United passenger forcibly removed from plane for not giving up seat

[ponyo]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-p...oved-flight-refusing-give-seat-134930951.html

Companies are so stupid. All they had to do was keep raising their offer if no one bit at $800. I was on overbooked United flight Saturday night and they offered $800 plus hotel and dinner and breakfast for volunteers to take the next morning flight. I went up to take the deal but a family of five beat me to the agent by like 5 seconds. I guess $800 is the max for United.

 

[OutHouse]

umm last year i flew United from denver to Chicago on a business trip. there were 5 of us and on a very tight deadline to build out a new server room. It was July and on a smaller Embraer jet so due to high altitude, hot temps they offered $1,000 vouchers plus hotel for 18 people to get off the plane. nobody moved. so the gate attendants picked 18 people based upon price they payed (lowest) and walked down the plane stopping at each seat they picked and saying "sir/maam here is our $1000 voucher please get off." luckily nobody in my crew got picked or we would have been FUCKEDDDDD.

on a side note that was the first flight in 20 years where i did not have anybody in my row. in fact the entire row on both sides was empty but me.

 

[IronWing]

I used to make lots of trips to Denver. I would make a point of flying United because the return trip was all but guaranteed to be a free flight voucher for me. One trip, I got bumped twice and scored two free flights. The flight I ended up on connected in Durango so I got a cool view of the Rockies as a bonus.

 

[stormkroe]

Couldn't watch the video, but it's the airline's fault, they should take the hit, i.e., keep raising the offer and SOMEONE will get off the plane voluntarily.

 

[purbeast0]

Wow that is REALLY REALLY bad and United is going to lose a whole lot more money than they needed to by letting him fly on that airplane. That was so fucking stupid on their part.

Why wouldn't they just put the crew on another flight? That doesn't make any fucking sense.

That video is really bad. If that was me it would be hard for me not to fight back as those guys dragged me out. Maybe that guy realized he just hit a huge pay day though.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Wow that is REALLY REALLY bad and United is going to lose a whole lot more money than they needed to by letting him fly on that airplane. That was so fucking stupid on their part.

Why wouldn't they just put the crew on another flight? That doesn't make any fucking sense.

That video is really bad. If that was me it would be hard for me not to fight back as those guys dragged me out. Maybe that guy realized he just hit a huge pay day though.

Resist just enough to get an $20 million elbow in the nose.

 

[purbeast0]

Resist just enough to get an $20 million elbow in the nose.

Yep. I'll be surprised if we don't hear that the guy will sue and it will be settled outside of court for an "undisclosed amount" which will probably be in the multiple millions.

Ching Ching!

 

[ponyo]

Yep. I'll be surprised if we don't hear that the guy will sue and it will be settled outside of court for an "undisclosed amount" which will probably be in the multiple millions.

Ching Ching!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...moval-from-overbooked-flight-triggers-outrage
Attorney from this Bloomberg article disagrees.

"But as for the man United removed, he probably has little legal recourse. This is because of the “broad discretion” airlines have under their carriage contracts, said Dan Lear, an attorney in Seattle. The carrier also could argue that a passenger who refuses instructions to exit has become belligerent and thus “a security risk” for the crew, he said."​

 

[Ns1]

The carrier also could argue that a passenger who refuses instructions to exit has become belligerent and thus “a security risk” for the crew, he said."

they could argue that but i think the video is pretty clear. I know how I would vote in a jury box.

 

[nakedfrog]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...moval-from-overbooked-flight-triggers-outrage
Attorney from this Bloomberg article disagrees.

"But as for the man United removed, he probably has little legal recourse. This is because of the “broad discretion” airlines have under their carriage contracts, said Dan Lear, an attorney in Seattle. The carrier also could argue that a passenger who refuses instructions to exit has become belligerent and thus “a security risk” for the crew, he said."​

That's kind of what I was thinking, you agree to their terms when you buy a ticket to fly in their plane.

 

[ponyo]

I'm sure they will settle but I doubt it will be for millions. But it sure will be more than $800 or even $2,000.

 

[purbeast0]

Yeah I dunno, having that video is going to hurt them a lot more than if it was just heresay.

Like what happened with Ray Rice and the video of him beating his girlfriend up. Everyone already knew it had happened, but when the video came out months later, his career was over.

Regardless of what it says on some piece of paper that no person who has ever bought a ticket from United has ever seen about cases like this, there was nothing right about them dragging the guy out of the plane like that.

 

[Viper GTS]

Couldn't watch the video, but it's the airline's fault, they should take the hit, i.e., keep raising the offer and SOMEONE will get off the plane voluntarily.

This is the thing I don't get: How is physical removal even a policy when there's always going to be a price someone will take? If nobody is taking $1-2k offers you clearly need to offer more.

If they're going to be allowed to overbook they should be required to pay market rate for removing people from overbooked planes. Have fun on the NY to LA flights.

Viper GTS

 

[Darwin333]

How the hell do they let everyone board if they know the flight is overbooked? I had no idea that they could forcibly remove you AFTER you boarded because of overbooking, United screwed up bigtime on this one by not handling the problem at the gate. It sounds even worse that they did this so that their employees could have a seat.

On a good note, if that guy is willing to fly on United again, he probably won't have to pay for airfare for a very long time.

