Well that's kind of a drag

[Canoehead]

2 hours ago, Malcolm said:

Why do you doubt that? And you should ask why do I believe that. 

Well for starters there was a passenger interviewed earlier on an American network who basically said as much.  He appeared to be the guy in the row (aisle) ahead of the removed pax.  Not that I'd take his statement as gospel, but what would he have to lose by telling the truth?  Maybe I'm naïve to think that way.  After all, some people do get weird at airports.

But I'll bite.  Why do you believe he threw a tantrum the first time he was asked to give up his seat?

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Canoehead said:

Well for starters there was a passenger interviewed earlier on an American network who basically said as much.  He appeared to be the guy in the row (aisle) ahead of the removed pax.  Not that I'd take his statement as gospel, but what would he have to lose by telling the truth?  Maybe I'm naïve to think that way.  After all, some people do get weird at airports.

But I'll bite.  Why do you believe he threw a tantrum the first time he was asked to give up his seat?

Based on his past history or at least what is said to be his past history of going against the flow. 

[blues deville]

The passenger in this incident had a boarding pass. So the contract between him and United was complete. And a request for volunteers should have ended when no one was giving up their seat. Today's United is a merged airline with Continental and both airlines have a history of flying to Asia and the South Pacific. Videos of the removed passenger aren't going to help future sales in that part of the world. 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/travel/united-customer-dragged-off-overbooked-flight/index.html

[deicer]

Ryanair weighs in...

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2017/04/11/ryanair-passenger-charged-15-euro-for-being-dragged-off-plane/

[blues deville]

Further investigation indicates the gentleman removed from the UAL flight may have an interesting past, however the whole event was a PR disaster. 

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/11/news/united-passenger-pr-disaster/index.html

[Super 80]

I don't really care if the guy had been paroled just that morning.

A lesson I had to learn and probably had to learn half a dozen times is sometimes you just have to walk away, find a more docile victim. Sometimes that means a jerk wins. However I seriously doubt this individual believed that the next step in this "negotiation" was getting his head bashed into the armrest across the aisle.

[Jaydee]

[Jaydee]

[deicer]

[boestar]

I'm sorry but if the airline gave me a boarding pass and let me board and sit in my assigned seat then said "oops we need your seat to board a crew"  You bet your ass I would be beligerant.  Lack of planning on your part does not constitute panic on mine.   I have my seat, get your own.

[Kip Powick]

LEGO......except they are dragging him the wrong way 

[DEFCON]

I think it looks like the cops are pulling him back to get the leverage needed for the armrest face slam?

[Maverick]

It just keeps getting worse for United.

 

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-united-low-priority-passenger-20170412-story.html

 

It’s hard to find examples of worse decision-making and customer treatment than United Airlines having a passenger dragged from an overbooked plane. But United’s shabby treatment of Geoff Fearns, including a threat to place him in handcuffs, comes close.

Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last week for a business conference.

Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.

Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.

“I asked why,” he told me. “They said the flight was overfull.”

Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night, held his ground. He was already on the plane, already seated. He shouldn’t have to disembark.

“That’s when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute,” Fearns said. “They said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.”

They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.

Apparently United had some mechanical troubles with the aircraft scheduled to make the flight. So the carrier swapped out that plane with a slightly smaller one with fewer first-class seats.

 

Suddenly it had more first-class passengers than it knew what to do with. So it turned to its “How to Screw Over Customers” handbook and determined that the one in higher standing — more miles flown, presumably — gets the seat and the other first-class passenger, even though he’s also a member of the frequent-flier program, gets the boot.

“I understand you might bump people because a flight is full,” Fearns said. “But they didn’t say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat. And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.”

You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

It shouldn’t make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If there’s anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, it’s that person.

So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the airline that knows how to add insult to injury.

A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.

“They argued the whole way back,” Fearns recalled. “Nearly six hours. It was a lot of fun.”

David Dao, United passenger who was dragged from plane, says he's still in the hospital

Back in Southern California, he consulted his lawyer and then wrote to United’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, who commended airline workers after the passenger-dragging incident “for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”

Fearns requested a full refund for his flight from Kauai and asked for United to make a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. This is how rich guys do it.

He received an email back from a United “corporate customer care specialist” apologizing that Fearns apparently had an unpleasant experience. But, no, forget about a refund.

As for that charitable donation, what are you kidding? A hard no on that.

Instead, the service rep offered to refund Fearns the difference between his first-class ticket and an economy ticket — about a week later, as if that wasn’t the first thing they should do in a situation like this — and to give him a $500 credit for a future trip on the airline.

“Despite the negative experience, we hope to have your continued support,” the rep concluded. “Your business is especially important to us and we'll do our utmost to make your future contacts with United satisfactory in every respect.”

I reached out to United and asked if anyone cared to comment on Fearns’ adventure in corporate catastrophe. No one got back to me.

Julia Underwood, a business professor at Azusa Pacific University, said United’s actions in both the dragged-off-the-plane episode and with Fearns reflect a coldhearted mindset utterly devoid of compassion for customers.

“They’re so locked into their policies, there’s no room for empathy,” she said.

As a result, Underwood said, situations that should be manageable spiral out of control and result in unnecessarily messy PR disasters.

