Originally Posted by
flytoeat
Example of this actually happening?
Originally Posted by
VegasGambler
I assume he is referring to Dr Dao, but that's disingenuous because there was no IDB; he was allowed to board and UA later changed their minds (which is specifically against DOT policy, though admittedly they didn't clarify that until after the incident) and then they decided to get local police to act as their private security (and the police somehow agreed), which was the cause of the 7 figure settlement. It was a total cluster.
Yes, this is what I was referring to. And even though he was already on the plane, it's still technically an IDB. I don't know if it's changed, but in the aughts the regional carriers routinely had to bump people off the plane after they were boarded ("due to weight & balance, we need 2 volunteers to take the next flight; we're offering $100 travel voucher" was a fairly common announcement). The regionals were severely constrained by their mainline partner in how much compensation they could offer, so IDB was not that uncommon. It was also very unpleasant. A lot of the airports I used only had 1 or 2 flights a day, so "the next flight" was usually tomorrow, and you didn't get a hotel voucher or anything, so it would actually cost the passengers money to take the VDB.
There's a price point where someone will volunteer to get off the plane. For Dao, $800 wasn't it, and for my upcoming travel, $25 DEFINITELY isn't it.