Originally Posted by
justhere
What proof do you have that there were other viable options that would impact less customers? I readily admit I might have missed it so if you have it, by all means point me in that direction. If UA could have put the crew on another carrier's flight, then they could also have put their passengers on that flight. Has it been confirmed that other airlines' flights had seats available?
The flight of the incident (UA3411) was scheduled at 17:40, AA3509 was scheduled for 18:40. Not impossible but one hour is a very short time to do everything needed; even with available seats they might have needed AA to cooperate in some way, including possibly delaying their flight a bit.
I think nobody will offer proof of other viable options because, other than the AA option and than sending an aircraft carrying only the crew, it's very unlikely there was any. Then of course we'd have environmentalists decrying UA for wasting fuel by ferrying 4 crew members in an otherwise empty plane and then bringing back the same plane to Chicago with 0 pax, instead of just inconveniencing 4 passengers in some way.
Ultimately they were only 5 hours away by road. Even more, any bumped pax would probably have been earlier at their home or hotel in Louisville had they been shuttled by road rather than taking the next UA flight.