 

[Rifter]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...moval-from-overbooked-flight-triggers-outrage
Attorney from this Bloomberg article disagrees.

"But as for the man United removed, he probably has little legal recourse. This is because of the “broad discretion” airlines have under their carriage contracts, said Dan Lear, an attorney in Seattle. The carrier also could argue that a passenger who refuses instructions to exit has become belligerent and thus “a security risk” for the crew, he said."​

Maybe in a no video situation but not in this case, that guy is going to cash in on this for sure.

 

[mindless1]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...moval-from-overbooked-flight-triggers-outrage
Attorney from this Bloomberg article disagrees.

"But as for the man United removed, he probably has little legal recourse. This is because of the “broad discretion” airlines have under their carriage contracts, said Dan Lear, an attorney in Seattle. The carrier also could argue that a passenger who refuses instructions to exit has become belligerent and thus “a security risk” for the crew, he said."​

Oh, you can still sue even if you don't think you'll win, hoping that they offer a settlement to make it go away before suffering any further negative PR, except these days things go viral and that strategy doesn't work as well as it used to.

 

[Sonikku]

I'm sure they will settle but I doubt it will be for millions. But it sure will be more than $800 or even $2,000.

Would take an elbow to the face for $2 grand. That's like... SIX Nintendo Switches! AND a pro controller and game thrown in.

 

[stormkroe]

This is the thing I don't get: How is physical removal even a policy when there's always going to be a price someone will take? If nobody is taking $1-2k offers you clearly need to offer more.

If they're going to be allowed to overbook they should be required to pay market rate for removing people from overbooked planes. Have fun on the NY to LA flights.

Viper GTS

Haha yeah, what a world where you can't physically stop someone stealing from Wal-Mart but you can manhandle a paying customer using your vital service.

 

[foghorn67]

I think they bumped the paying customer for labor union contracts demanding there are a certain amount of seats available for employees to fly.
Labor unions don't need any help with the amount of hate they get....but they never seemed to have a problem about the absurdity of their demands.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Haha yeah, what a world where you can't physically stop someone stealing from Wal-Mart but you can manhandle a paying customer using your vital service.

And as an added bonus, military training instructors cannot touch you without your authorization first (or at least couldn't in 2006).

 

[ponyo]

He's going to get paid. United will be stupid if this ever goes to court. But United is pretty stupid so never say never.

This won't negatively impact my view of United. I already knew they were shitty airline. I fly United because it's cheap, not because they're some great airline.

 

[Exterous]

Wow that is REALLY REALLY bad and United is going to lose a whole lot more money than they needed to by letting him fly on that airplane. That was so fucking stupid on their part.

Why wouldn't they just put the crew on another flight? That doesn't make any fucking sense.

That video is really bad. If that was me it would be hard for me not to fight back as those guys dragged me out. Maybe that guy realized he just hit a huge pay day though.

Crew have to meet minimum rules for rest so there is a good chance this was the only flight they would be able to take and operate the flight the next day. If they didn't make the flight United could have been forced to cancel an entire flight, potentially costing them quite a bit more. I agree they could have offered more but I suspect United did not realize the passenger would refuse to get off the plane when confronted by police officers. Buying a ticket does not actually mean you are guaranteed to get to your destination as it allows for IDB for various reasons although it does guarantee a minimum compensation level if that occurs. For better or worse the polcie commands to vacate the plane were legal and his refusal was not. He could actually face criminal charges although I think that is unlikely. For that reason I think it is extremely unlikely he will get any sort of payday out of this

 

[Exterous]

If they're going to be allowed to overbook they should be required to pay market rate for removing people from overbooked planes. Have fun on the NY to LA flights.

Viper GTS

He wasn't removed because the flight was overbooked. It sounds like it was maybe overbooked by one but at least 3 were crew which needed to unexpectedly position to continue normal operations. It happens pretty frequently for airlines and people are removed from planes on other carriers as well. Good luck getting more than $800 on a Delta or AA flight - most people just follow lawful commands of police officers when confronted. Once an airline decides you need to be removed from a plane anything you do to stay will likely end badly for you. I'm not saying its right but thats our society has currently decided is required to keep us safe. It may make a point but I doubts it will result in any drastic monetary compensation for him

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Crew have to meet minimum rules for rest so there is a good chance this was the only flight they would be able to take and operate the flight the next day. If they didn't make the flight United could have been forced to hire more people, potentially costing them quite a bit more. I agree they could have offered more but I suspect United did not realize the passenger would refuse to get off the plane when confronted by rent-a-cop security. Buying a ticket does not actually mean you are guaranteed to get to your destination without appropriate consumer protection laws as it allows for IDB for various reasons although it does guarantee a minimum compensation level of zero if that occurs unless you take them to court. For better or worse the polcie commands to vacate the plane were not really legal and his refusal was warranted. He could actually face criminal charges for not being as powerful as an airline although I think that is unlikely. For that reason I think it is extremely unlikely he will get any sort of payday out of this

Fixed that up for you.

 

[dud]

For anyone who is interested here is a link to the "unofficial" United Airlines website ... full of complaints, including the latest United fiasco:

http://www.untied.com/main.shtml#


"United remains the #1 most complained-about major airline since 2011!"