? Is it do nothing? Is it wait longer before resorting to force? Is it tell United to kiss their ass and that this is their problem?

At the end of the day United was in the legal right to be a ****ty company and treat their passengers like this. I don't even know what I think the police should have done given that.

https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/s...02942037819392

Just garbage voucher.

It's possible to physically remove someone without bloodying their face. When there are 2+ guards it's pretty easy.

The negative PR for them has to be worth around the hundreds of thousands. The story is everywhere and its got multiple threads on the first page of reddit, its gone about as viral as it could have at the moment I doubt their brand will recover from this.

If they had paid someone 20k to get of the plane at the time it would have been a bargain for them if you compare it to how big a hit their brand has taken at the moment. Someone surely would have snap accepted like 1.5k though?

That poor dude should have just gotten off the plane though there is not way I would be getting dragged off the plane like a toddler if my name had been called, would rather have left with my dignity intact.

Although to be fair he is a doctor and was apparently worried about his patients. He is going to get a **** ton in compensation as well so prob worked out ok for him.

The police's job is to enforce the law, which in this case means removing the passenger. The only thing up for debate is whether they could've done it more peacefully

He 'fell' eh

Again, someone would have accepted 500 dollars. They never offered anyone a dime!

I thought he looked familiar. A lot of us have probably played poker with him at some point, he's played quite a bit over the last ten years.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=78128

He's a 69 year old Vietnamese-American pulmonologist.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-revealed.html

On the darker side, he was accused of selling scripts for sex around 12 years ago.

http://www.wave3.com/story/4301599/e...8-drug-charges

Which is why I think you shouldn't discount microbet's "decent human being" heuristic of how to operate a business here.

The police brutality put on display is absolutely a critical story people should talk about.

The second most important story is how dumb and unscrupulously airlines treat their customers. As we've all noted, swap out "a voucher" for "actual cash" and $800 for like, ****ing $200. Maybe $400 max. And I'm sure dozens of people would have snap accepted and walked off the plane. And United doesn't have this problem at all and it's not a story.

The unremarked on story here is how airlines **** their customers with by overbooking -- in this case an entirely self-serving overbooking -- and their restitution and offers for recompense for their bad business practice are garbagey vouchers that all the players in the market know are ~worthless. You solve the whole problem by treating your customers like actual people and giving them things of value they actually want to solve the problem you created: money. Just give them money.

That makes it so much worse. 'We're sorry, service X is no longer available, here is a full refund and a little something for your inconvenience' sounds like something a business might say. But you ****ed up and you want to profit off of it at the customers expense? Lol indeed.

Someone else noted that this never would have happened on delta. They do an auction at check in, commiting people to a voucher amount that they'll accept. It's such a stupidly easy thing to do that united's incompetence is kind of shocking