• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

United Airlines strikes again

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I didn't read it.
It looked too much like another entry in the diary, "Notes from the culture of Victimhood and Entitlement. "
Tom
People would get less upset if the know the rights they have & the deals they make.
Naive erroneous expectations lead to woe.
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member
This has been policy for decades.
They purposely overbook flights because some people usually cancel.
Mrs Revolt once made $1500 by taking a later flight.
So it usually works pretty well.

Btw, there's a catch......
The money is actually a credit towards flying on the airline.
That's good if you plan to travel within a (usually) year.
Reminds me of The Great Waldo Pepper line about his
barnstorming (flying WW1 airplanes with rubes aboard)......
If you don't like your first ride, the 2nd one is free!

My father worked his career for the airlines and as you indicate they usually up the offer until some one takes. I've and my father never heard of an airlines forcing a passenger off because of their issue. Understand that this was an airline issue. More than likely the crew at the destination was delayed and because of the delay were over their FAA allowable work hours for the next flight. That flight also being full needed a new crew. The quickest crew they could find happened to be available for this flight.
 
Last edited:

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Anyway, I heard that the passengers were first offered $400 to be bumped.
No takers.
Then they offered $800.
No takers.
(He (a doctor) had patients to see, & didn't want the delay.)
Then they ostensibly picked people at random to get the boot.

I can understand it, since he's a doctor and had patients to see. That seems a more critical reason to let him stay on board, and they should have just picked someone else.

What I don't understand is that this was a flight from Chicago to Louisville, which is only a five-hour drive. Not one of the passengers offered to give up their seat because they were in that much of a hurry to get to Louisville, KY? I could see it if it was from NY to LAX, where it would take days and days to get there by car, but from Chicago to Louisville?
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
My father worked his career for the airlines and as you indicate they usually up the offer until some one takes.
My oldest sister used to work that system.
She deliberately chose flights she guessed were overbooked, then squeezed the airline. Usually she "settled" for a refund and free flight the next day. Sometimes she did better, since she didn't really have a schedule.
Once she got annoyed at herself for only getting free fare when the last guy to give up his seat got that plus overnight at the O'Hare Hyatt and some cash.
Tom
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Reading some more, Delta offers a system where you set, ahead of time, a dollar amount about what your time is worth. As the article said, a man going to his daughter's wedding is not interested no matter what but a college student might just be willing to be bumped for a few hundred dollars. Their involuntary bump rate is much lower.

How Delta masters the game of overbooking flights
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
My father worked his career for the airlines and as you indicate they usually up the offer until some one takes. I've and my father never heard of an airlines forcing a passenger off because of their issue. Understand that this was an airline issue. More than likely the crew at the destination was delayed and because of the delay were over their FAA allowable work hours for the next flight. That flight also being full needed a new crew. The quickest crew they could find happened to be available for this flight.
Makes sense.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I can understand it, since he's a doctor and had patients to see. That seems a more critical reason to let him stay on board, and they should have just picked someone else.

What I don't understand is that this was a flight from Chicago to Louisville, which is only a five-hour drive. Not one of the passengers offered to give up their seat because they were in that much of a hurry to get to Louisville, KY? I could see it if it was from NY to LAX, where it would take days and days to get there by car, but from Chicago to Louisville?
The proper course would've been to keep offering more money until someone bit.
 

silvermoon383

Well-Known Member
What I don't understand is that this was a flight from Chicago to Louisville, which is only a five-hour drive. Not one of the passengers offered to give up their seat because they were in that much of a hurry to get to Louisville, KY? I could see it if it was from NY to LAX, where it would take days and days to get there by car, but from Chicago to Louisville?
Bear in mind that Chicago up a pretty major hub for the airlines. It's quite likely that this was a connection flight or the start of several connections for many of the passengers.
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
https://www.usatoday.com/picture-ga...Rss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomnation-topstories

636276820181136199-AFP-AFP-NI3SR.jpg


I haven't heard Jesse Jackson's name in the news in years, but here he is protesting the treatment of the passenger who was dragged off.

I also got a chuckle out of this article: Sean Spicer, Oscar Munoz and How to Bungle a Public Apology

Munoz had his shot first, on April 10, after four passengers were ejected from an overbooked United flight and a video of one of them being dragged down the plane aisle went viral. Famously — at this point immortally — Munoz apologized for "having to re-accommodate these passengers."

Astonishingly, Munoz's second attempt to sort things out was even worse. That time, it came in an internal memo to United Airlines employees in which he described the victim of the dragging incident as "disruptive and belligerent," after having been "politely asked" to leave the flight. A note on optics that Munoz might find helpful: It is a presumption—albeit a rebuttable one—that in any video, the bleeding person being set upon by three larger, non-bleeding people is not typically the one described as "belligerent." You're welcome, sir.

