Ready for my next United Airlines Flight

[A-Jay]

 

What the heck !

A-Jay

[Angry John]

You only need that if your a doctor 

[Gundog]

That won't stop them AJ. But you will get some free peanuts. 

[Glenn]

I fly - A LOT - and long ago learned to never fly United or American.  Those always rank at or near the bottom of every airline quality poll every time. From poor on-time records to terrible customer service, to lost baggage, they are the worst.

 

That said, ALL airlines overbook their flights.  A practice I feel should be severely limited/regulated or eliminated altogether.  Never heard of any other industry getting away with that practice.  Could you image setting an appointment with your doctor or dentist, or getting a reservation at a restaurant for a special occasion, only to be told, "Oh, we overbooked you and need you to reschedule." ??

 

Why airlines continue to get away with this practice is beyond me.

[BrianinMD]

 

[Bankbeater]

Well at least they weren't in the air yet.

[Darren.]

9 hours ago, Glenn said:

I fly - A LOT - and long ago learned to never fly United or American.  Those always rank at or near the bottom of every airline quality poll every time. From poor on-time records to terrible customer service, to lost baggage, they are the worst.

 

That said, ALL airlines overbook their flights.  A practice I feel should be severely limited/regulated or eliminated altogether.  Never heard of any other industry getting away with that practice.  Could you image setting an appointment with your doctor or dentist, or getting a reservation at a restaurant for a special occasion, only to be told, "Oh, we overbooked you and need you to reschedule." ??

 

Why airlines continue to get away with this practice is beyond me.

 

Agree, but believe it or not, on the doctor thing, around

here, doctor offices actually DID overbook in the late 90s

and early 2000s. We know a now-retired MD, family friend,

and until they got modernized, they double-booked and

sometimes it took two hours to get in. Have to understand

the area to see why it was the case. Transient, high military

concentration, appointments got cancelled, no shows, etc.

Thus double-booking...

 

When we moved down here it was unreal. But things are

100% better now, thanks to modern efficiencies.

 

 

[K_Mac]

I completely agree that overbooking is a bad practice and should be stopped. With that said, if my number comes up I will leave the plane and then do everything I can to make it a very expensive decision by the airline.

 

Refusing to leave the plane is not an acceptable option. Every airline has the right to do it based on our agreeing to it as part of the ticket purchase. I have no sympathy for the good doctor. He isn't any more important than anyone else. He created the situation and got what he deserved in my opinion. 

[A-Jay]

3 minutes ago, K_Mac said:

I completely agree that overbooking is a bad practice and should be stopped. With that said, if my number comes up I will leave the plane and then do everything I can to make it a very expensive decision by the airline.

 

Refusing to leave the plane is not an acceptable option. Every airline has the right to do it based on our agreeing to it as part of the ticket purchase. I have no sympathy for the good doctor. He isn't any more important than anyone else. He created the situation and got what he deserved in my opinion. 

 

I can agree with this. 

Overbooking is common practice & mostly common knowledge.  Most anyone who has traveled perhaps even only a few times has probably see or heard of this.  I know people who actually 'hope' for this on every flight they take (the $$ not the beating) as they like the idea of getting a flight (and often times a room overnight) on the airline's dime.

 And so it all comes down to choices we make - even today in this, our 'most modern society, there is still an authority in place to 'protect it' and to ensure that individuals (and group) are conducting themselves in a manner that has been determined by the majority, as acceptable.  When the choice is made to step beyond that, there are rules & people in place to address that.  This seems like that to me.     

 Everyone may not agree on how this is completed, but I didn't see anyone jumping up and offering to take his place.  They were content to capture it on their phones and be glad it wasn't them.  

 Lesson learned here may be 5 year old boy-like defiance might not be the best plan in the adult word. 

This individual's decision turned a inconvenience into something else - next level.

A-Jay

[Ratherbfishing]

Perhaps it's carma. More than ONCE have I sat in a doctor's waiting area long after my scheduled appointment time.

[K_Mac]

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Lesson learned here may be 5 year old boy-like defiance might not be the best plan in the adult word. 

This individual's decision turned a inconvenience into something else - next level.

 

Amen!

While there are times when an adult has the God given right (and even the responsibility) to be willfully disobedient in my opinion, this wasn't a stand for civil rights or social injustice. It was the behavior of a petulant child.

 

The argument can be made that the doctors behavior serves to draw attention to the problem. He would still have had plenty of attention and airtime if he had made security show up and then walked off the plane. 

