chrisl137

I was on a flight IAD-LAX this afternoon and watched the FAs and GAs handle a flight that they overboarded without there being a scene, and with only a moderate delay.

What happened:
After closing and arming the doors it turned out there was one more person aboard than there were seats. The pretty quickly disarmed the doors and got them open again and started working to sort it out. It sounded like what happened was a combination of potential lap-size child and a non-native english speaker. They eventually did an inventory of all the small kids on board, and verified that they all had boarding passes, but one of the FAs mentioned to another that a non-english speaker had apparently misunderstood earlier what she was asking when they were trying to count empty seats to clear standbys, and so one extra person got boarded.

They eventually figured out that they had what sounded like two NRSA passengers, and at one point deboarded the (paid) extra passenger but stopped her from leaving the jetway while they tried to find a way to get someone off voluntarily. Eventually they deboarded the less senior of the NRSA passengers and let the passenger waiting in the jetway back on.

About a 25 minute delay in departure, and 10 minute on arrival, and they had 5 or 6 FAs and GAs checking on things and discussing options to work it out with a mininum of mess.

Kacee

In other words, they cleared NRSA into a seat that was already occupied.

Huh.

United Announces Changes to Improve Customer Experience.

ajeleonard

If they didn't have to manually count empty seats then this wouldn't happen. 1950s IT...

halls120

Indeed. If you have 150 seats on an airplane and on the 151st boarding pass you scan it doesn’t inform you that you’ve exceeded the capacity of the airplane, something is either wrong with the system or the people using it.

Hipplewm

Well, technically they didn't if that passenger was the one standing in the aisle......

That quote didn't come out right, I dunno how to fix it so VoV

mduell

This is no way to run an airline.

MSPeconomist

If they had boarded two NRSAs, why in the world did they make a revenue passenger deplane into the jetway? With more NRSAs than the number of needed seats, they never should have even tried to find volunteers. The last NRSA to board goes and, in fact, should have quietly offered to leave as soon as the problem became apparent. Quick and easy, except for UA's overentitled employees who would sit there while a boarded revenue passenger is almost kicked off the flight.

IMO this incident was handled very badly.

Exleftseat

Look at it from the bright side. Nobody was dragged off.

chrisl137

As long as pax have to scan something to get on, there will always be instances of miscounts, you can pretend that this can be addressed by training or IT, but given the numbers of people who board aircraft every day, there will be occasional errors. It's also exacerbated by how easy they've made it to check in and no-show, since checking in doesn't require you to be anywhere near an airport, and if you're making a connection you can still miss it (as many do on purpose, if you notice the number of hidden city threads).

One thing that it did seem to make clear is that the counting of lap vs. seated kids is a contributor to the confusion.


The revenue pax was the last one standing, and was the last person to board the plane. They may have boarded the NRSAs because they didn't expect her to show - they pulled the door behind the last couple people as they boarded. They also didn't try to find volunteers - they were going to IDB the last person. I was getting ready to hit my call button if they asked for people to VDB.

The FAs and gate agents handled it well - they're stuck with the IT system and overbooking that they're given, and they were trying to maximize the number of people who got to their destination. Once they realized the problem, they verified it, figured out options, and exercised the one that impacted paying pax the least, and did it while being pleasant to everyone involved.

porciuscato

This is hilarious. The OP describes a scenario that ostensibly makes United look good. Instead we see:

1) An incredibly backwards and error-prone passenger tracking procedure, that should have been automated decades ago.

2) Selfish United employees who try to keep their free seats, while paying customers are tossed off the plane.

3) GAs who favor their fellow employees instead of immediately taking the obvious step: de-board the NRSAs.


I see #1 all the time: GAs and FAs waste 10 minutes of boarding time and actually delay flights, because they can't seem to accurately count how many people are on the plane. Or they stick a NRSA standby in an occupied seat.



I fly a lot on European and Asian airlines. I have never seen this happen. Not once...... Well except for Alitalia. I guess Alitalia is a service level United can aim for and possibly achieve...

Kacee

They cleared NRSA into an occupied seat. That should not happen. Then they appear to have actually debated who should be asked to leave rather than simply telling one of the NRSA to get off. That's just crazy.

chrisl137

The GAs weren't favoring their fellow employees - they were already seated (presumably through whatever normal standby process) and ultimately when the NRSAs didn't offer to leave, they pulled them. I heard most of the conversations at the front, and they were trying to figure out which of them to boot, whether one would offer to get off, and whether they could jumpseat.

JVPhoto

I read it as having asking the last pax to wait at the door/jetbridge instead of standing in the middle of the aisle for 5-10 min with everyone staring. Obviously the GA is going to have to figure out which of the 2 non-revs has to go vs just pulling straws. But if you want to see the worst in every situation go ahead...

Bear96

How do you conclude that?

NRSAs could have been in (say) seats 19EF. Revenue passenger in 12C. Another revenue passenger boarded at the end with another boarding pass for 12C.


FYI, even among NRSAs there is a boarding priority. There are different NRSA "statuses," and within each status people are ordered by seniority. The agents should not just randomly pick the most convenient one to offload.

MSPeconomist

There were only two NRSAs and the last one to have boarded should be the one to go as that was the one with lower priority. It's not difficult, nor should it be difficult for the GA to remember that there were NRSAs on the flight.

An exception would be if one or both of the two NRSAs were qualified to fly in a jumpseat or sit in the cockpit for the flight. I guess there might be a further expection if there had been positive space nonrevs or other UA employees on board who could have volunteered to solve the problem by offering to take a jumpseat or cockpit seat for which they were qualified.