“What United and all companies need to do is to train and empower workers to deal with specific issues as they arise,” she said. “Don’t just follow whatever is written in your policies.”

I couldn’t agree more. United is neck-deep in trouble this week because its workers are clearly out of their depth in handling out-of-the-ordinary events. You have to think someone on the flight crew would have been able to step up, if given the trust and authority to do so by the carrier.

Fearns said three different members of the crew on his middle-seat, economy-class return to L.A. apologized for how he was treated in Hawaii. But they said they were unable to do anything.

He’s now considering a lawsuit against United — and he certainly has the resources to press his case.

I asked if he’ll ever fly United again.

Fearns could only laugh. “Are you kidding?”

[Guest]

Video of what happened before the force-able removal by police:

http://globalnews.ca/news/3371673/david-dao-drug-offenses-united-airlines-overbooked/

[deicer]

[J.O.]

It would be nice if everyone reporting on the Dao situation would stop saying the flight was overbooked - it wasn't, at least not until United decided to bully a group of paying customers so it could recover from its own problems. As was said, how cheap does that Learjet charter to Louisville look now, Mr. Munoz???

[DEFCON]

The entire travel experience becomes an at your own risk adventure the moment you enter upon airport property. As Jesse Ventura learned, one must even be prepared to give up enshrined human Rights to fly.

[blues deville]

Adding more to this stupidity and not that it matters but the DH crew in need of seats were UA regional cabin crew. 

[deicer]

[Guest]

As I thought there was more to the story but, 

1. once seated no passenger should be forced to leave the aircraft.

2. Re positioning of crew due to a last min. change (mechanical etc.) does happen

3. Leaving the deadhead crew behind might not have been an option if that would have resulted in cancellation or another flight.

4. UAL should have just hired a small charter to make the flight or even paid for the dh crew to travel on another carrier.

read dumb...........

[Guest]

More Press for UAL

Scorpion reportedly stings man on flight to Calgary

Stowaway hitched a ride on United Airlines flight 1418 from Houston

The Canadian PressPosted: Apr 12, 2017 7:49 AM MT Last Updated: Apr 12, 2017 10:54 AM MT

There are 1,500 known scorpion species in the world, but they are rare in Canada. The one that apparently stung a man on a flight to Calgary had hitched a ride from Houston. (Christy Smith)Related Stories

Emergency medical crews made a dash to the Calgary airport last Sunday after word that a passenger on an inbound flight from the United States appeared to have been stung by a scorpion.

The feisty stowaway had hitched a ride on United Airlines flight 1418 from Houston and bitten a man in his 60s.

The passenger declined treatment after landing.

Paramedics were told that someone else aboard the plane had stepped on the bug and flushed it down the toilet.

United says it's looking into the incident.

The Mayo Clinic's website says only about 30 out of about 1,500 species of scorpions can cause potentially fatal stings

[Zan Vetter]

I'm surprised at the quite frankly ignorant takes on this thread from people who work/worked in this business. 

It appears that, per United corporate comms and their CEO, that the oversold/deboarding process was followed. Yes, the passenger paid for his seat. No, that doesn't entitle him to unlimited rights. I can't support the injuries he sustained but, when asked by the airline- after their voluntary and involuntary deboarding process has been complete, and then by the police to deplane, and you refuse, what do you envision the next scene looking like? Police backing down/allowing you to travel? 

I imagine that the crew attempting to board were positioning for an early flight the next day. Let's say at 0600. If they travel on the 2100 departure instead of the 1740, the next mornings flight is delayed. So it isn't difficult to understand why United attempted to deboard 4 pax that day, give them each $800 or $1000, send them at 2100, rather than send the crew on the 2100 flight thereby inconveniencing 75 passengers and likely busting several dozen connections in ORD the next day. 

And, it bears mentioning that denied boarding is not the same as overselling. We don't know if this flight was oversold, only that, for some reason United wanted to deny boarding to 4 people. Three of whom, it bears mentioning, got off the plane without fanfare.

[deicer]

[deicer]

Some of you might be of an age to understand this one...

 

[Super 80]

1 hour ago, Zan Vetter said:

I'm surprised at the quite frankly ignorant takes on this thread from people who work/worked in this business. 

It appears that, per United corporate comms and their CEO, that the oversold/deboarding process was followed. Yes, the passenger paid for his seat. No, that doesn't entitle him to unlimited rights. I can't support the injuries he sustained but, when asked by the airline- after their voluntary and involuntary deboarding process has been complete, and then by the police to deplane, and you refuse, what do you envision the next scene looking like? Police backing down/allowing you to travel? 

I imagine that the crew attempting to board were positioning for an early flight the next day. Let's say at 0600. If they travel on the 2100 departure instead of the 1740, the next mornings flight is delayed. So it isn't difficult to understand why United attempted to deboard 4 pax that day, give them each $800 or $1000, send them at 2100, rather than send the crew on the 2100 flight thereby inconveniencing 75 passengers and likely busting several dozen connections in ORD the next day. 

And, it bears mentioning that denied boarding is not the same as overselling. We don't know if this flight was oversold, only that, for some reason United wanted to deny boarding to 4 people. Three of whom, it bears mentioning, got off the plane without fanfare.

If you face resistance in a situation like this, don't escalate the situation just find somebody else and get the door closed without further delay.