[Gundog]

Smell that! Smells like a lawsuit. 

 

[J Francho]

3 hours ago, K_Mac said:

Refusing to leave the plane is not an acceptable option.

 

Seasoned travelers know that this is how you get the airline to up it's payoff for the seat.  You refuse their offer, until they make an their top offer.  Something is completely off in this particular scenario - even the airline said so.  Why it escalated so quickly isn't quite known.  The airline should have offered more money.  Heck, a woman that writes for the travel industry was offered $11,000 for her and her family leave a flight.

[Senko lover]

I fail to understand why the guy threw a hissy fit about it - he's a grown man, and patients or no patients, he should have accepted the situation as part of flying.

 

That said, the way they handled the whole thing was totally unprofessional.

[Choporoz]

3 minutes ago, Senko lover said:

I fail to understand why the guy threw a hissy fit about it - he's a grown man, and patients or no patients, he should have accepted the situation as part of flying.

 

I'm going to go with: 'No patience'  

[J Francho]

Usually an offer is extended to anyone willing to volunteer.  The $$ amount goes up, until there is a taker, or their maximum amount is reached.  Then it's a random draw.  That's not how this went down.  United has always been the pits.  This just confirms it.  I haven't had to fly in YEARS.  If after the TSA pat downs, baggage searches, screening, check-ins and finally getting to my seat, I'd be pretty upset if all they offered was $400 for the seat.  Imagine, you're seated at a table after a 20 minute wait, you've ordered your food.  It's delivered to your table, and as you're about to sink your teeth into a juicy steak.  Then the manager grabs thew food, and tells you to leave, because an employee needs to eat.  You resist, the guy grabs you, and attempts to forcibly remove you from your seat.  Somebody slips, you smash your face on the corner of the table, knocking you out momentarily, while you are dragged out of the restaurant. Am I missing something?  How is that any different?  If I have a restaurant, I can refuse service to anyone, as long as it isn't discrimination (even then, I'm not sure, though it's nasty PR issue).  There's no contract that says I can't throw you out.  I think anyone blaming the old man for his injuries has lost sight of dignity and rights we supposed to have in this country.  Violence was the wrong call here, especially so quickly.

[Choporoz]

Not sure how far the legal definitions and protections go, but in my mind flight attendants have a LOT more authority in an airplane cabin than a restaurant manager does in his place of business.  I respect the position even when I disagree with their decisions.

 

Reporting is early and fake news is rampant, but it would appear that the poor doctor is first class loser with a history of very poor decisions that ignore the 'dignity and rights' of others

[Angry John]

He should have paid for first class if he was so worried about making the flight.  Never seen a first class passenger have to deal with these types of issues.  Someone prove me wrong.  Rich privilege....

[J Francho]

I've never known anyone that actually paid for a first class ticket.  The one time I was upgraded to it, so were all the others in there, lol.

13 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Reporting is early and fake news is rampant, but it would appear that the poor doctor is first class loser with a history of very poor decisions that ignore the 'dignity and rights' of others

 

Damage control, from the airline themselves.

[Jar11591]

A couple months ago, while returning from a bassing trip to Mexico, we had 2 days of travel on the way home. I was so exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. If an airline employee told me that I needed to get off the flight to make room for OTHER AIRLINE EMPLOYEES, or whomever, I would have made a scene just like that. Especially since plane tickets are hundreds of dollars, and I've yet to meet a traveler who wasnt traveling for a reason on those specific dates. So would United Airlines cover my shift at work that I would miss? Doubt it. Would they call my boss and explain why I wasn't at work? Doubt that too. The thought of treating any paying customers that way is utterly astounding.

 

It's easy to bash this guy without knowing his situation, or why he felt he needed to get home so badly. 

[deaknh03]

Yes flights get overbooked, yes airlines offer money and rebates for passengers to leave, no they shouldn't drag and bloody anyone refusing to go. There was a better way to do this. I have a feeling that the money he will get in his lawsuit is far more than the amount it would have taken to get him off the plane.

[A-Jay]

36 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

A couple months ago, while returning from a bassing trip to Mexico, we had 2 days of travel on the way home. I was so exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. If an airline employee told me that I needed to get off the flight to make room for OTHER AIRLINE EMPLOYEES, or whomever, I would have made a scene just like that. Especially since plane tickets are hundreds of dollars, and I've yet to meet a traveler who wasnt traveling for a reason on those specific dates. So would United Airlines cover my shift at work that I would miss? Doubt it. Would they call my boss and explain why I wasn't at work? Doubt that too. The thought of treating any paying customers that way is utterly astounding.