Then, at last, as the airline's stock dove like a plane in wind shear and United credit cards were cut up en masse, came the final attempt at an I'm-sorry that would stick. It started badly, with a soupçon of "mistakes were made," when Munoz referred to "The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight" (passive-tense emphasis added). Then it gained a little bit of purchase with the go-to incantations "I deeply apologize," "we take full responsibility" and "I promise you we will do better."

This last, canned, but at least not awful effort may have done precisely nothing to make anyone on the planet ever want to book a United flight again, but it at least got Munoz offstage and allowed the airline's image-makers to try to clean up the public-relations Chernobyl he left behind.

The fact that this guy bungles through three different apologies and doesn't seem to have a clue as to what the airline did wrong, this speaks volumes about just how out of touch and cavalier some of these executives truly are.

Oscar Munoz says ‘system failure’ led to passengers removal

“We have not provided our front line supervisors and managers and individuals with the proper tools, policies, procedures that allow them to use their common sense,” Munoz told ABC Nightline, Wednesday night.

This statement is probably true of most corporate and bureaucratic organizations I've had the displeasure of dealing with. Much of the time one has to deal with these front line managers who have no authority to do anything and are micromanaged from the top, by people like Munoz who make decisions from up on high, yet are insulated and nobody can actually get word to them that they made a bad decision. They don't generally realize it until something like this happens.

It seems kind of incredulous, since one would think that someone making that amount of money and rising to the level of CEO of a major corporation would be halfway intelligent.

What I'd like to know is who was the bozo "captain" of the flight who caused all this to happen in the first place. What's his story? Who were the four airline personnel who just had to go to Louisville at that exact moment? I'm not interested in apologies; I would just like an explanation as to what in the heck is the matter with these people? What's their major malfunction?
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
The fact that this guy bungles through three different apologies and doesn't seem to have a clue as to what the airline did wrong, this speaks volumes about just how out of touch and cavalier some of these executives truly are.
Perhaps we could start a "Friends of the Donald" support group.
Tom
 

Callisto

Hellenismos, BTW
The proper course would've been to keep offering more money until someone bit.

The proper course would have been to ask for volunteers before boarding the plane. It's a lot easier to get the number of seats needed if boarding is delayed until they get the volunteers. Once people are buckled in, it's a lot harder to persuade.

According to today's morning news, United has refunded fare to all the passengers of that flight and, of course, is now facing a lawsuit from the doctor. Their stock took a dip and they're in the midst of a self-created PR nightmare. Would have been a helluva lot cheaper to do as I noted above and/or sweetened the pot and look for another volunteer when the doctor said he couldn't delay seeing patients.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
The proper course would have been to ask for volunteers before boarding the plane. It's a lot easier to get the number of seats needed if boarding is delayed until they get the volunteers. Once people are buckled in, it's a lot harder to persuade.
Sometimes airlines do.
(Been there & done that.)
But I'll wager that their needs aren't always known that far in advance.
According to today's morning news, United has refunded fare to all the passengers of that flight and, of course, is now facing a lawsuit from the doctor. Their stock took a dip and they're in the midst of a self-created PR nightmare. Would have been a helluva lot cheaper to do as I noted above and/or sweetened the pot and look for another volunteer when the doctor said he couldn't delay seeing patients.
It sure was handled poorly.
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
When they chose the foreign looking guy and he said, "I can't", then what kicked in was that awful disease I am seeing more and more of which is, I won't now change my mind for the world.

They chose him and that is who would be leaving. Not; We see you have a real appointment, we should choose someone else. Is there anyone here that does not have to be somewhere on time?

I wonder if profiling will enter into the lawsuit? You know, like the bananas can wait.
 

VioletVortex

Well-Known Member
I still don't understand why the guys dragging him off didn't get the **** beaten out of them. It was straight up assault, the passengers would have every right to defend the guy's life.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I still don't understand why the guys dragging him off didn't get the **** beaten out of them. It was straight up assault, the passengers would have every right to defend the guy's life.
As I understand it, they're armed cops.
Look at what they did to a guy just travelling & minding his own business.
They'd shoot to kill if things escalated.

Perhaps the airlines & cops considered this a teaching moment, ie,
"Always do as you're told or we will kick the s*** out of you.".
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
As I understand it, they're armed cops.
Look at what they did to a guy just travelling & minding his own business.
They'd shoot to kill if things escalated.

Perhaps the airlines & cops considered this a teaching moment, ie,
"Always do as you're told or we will kick the s*** out of you.".

Perhaps what they need are FAA mediators or someone who has the authority to give orders to airline personnel on the spot. They could have resolved the entire situation by simply ordering the four airline employees to wait for the next flight and telling the bozo "captain" to get stuffed. Problem solved, and that would have been the end of it.
 
Top