The Friendly Skies...

[gblowfish]

Just kicked some poor guys ass for refusing to give up his seat!
You never see this on the United Airlines commercials....

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...ompting-outcry

[Swanman]

Given what happened, perhaps it was ok that they boarded the flight because it seems like they didn't have an issue until the 4 employees showed up super late and maybe unexpectedly. However, the ginormous mistake was telling them they could get on when everyone was already seated. There are tons of other flights out of either O'Hare or Midway and also rental cars in the off chance flying wasn't an option. And if you HAVE to get them on the flight, keep bumping the compensation until someone says yes. They tried to save a couple grand and will end up losing who knows how much in a settlement and probably millions in lost business, especially with the Chinese being extremely unhappy.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'm pretty sure United would not have known this nor should it have mattered in rendering services. So any of that is irrelevant except for the anger management issues, which the fellow passengers have given accounts saying he wasn't being overly unreasonable.

This will matter a great deal should it come to a trial.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Doesn't matter if he's some angry drug-dealing quack pervert. He's a paying customer who should not have been put off the plane.

Agreed. It kind of bothered me the whole time that the "doctor" issue was being brought up. It doesn't matter who it is, and no person is more important than another. A 22 year-old who's going to miss a cruise ship departure is going to think that's really important, and it is. A businessperson who's going to present to a client is going to think that's really important, and it is. A drug dealer on his way to murder a competitor is going to think that's really important, and it is. United's job was to find the person whose important reason was most malleable and entice them off the plane. And if that failed, use one of the other 999 solutions for their internal resource management problem.

[gblowfish]

I noticed they didn't pick any of their first class or frequent flyer customers....

[mikeyis4dcats.]

Originally Posted by vailpass

This will matter a great deal should it come to a trial.

not once all the witnesses testify that he was not belligerent. every report I have read was that he was reasonable in his demeanor.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Agreed. It kind of bothered me the whole time that the "doctor" issue was being brought up. It doesn't matter who it is, and no person is more important than another. A 22 year-old who's going to miss a cruise ship departure is going to think that's really important, and it is. A businessperson who's going to present to a client is going to think that's really important, and it is. A drug dealer on his way to murder a competitor is going to think that's really important, and it is. United's job was to find the person whose important reason was most malleable and entice them off the plane. And if that failed, use one of the other 999 solutions for their internal resource management problem.

Who knew all they had to do was announce "any male who would like to take the next flight and have gay sex while you wait, please come up to the podium"?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Different hypothetical -- Bill Gates shows up at Gate 12 late on a Friday night. Day before Christmas, in fact. He had a sudden inspiration -- he REALLY wants to see the Christmas day fireworks in Paris. It's the last flight out.

He goes up to the boarding gate -- "hey, I'm Bill Gates and here's my black Amex card. I will pay you -- no lie -- TWENTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to take this plane and fly it to Paris. It's a 747 so it can handle the distance no problem."

Gate calls up the chain. Eventually it reaches the CEO -- who is also a personal friend of Bill Gates, and he says says "twenty-five million is more than everyone on this flight paid, by a factor of like 20. Give the man the plane and take it to Paris. Oh, and tell him let's do lunch sometime, it's been too long."

The 500 people -- mostly families -- on the plane flying to Disney World (originally scheduled destination was Orlando) are told to remove themselves. "$1,000 vouchers or a punch in the face by the cops, your choice." Oh, and they'll fly all these people to Disney Christmas night. Good luck figuring out what to do Christmas Day.

You're cool with that? Because the airline is the "ultimate authority"?

This actually freaks me out a little bit, because hypothetically I can see a logic to this decision. If United Airlines thinks that it's in their long-term business interest to screw over 100 families on Christmas for $25 million, then...can they do it? I could easily see that decision being made against the little guys.

So maybe what bothers me is that there's a cold, soulless logic to it, whereas in the real-life case it was just a zombie apocalypse of one stupid decision after another piling up in front of the door. But I'm not arguing about whether they made stupid decisions or not. I'm arguing whether it was right or wrong to treat the guy that way.

Now I'm feeling bad about myself.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

I noticed they didn't pick any of their first class or frequent flyer customers....

Why would they?

[alpha_omega]

Originally Posted by Cochise

The solution is really that United needs to not board people if the flight is overbooked until the overbooking is sorted out.

The security response was inappropriate and they have to know cameras are always rolling these days. But really, get your act together so you aren't yanking people off aircraft.

.....

Truth. That would have made this whole situation avoidable.

[tooge]

yeah it's jacked up, BUT, I'd gladly take the $800 voucher, the next day flight, and the hotel room after I negotiated in a couple hundred in food and booze at the hotel that night. PARRRRRTTTTYYYYY!!!!

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

not once all the witnesses testify that he was not belligerent. every report I have read was that he was reasonable in his demeanor.

Never seen a team of corporate defense attorneys go to work?

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Swanman

Smearing him because of past deeds is the same stupid line of thinking that comes to the conclusion that prostitutes can't be raped. And big surprise, outlets like Fox News are advocating for the big scumbag piece of shit corporation.

I want to agree with you. But smearing someone in order to justify violence is what the NY Times did when they asked "Is it ok to punch a Nazi?" - reference to the guy who was giving an interview when sucker punched.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/2...ww.google.com/


If it's ok to punch someone for being a Nazi, it's ok to punch someone for being a gay drug addicted felon with a violent history.

[notorious]

I still can't believe people are rationalizing United's abuse of overbooked flights.


That is egregious. A paid ticket is a paid ticket. If you have an empty seat because one of your other planes is running late, **** you, shit happens, eat it and make sure that passenger that you ****ed over in the late plane is taken care of. Don't go and shit on the face of the very people that support your business.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by tooge

yeah it's jacked up, BUT, I'd gladly take the $800 voucher, the next day flight, and the hotel room after I negotiated in a couple hundred in food and booze at the hotel that night. PARRRRRTTTTYYYYY!!!!

Obviously no one on that flight felt the same as you.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

Obviously no one on that flight felt the same as you.

I always find that offer stuff to be interesting. I've been on flights where my mission is way too important to get off for a few hundred bucks, and I've been on flights where I've volunteered to get off because, hey, a $200 voucher. There often seems to be fewer people interested in the voucher than I think there should be, but I figure that's none of my business.