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UA Flight from NY/EWR - Tel Aviv turns back after unruly Israelis grab business seats

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UA Flight from NY/EWR - Tel Aviv turns back after unruly Israelis grab business seats

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Old Jan 21, 2022, 6:23 am
  #1  
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UA Flight from NY/EWR - Tel Aviv turns back after unruly Israelis grab business seats

Never understand what people are thinking. They obviously are not...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/flight...usiness-seats/
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 9:13 am
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Seems better suited for the poaching thread.....
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 9:26 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
Seems better suited for the poaching thread.....
Though seats were empty so I guess it would be poaching from the airline. Tons of comments here: https://onemileatatime.com/news/unit...Self-Upgraders
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 9:37 am
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Well - it is truly bad behavior to deliberately take a seat that is not yours without permission - whether that be another passengers or a self upgrader.

A new low is then refusing to go back to your assigned seat after you are caught causing an airplane to turn around.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:16 am
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Way over the top on UA's part, IMHO. Just tell the pax that authorities will be waiting upon landing to ensure $X,000 is collected for the stolen product. That would likely have resolved the situation without inconveniencing countless people and costing countless tens of thousands of dollars and wasting countless gallons of fuel.

Flight crews are really feeling their authority these days, to the detriment of many.

Of course it goes without saying, the poachers are most at fault, but this, like the AA example earlier in the week, could have been handled much better by the airlines. We don't need power-hungry crews flexing their muscle anymore.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:25 am
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Just like with the AA incident, I'm guessing there's more to the story than being reported by the media -- perhaps violence? If not violent, it would make more sense to deal with it when they land rather than incur the costs for the diversion (crew, fuel, compensation for pax)

Last edited by Ryu2; Jan 21, 2022 at 10:34 am
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:30 am
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Originally Posted by BlooJoo
Way over the top on UA's part, IMHO. Just tell the pax that authorities will be waiting upon landing to ensure $X,000 is collected for the stolen product. That would likely have resolved the situation without inconveniencing countless people and costing countless tens of thousands of dollars and wasting countless gallons of fuel.
I'm not sure if you let the self upgrader - upgrade - and continue on - authorities would actually do anything upon landing. UA can certainly ban them at that point.

Yes - huge inconvenience - but if self upgraders do this behavior without repercussions then it will continue to occur.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:36 am
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Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
I'm not sure if you let the self upgrader - upgrade - and continue on - authorities would actually do anything upon landing. UA can certainly ban them at that point.

Yes - huge inconvenience - but if self upgraders do this behavior without repercussions then it will continue to occur.
Absolutely spot on.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 21, 2022 at 1:02 pm Reason: UA forum is not the place for OMNI/PR
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:36 am
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Originally Posted by Ryu2
Just like with the AA mask incident yesterday, I'm guessing there's more to the story than being reported-- perhaps violence? If not violent, it would make more sense to deal with it when they land rather than incur the costs for the diversion (crew, fuel, compensation for pax)
There was no violence on the AA flight. While there were reports of it, if there truly had been, she would have been arrested on the spot upon landing. She was simply let go. There is precisely zero chance she would have been just permitted to walk away if she truly had become violent.

This is, undoubtedly, 100% crews over-flexing their "muscle" that has been served to them during COVID.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 21, 2022 at 10:39 am Reason: unneed comment removed, let's maintain civil discourse
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:44 am
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Originally Posted by BlooJoo
There was no violence on the AA flight. While there were reports of it, if there truly had been, she would have been arrested on the spot upon landing. She was simply let go. There is precisely zero chance she would have been just permitted to walk away if she truly had become violent.

This is, undoubtedly, 100% crews over-flexing their "muscle" that has been served to them during COVID.
Highly doubt this unless you are accusing flight crew of falsifying internal paperwork to the airline.

Pilots don’t turn planes around without providing operations with rationale for diversion. Operations don’t turn plane around for two self-upgraders as diversion would cost the airline a lot more than the stolen revenue and the cost of the downstream flight being interrupted/cancelled.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:46 am
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Originally Posted by BlooJoo
There was no violence on the AA flight. While there were reports of it, if there truly had been, she would have been arrested on the spot upon landing. She was simply let go. There is precisely zero chance she would have been just permitted to walk away if she truly had become violent.

This is, undoubtedly, 100% crews over-flexing their "muscle" that has been served to them during COVID.
Im' confused.🤔 Aren't we discussing the UA flight?
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:46 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by seawolf
Highly doubt this unless you are accusing flight crew of falsifying internal paperwork to the airline.
I think that's a distinct possibility, in order to justify their muscle flexing over a minor incident.

Originally Posted by seawolf
Pilots don’t turn planes around without providing operations with rationale for diversion. Operations don’t turn plane around for two self-upgraders as diversion would cost the airline a lot more than the stolen revenue and the cost of the downstream flight being interrupted/cancelled.
Yes they do. Twice this week, in fact.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:47 am
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Originally Posted by seawolf
Highly doubt this unless you are accusing flight crew of falsifying internal paperwork to the airline.

Pilots don’t turn planes around without providing operations with rationale for diversion. Operations don’t turn plane around for two self-upgraders as diversion would cost the airline a lot more than the stolen revenue and the cost of the downstream flight being interrupted/cancelled.
I’m glad to see someone here gets it, thank you for the levity.

There’s much more to this situation than is what is being reported.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:49 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by LAXOGG
Im' confused.🤔 Aren't we discussing the UA flight?
It's quite obvious I was replying to Ryu2's comment about the AA flight.

Originally Posted by clubord
There’s much more to this situation than is what is being reported.
Source?

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 21, 2022 at 11:27 am Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 10:49 am
  #15  
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the cost of diversion was surely an order of magnitude more than the "cost" of the seats... maybe it was an ongoing problem and they decided to make an example...

Either way, I think the solution would have been to zip-tie them up next to the lav rather than diverting.
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