Originally Posted by
edcho
I would think that this presents other issues. Suppose it takes about 5-10 minutes to offload the pax, any luggage and reload the original pax. During that time, another offloaded pax comes running up and wishes to board. I can foresee (in certain circumstances) that the plane gets delayed an hour or more (esp at a hub). The plane would never leave (and not only that, would cause issues with other connecting pax on that plane).
Could be a domino effect through the system.
I was flying AA DFW-DCA last week. First was checked in full. I boarded and sat in the back in my assigned seat. Literally minutes before the GA closed the door, she came back to my seat and asked me if I wanted an upgrade, since I was #1 on the list. I of course said yes, and moved up, and they closed the door.
That's how the UA GA should have handled the situation the OP was talking about.