The flight wasn't overbooked. They needed to unexpectedly position crew to continue normal operations.
$180 is the starting offer. Never take $180.$800? I was just on a Southwest flight that was over booked and they only offered $180.
Fixed that up for you.
By law you are required to follow the commands of flight attendants and uniformed police officers on a plane. This absolutely gets abused at times but refusing to deplane is not one of those times. From my reading he was told he would be forceably removed by 1 flight attendant and two uniformed officers so he knew this was going to happen
They can't just hire more people on the spot and its unlikely that an airline would have spare people just sitting at non-hub airports just for the 1% of the time (or less) that they are needed. As for the rent-a-cop from what I read this was actual uniformed law enforcement. The minimum compensation rate is far above zero assuming this is a plane carrying 70+ passengers:
By law you are required to follow the commands of flight attendants and uniformed police officers on a plane. This absolutely gets abused at times but refusing to deplane is not one of those times. From my reading he was told he would be forceably removed by 1 flight attendant and two uniformed officers so he knew this was going to happen
- Double your fare up to $675 if you’re rescheduled to arrive within 1-2 hours of original time.
- Four times your fare up to $1350 if you aren’t given transportation scheduled to arrive at either your first connection or final destination within 2 hours of schedule.
They can't just hire more people on the spot and its unlikely that an airline would have spare people just sitting at non-hub airports just for the 1% of the time (or less) that they are needed. As for the rent-a-cop from what I read this was actual uniformed law enforcement. The minimum compensation rate is far above zero assuming this is a plane carrying 70+ passengers:
By law you are required to follow the commands of flight attendants and uniformed police officers on a plane. This absolutely gets abused at times but refusing to deplane is not one of those times. From my reading he was told he would be forceably removed by 1 flight attendant and two uniformed officers so he knew this was going to happen
- Double your fare up to $675 if you’re rescheduled to arrive within 1-2 hours of original time.
- Four times your fare up to $1350 if you aren’t given transportation scheduled to arrive at either your first connection or final destination within 2 hours of schedule.
so book them first class on AA or someshit instead of dealing with the PR nightmare they are currently in.
I mean, what's the CEO's billable rate? Surely he's spent more time on this than the value of whatever compensation it would have required to get an additional passenger off the plane. Hell he probably could fly the 4 crew members on private planes cheaper than the onslaught of negative publicity United has received.
And this is the real problem here. The airline has absurdly limited financial exposure here, and the right to use law enforcement as legal muscle to get their way. This needs to change, if you fuck up your planning you keep increasing offers until someone bites. $1350 is not going to get many takers these days.
Viper GTS
Most choose to follow lawful officer commands and get off peacefully when promised they will be removed forcefully.
Lot more people will refuse now. United just screwed the all other airlines.Like I said - I suspect they didn't know he would refuse. People are removed from planes for various air crew\government\etc reasons with some regularity. Most choose to follow lawful officer commands and get off peacefully when promised they will be removed forcefully.
They could have actually hired the appropriate number of people to begin with, rather than relying on no-shows for a flight to get their own people from A to B (which is what they did in this case). None of this garbage would have happened if they didn't overbook.
Lot more people will refuse now. United just screwed the all other airlines.
Once they saw he wasn't getting off without a fight, they should've tried new tactic and offered like $2 grand to anyone else who would get off. United had dumb person in charge in this situation or they don't give enough power to people to improvise. I would like to think it's the lack of decision making power rather than someone dumb in charge.Like I said - I suspect they didn't know he would refuse. People are removed from planes for various air crew\government\etc reasons with some regularity. Most choose to follow lawful officer commands and get off peacefully when promised they will be removed forcefully.
I see what you did thar.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!
United CEO, Communicator of the Year award tonight:
https://twitter.com/PRWeekUS/status/842484619744178176
No, other airlines will learn from United stupidity and offer greater compensation for bumped passengers. Everyone has a price and if they keep increasing the dollar amount, airlines will always find volunteers who will give up their seats. Not all airlines are dumb as United.You're not going to be able to plan for every need just by hiring more people. Its absurd to think the market would bear those prices. Spirit is clear proof that people would rather deal with lower staffing overhead, shittier on time performance, more and longer delays than pay a few $ more for a ticket.
Which is why I doubt this guy will see a payout. FAs and especially police once they come onto the plane are the ultimate authority as demanded by enough of us in the name of 'security'. As such a threat to their authority over a matter like this will go no where. He might get a small token of remorse but even that can't be a lot otherwise it would encourage more people to refuse. Again, IDB happens somewhat frequently so they don't want this to become a way for people to get more compensation
Probably because they didn't want to get in the way of the airline getting it's rear ripped open by social media/lawyers. I know I wouldn't have.Does anyone else find it typical that with all the people screaming bloody murder and videoing it, and yelling at the police pulling the guy off...
that NOBODY on the entire fucking plane stepped up and said "Leave him be. I'll get off."
?
that NOBODY on the entire fucking plane stepped up and said "Leave him be. I'll get off."
"… for an extra $200 on top of your last offer."Does anyone else find it typical that with all the people screaming bloody murder and videoing it, and yelling at the police pulling the guy off...
that NOBODY on the entire fucking plane stepped up and said "Leave him be. I'll get off."
?
Once they saw he wasn't getting off without a fight, they should've tried new tactic and offered like $2 grand to anyone else who would get off. United had dumb person in charge in this situation or they don't give enough power to people to improvise. I would like to think it's the lack of decision making power rather than someone dumb in charge.
No, other airlines will learn from United stupidity and offer greater compensation for bumped passengers. Everyone has a price and if they keep increasing the dollar amount, airlines will always find volunteers who will give up their seats. Not all airlines are dumb as United.
FAs and especially police once they come onto the plane are the ultimate authority as demanded by enough of us in the name of 'security'.
At the point that the police were talking to him I doubt the airline was still involved in the police's decision making.
But that's predicated on the police having a good reason for their actions. The police can't just do whatever they want, or whatever United tells them to do. If he was threatening the staff, then this kind of response would be appropriate. In this case though, he simply refused to give up a seat he paid for. It was United's fault that they sold a seat they needed for their staff, so it's United who should be responsible for offering whatever it takes to get someone to voluntarily give up their seat. Surely if getting their staff to another airport was so important, they could have offered significantly more before it made more sense to leave the staff behind rather than pay more.