United Airlines: Passenger violently removed due to overbooking

[adzii_nufc]

Morally I don't agree, I think it's a silly practice. I just term everything based on their official contracts so as to not confuse what's legal and illegal. It's a shoddy practice that they can get away with 99% of the time by offering incentives which legally they have to do, but it doesn't bother them because they've already made bank. This is the 1% where the thugs they've called have made a pigs arse of it and now they look like idiots too.

All of UA’s flights are subject to overbooking which could result in UA’s inability to provide previously confirmed reserved space for a given flight or for the class of service reserved. In that event, UA’s obligation to the Passenger is governed by Rule 25.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...iage.aspx#sec5
Section 5G

If people stand for it the majority of time, UA couldn't give a toss. We don't oversell football stadiums because we can.

Originally Posted by pip08456

So you agree that if you've paid for a seat you should then give it up? To me it matters not the reason, it's paid for and should be available. There is no excuse for overbooking except to make the company more money.

Don't forget UA would have been paid for the seat, if the person didn't turn up on time then they have a genuine reason to sell it on but to deliberately overbook in the beginning is wrong IMHO.

It's a weird system but it is purely there to make as little amount of loss as possible. I was first aware of it years ago and all Airlines do it I guess. I was sat in the departure lounge at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas waiting to board a Virgin Atlantic flight, their boarding team then offered upgraded flights and another nights stay at 5 star hotel to give up their seats.

[Stephen]

I flew Untied to the USA last month and would not fly them again, even before this.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by adzii_nufc

Morally I don't agree, I think it's a silly practice. I just term everything based on their official contracts so as to not confuse what's legal and illegal. It's a shoddy practice that they can get away with 99% of the time by offering incentives which legally they have to do, but it doesn't bother them because they've already made bank. This is the 1% where the thugs they've called have made a pigs arse of it and now they look like idiots too.



https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...iage.aspx#sec5
Section 5G

If people stand for it the majority of time, UA couldn't give a toss. We don't oversell football stadiums because we can.

Looks like they broke their own rules.

Rule 25 paragraph 2.

Boarding Priorities - If a flight is Oversold, no one may be denied boarding against his/her will until UA or other carrier personnel first ask for volunteers who will give up their reservations willingly in exchange for compensation as determined by UA. If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority:

The passenger had clearly boarded.

Just thought this is not technically an over booking. The seats needed were for United Staff.

I'm wondering though how 4 United Airlines staff were needed more than a Doctor.

.... or why the United staff could not just be transferred to another plane.

[1andrew1]

The twist in this sad tale is that investors seem to like the company's approach!

Financial Times Traders responded to the brutality and miserliness of United by bidding up United’s share price against the broader market index, and especially against direct competitor Delta Airlines. Pundits might think the episode was a public relations disaster — and obviously the cruelty towards this passenger was unconscionable — but investors seem impressed by the sadistic commitment to cost control.

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/04/...iency-targets/ or Google "Traders appreciate United Airlines’s commitment to “cost efficiency targets”"

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The twist in this sad tale is that investors seem to like the company's approach!

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/04/...iency-targets/ or Google "Traders appreciate United Airlines’s commitment to “cost efficiency targets”"

In yet another twist he apparently fell causing his injuries. He should sue and I'm sure there will be law firms begging him to do so.

Link

[adzii_nufc]

So we can confirm it was Police and not private security. Just another ordinary example of Police brutality. It's alright, he fell though, then he slid down the aisle. It's a good thing he slid down the aisle on his back then, if it was exposed they might have shot him.

Obviously going off multiple sources and included in that link

At one point, the cops dropped him, he hit his head on an arm rest

This is actually what happened according to witnesses. Don't stop there though, you can see exactly that in the video, they pull him over the first armrest and he gets dragged face first into the next one.

So back to the earlier. UA should compensate him for the absolute embarrassment of all of this which I'm sure they're going to do along with a statement distancing themselves from the model police officers. Noting had they not insisted their staff board the plane, none of this would've happened.

He should sue regarding the Police issue, all three should be instantly suspended pending assault investigations, people have pointed out elsewhere that he and his lawyer are likely trying to get both in court at the same time on the same lawsuit. Noting that this could've been avoided had UA either upped their offer or just you know like Paul said, made other arrangements for their staff. This might make headway into absolutely stopping airlines forcibly removing people from planes, as earlier, that happens all the time, mostly without a fracas like this one, but it's still bs in all cases.


Again from the above article:

[img][/img]

They're setting up to literally deny the entire thing despite a video showing they're complete liars. What a broken system they have.
Also, he re-appeared 10 minutes later? They dragged him off and then just walked off? or what? Top blokes these lot, real professionals.