 

It's easy to bash this guy without knowing his situation, or why he felt he needed to get home so badly. 

 

I can sympathize, but one way or another, there is a distinct possibility that you still would have ended up off that plane - how that goes is up to you.   Everyone understands that travel, especially air travel, can be dependent on so many things out of ones control, that there is always a decent chance there could be delays.  And if my particular employment situation was so precarious that if I was a day late getting to work, I would lose my job, it would make sense for me to build that into my travel plans - especially as fluid as they can be these days. That is how I assume responsibility for me & maybe some control otherwise the airline hold all the cards.   Clearly not condoning the bloodshed, but I'm comfortable assigning equal blame to both parties.

  I've got some air travel ahead of me in the not to distant future, while I'm not flying United or American airlines, I will still expect to arrive on time on the date(s) I expect.  And I might even complain if somehow this doesn't happen. 

But rest assured, I'm not taking one for team . . . . .

A-Jay

[Jar11591]

3 hours ago, Senko lover said:

I fail to understand why the guy threw a hissy fit about it. 

 

Maybe he had a shift to work, or maybe he wanted to go home. Maybe he had a graduation or wedding to get to. Maybe he just felt like going home because he paid money for a plane ticket. We have no idea why he needed to get home. It could be for any number of reasons. The fact that overbooking is a legal and common practice doesn't make it right or acceptable. In any other industry, the business would eat the cost of the no shows. 

8 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

 

I can sympathize, but one way or another, there is a distinct possibility that you still would have ended up off that plane - how that goes is up to you.   Everyone understands that travel, especially air travel, can be dependent on so many things out of ones control, that there is always a decent chance there could be delays.  And if my particular employment situation was so precarious that if I was a day late getting to work, I would lose my job, it would make sense for me to build that into my travel plans - especially as fluid as they can be these days. That is how I assume responsibility for me & maybe some control otherwise the airline hold all the cards.   Clearly not condoning the bloodshed, but I'm comfortable assigning equal blame to both parties.

  I've got some air travel ahead of me in the not to distant future, while I'm not flying United or American airlines, I will still expect to arrive on time on the date(s) I expect.  And I might even complain if somehow this doesn't happen. 

But rest assured, I'm not taking one for team . . . . .

A-Jay

 

I think the larger issue is that this practice of overbooking should never be allowed. If it wasn't, this situation would have never occurred. It's ridiculous that billion dollar airline industries will force paying customers to change their travel plans, financial plans and work plans just so they don't have to potentially eat the cost of a no-show coach ticket. I can't think of any other industry where this is allowed or accepted. Of course this is all made worse by the fact that they only had to "re-accommodate" this guy to make room for their employees. 

[A-Jay]

6 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

 

Maybe he had a shift to work, or maybe he wanted to go home. Maybe he had a graduation or wedding to get to. Maybe he just felt like going home because he paid money for a plane ticket. We have no idea why he needed to get home. It could be for any number of reasons. The fact that overbooking is a legal and common practice doesn't make it right or acceptable. In any other industry, the business would eat the cost of the no shows. 

 

I think the larger issue is that this practice of overbooking should never be allowed. If it wasn't, this situation would have never occurred. It's ridiculous that billion dollar airline industries will force paying customers to change their travel plans, financial plans and work plans just so they don't have to potentially eat the cost of a no-show coach ticket. I can't of any other industry where this is allowed or accepted. 

I'd agree that the overbooking practice is counterproductive and it wouldn't hurt my feeling to see it eliminated - although I'm betting there would be a rate hike to compensate for it .   However, if the ticket is paid for in advance, why does it matter if the seat is empty or not ?  The airlines still get paid.    Is Overbooking a way to get extra $$ by playing the odds that a certain % of humans will not make it anyway ?   So are the airlines getting above 100% capacity on most all flights ?

A-Jay

[Jar11591]

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

 However, if the ticket is paid for in advance, why does it matter if the seat is empty or not ?  The airlines still get paid.    Is Overbooking a way to get extra $$ by playing the odds that a certain % of humans will not make it anyway ?   So are the airlines getting above 100% capacity on most all flights ?

A-Jay

 

 

Perfect point. The ticket is paid for regardless if the person shows up to sit in their seat. So I guess the airlines wouldn't even be eating the cost of a no-show, because that cost has already paid. So the airlines are making money on more tickets than there are seats, while simultaneously changing life plans of their customers. This is another practice that seems to be only accepted in the airline industry.