Originally Posted by Joshua (Post 28157206)

And his ticket will say all over it "OPERATED BY TRANS STATES AIRLINES DOING BUSINESS AS UNITED EXPRESS", along with notices all over United's website saying "Flights may be operated by codeshare partners."

Originally Posted by c2cflyer (Post 28158188)

Its the gate agents job to do their job. When they are told they need to fit 4 employees on a flight to prevent cancellation and ripple effects through the system, they do what hey can to accommodate.

Everything that happened in this incident from the time the passenger was identified for de-boarding is wrong.

The fact that the deadheads were late to the party is dumb and shouldn't have happened.


But as others have said repeatedly, United is a business. They made what seemed at the time to be a strictly better business decision. De-plane 4 passengers to avoid hundreds of others being delayed or cancelled. You have to be very dense to not agree that this was the best business decision with the information they had at the time, and removing infinitely increasing VDB offers from the equation.


Don't forget, 3 of the 4 passengers de-planed without incident and took their compensation. This happens every. single. day.

if it were up to me, Airlines wouldn't be allowed to overbook. But they do because they do the economic math. They know that sometimes they will be forced to kick someone off because they don't have enough seats. But most of the time, overselling a flight helps ensure its as close to full as possible.


To suggest that they could have predicted this would become a social media backlash incident is beyond beyond beyond ridiculous. There is nothing anyone would have done prior to the incident actually unfolding that would have led them to change their economic formula by factoring in a potential for social media backlash.

This happens every day. People get bumped. Every day. None of it ends up on youtube.

If i was bumped, I'd be pissed too. But most people don't stand up to the FAA / Airport Security / Flight crew the way this guy did. United ends up the goat and deservedly so.

But all the talk about them hiring a car for the employees or chartering a flight or offering thousands of dollars in VDBs - or any of this other junk - while in hindsight would have been better for United, would never have been remotely considered without the magic-crystal-ball foresight of the actions of both the passenger and the airport security being known.

Originally Posted by bioyuki (Post 28158177)

I generally agree that for the majority of the flying public, one of the top factors for making their buying decision will be fare price. That being said, if an airline continues to mess up and get bad publicity, over time that does add up, and when fare prices are similar, the flying public will consider that in their purchase decision.

As for us FTers, well we're much better at holding a grudge :).

Originally Posted by bocastephen (Post 28158158)

Worse, there are rumors going around now (maybe the truth, who knows) the GA targeted Asian customers specifically for IDB - 3 of the 4 targeted were Asian, and only 1 non-Asian because she ran out of Asians to target. Needless to say, the PR nightmare on this has so many tentacles, it will be an ongoing exploding nightmare for days, if not longer.

Originally Posted by Wexflyer (Post 28158193)

You seem to have forgotten that the VDB compensation is not real $$ - it not cash. It is "United dollars", which cost United cents on the dollar. That being so, $1,500 in VDB "United dollars" is not a big deal.

Originally Posted by zombietooth (Post 28158211)

Honestly, it's not in our self-interest to hold a grudge.
If UA has the best price and routing, you are a fool not to take it.

Boycotts never work so long as there is demand for a product that is offered at a competitive price.

Originally Posted by MDJennings (Post 28158213)

Yup, someone upthread stated that airlines figure vouchers as a liability only at 20% of their face value due to breakage. $1500 "United Dollars," or $320: it simply doesn't matter. The airline exercised its right to buy back that seat from him according to DOT.

What did you want them to do? Sit there for 18 hours until the crew timed out and they had to cancel the flight? If you are told to leave the premises, you need to leave.

Originally Posted by toomanybooks (Post 28153817)

So a doctor has more priority than someone going to a wedding/graduation? Or to say goodbye to grandma in the hospital?

I think not.

My brother is a doctor. Sometimes seems I am the only person who doesn't kiss his @ss 24/7.

I would like to see what led up to the confrontation where they removed the guy. All I saw was the dragging part.

Originally Posted by MDJennings (Post 28158213)

Yup, someone upthread stated that airlines figure vouchers as a liability only at 20% of their face value due to breakage. $1500 "United Dollars," or $320: it simply doesn't matter. The airline exercised its right to buy back that seat from him according to DOT.

What did you want them to do? Sit there for 18 hours until the crew timed out and they had to cancel the flight? If you are told to leave the premises, you need to leave.

Originally Posted by flyerbaby19 (Post 28157942)

They did buy back his seat with IDB comp that was probably 5-10x what he paid following the law and terms and conditions of the ticket. But he refused to get off the plane. If you refuse to comply with law enforcement officers, this is what happens to you.

Originally Posted by bocastephen (Post 28158158)

Well it didn't take long, but my agency is getting our first batch of cancelation requests (all paid Biz) and now we need to update our customer list with a whole new batch of blacklist requests for United....and the list wasn't short to begin with.

The team will be up late moving people off UA and over to NH and LH for international, and we're running out of options for domestic flights on an airline that doesn't straight out suck.

Worse, there are rumors going around now (maybe the truth, who knows) the GA targeted Asian customers specifically for IDB - 3 of the 4 targeted were Asian, and only 1 non-Asian because she ran out of Asians to target. Needless to say, the PR nightmare on this has so many tentacles, it will be an ongoing exploding nightmare for days, if not longer.

Originally Posted by leungy18 (Post 28158185)

Well, this is another lesson for UA (and pretty much every company in the hospitality industry). Stuff goes viral in 2017 very quickly. Come on, it's not like their PR employees were born yesterday...

Originally Posted by SFO_FT (Post 28158219)

Here's what I don't understand. These four pax had already boarded, so why would "denied boarding" apply -- if they wanted to deny boarding, UA needed to deny boarding at, guess what, the time of boarding.