Whilst we're at it, we can use technicalities like the flight not actually being oversold at all, I wonder if there's anything in their bs contracts that protects UA from removing people for their own staff.

Witness account:

I was on this flight and want to add a few things to give some extra context. This was extremely hard to watch and children were crying during and after the event.

When the manager came on the plane to start telling people to get off someone said they would take another flight (the next day at 2:55 in the afternoon) for $1600 and she laughed in their face.

The security part is accurate, but what you did not see is that after this initial incident they lost the man in the terminal. He ran back on to the plane covered in blood shaking and saying that he had to get home over and over. I wonder if he did not have a concussion at this point. They then kicked everybody off the plane to get him off a second time and clean the blood out of the plane. This took over an hour.

All in all the incident took about two and a half hours. The united employees who were on the plane to bump the gentleman were two hostesses and two pilots of some sort.

This was very poorly handled by United and I will definitely never be flying with them again.

So not only did they assault a 69 year old man, they then lost him, these guys are the real deal, Chicago's finest.

Turns out he was indeed suspended: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...icer-suspended

So let me get this straight, I pay for a ticket, board my plane, take my seat and I am being told I have to get off to let on their staff instead and they expect me not to become irate?

They are out of their frigging minds! What's worse is, before this video went viral, United Airlines attempted to justify their actions.

I know it's not really a laughing matter, but seen lots of sarky comments that when it comes to the demonstration of putting on life jacket and emergency doors, on United flights, customers should be requesting one to defend against being assaulted and dragged off in the event of over booking.

Other passing comment that should hold true, 'They won't have a problem with over booking now at United Airlines.'

From the sounds of it, they were a mediocre Airline to begin with. But talk about completely sinking a brand over night.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by adzii_nufc

So not only did they assault a 69 year old man, they then lost him, these guys are the real deal, Chicago's finest.

Turns out he was indeed suspended: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...icer-suspended

Not only that but they didn't take him to hospital the first time but must have done so when they got him off the second time.

Muppets!

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Mick

Just thought this is not technically an over booking. The seats needed were for United Staff.

I'm wondering though how 4 United Airlines staff were needed more than a Doctor.

At a guess they might say other planes couldn't take of without those four staff and it'd inconvenience thousands of people rather than the four they boot of. Might be interesting to know exactly where the four were needed and why they weren't already there and was there an alternative like driving them there.

Originally Posted by adzii_nufc

So we can confirm it was Police and not private security. Just another ordinary example of Police brutality. It's alright, he fell though, then he slid down the aisle. It's a good thing he slid down the aisle on his back then, if it was exposed they might have shot him.

Obviously going off multiple sources and included in that link

This is actually what happened according to witnesses. Don't stop there though, you can see exactly that in the video, they pull him over the first armrest and he gets dragged face first into the next one.

So back to the earlier. UA should compensate him for the absolute embarrassment of all of this which I'm sure they're going to do along with a statement distancing themselves from the model police officers. Noting had they not insisted their staff board the plane, none of this would've happened.

He should sue regarding the Police issue, all three should be instantly suspended pending assault investigations, people have pointed out elsewhere that he and his lawyer are likely trying to get both in court at the same time on the same lawsuit. Noting that this could've been avoided had UA either upped their offer or just you know like Paul said, made other arrangements for their staff. This might make headway into absolutely stopping airlines forcibly removing people from planes, as earlier, that happens all the time, mostly without a fracas like this one, but it's still bs in all cases.


Again from the above article:

[img][/img]

They're setting up to literally deny the entire thing despite a video showing they're complete liars. What a broken system they have.
Also, he re-appeared 10 minutes later? They dragged him off and then just walked off? or what? Top blokes these lot, real professionals.

Whilst we're at it, we can use technicalities like the flight not actually being oversold at all, I wonder if there's anything in their bs contracts that protects UA from removing people for their own staff.

Witness account:



So not only did they assault a 69 year old man, they then lost him, these guys are the real deal, Chicago's finest.

Turns out he was indeed suspended: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...icer-suspended

Wonder if the manager is still laughing, $1600 seems cheap at twice the price considering the bad publicly, cancellations and law suits this is bound to cause.

United Airlines are digging their own grave. Apparently CEO has sent following internal email to their employees.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RyanRuggi...77150117425154

[denphone]

l just saw it again this morning on the news and its utterly indefensible and it won't be long before he goes either especially given the latest revelations..

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Mick

United Airlines are digging their own grave. Apparently CEO has sent following internal email to their employees.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RyanRuggi...77150117425154

If only he'd spent the time replying to your email rather than drafting that the situation wouldn't have escalated from catastrophic to horrific, send another Mick, we'll all sign it!