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Doctor violently dragged from full United flight (1 Viewer)

RokNRole said:
I don't think they should have been removed by force either
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Well somebody isn't getting home right away. 

100% on United. The guy is going to end up getting paid and rightfully so.

I would say though If I'm being told to get off the plane by the airline staff, then by air marshalls I'm probably not escalating it to being dragged off the plane but that's just me. 

 
The General said:
Well somebody isn't getting home right away. 

100% on United. The guy is going to end up getting paid and rightfully so.

I would say though If I'm being told to get off the plane by the airline staff, then by air marshalls I'm probably not escalating it to being dragged off the plane but that's just me. 
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Maybe he was negotiating the price?

 
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rockaction said:
Dude, this isn't about the best PR policy. This is about the equitability of a person forced off a flight he had reserved because of overbooking and rewriting the essential free market corrections to unsold seats. United did not abide. #### them.  
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Jason Steele‏Verified account @FilmCow 42m42 minutes ago

Don't worry about the bad press, @united!

I mean, what company HASN'T beaten a customer unconscious for wanting the service they paid for?

 
squistion said:
Jason Steele‏Verified account @FilmCow 42m42 minutes ago

Don't worry about the bad press, @united!

I mean, what company HASN'T beaten a customer unconscious for wanting the service they paid for?
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Yeah, you're not wrong. I'm just thinking why should I be concerned for United's public image. 

I don't care about their public image. I care about equitable seating on flights and the push and pull of supply and demand for both consumer and corporation. As regulation goes, people will indeed be taking United long into the distance. This is but a blip. I want something more fundamental, like a change in policy for reimbursement of customers for giving up seats when they have a legitimate ticket and not getting the #### beat out of them.  

 
mquinnjr said:
I think United is the root cause for letting it get to the point where US Marshalls were involved  How the US Marshalls acted is part of their job I'd think to treat every person with equal force. Does not make it right, but the US Marshalls are collateral damage IMO. United is the root cause letting it get to that point by not allotting seats for their own employees in an effort to make sure every seat was sold and get the employees to work for another United flight. Penny wise, pound foolish on United's part.  
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For sure. And I suppose some idiot United employee didn't accurately convey the situation to the air marshal and simply told him we need to get this passenger off the plane asap. Still, to just knock the guy out and drag him off. Geez.

 
I just learned that airlines can randomly select people to be removed?  That seems stupid to start with

 
belljr said:
I just learned that airlines can randomly select people to be removed?  That seems stupid to start with
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It's supposed to be an auction, but if one side does not consent to the auction, then there's no sale. 

It used to work well...and still does...until this.  

 
mquinnjr said:
From the USA Today link:

Yeah, that's f'ed up. United purposely oversold the flight, which I know is common, but to the point where they knew and planned for this "4 people to leave" scenario to take place - on board - all in the name of getting the United employees to work another flight.

F these airlines in all seriousness. What kind of BS is that to have a planned strategy to muscle 4 passengers off once everyone has boarded for takeoff so that another flight can be facilitated? Is the next fee that they'll roll out "random on-board removal protection" for an extra $100/seat/leg? United should have sold 4 less seats, end of story. 

United - OTSS. Book now!
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AND wait until they are in charge of the Private FAA!!!!

 
Haven't read the reddit thread, but this guy really got back on the plane? His behavior in the 3rd link, pacing around, that didn't lead to the Air Marshalls getting involved?

 
Limp Ditka said:
Haven't read the reddit thread, but this guy really got back on the plane? His behavior in the 3rd link, pacing around, that didn't lead to the Air Marshalls getting involved?
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I read the reddit thread. Lots of people making the claim that since he's a doctor, that most definitely matters in terms of the potential lawsuit he and others could file against United.

For him, the US Marshalls slammed his head against an arm rest, did that cause neurological damage? Is he a surgeon, will that affect his ability to practice or otherwise do his work?

For the patients, if he's a general practitioner and had patients who took off to see him and he had to cancel because of this, what's their time worth? Better yet, what if he works at a hospital and has procedures scheduled that now have to be canceled and moved, what's that worth to the hospital system and the patient who moved their life around to see him? What if he's a trauma surgeon and is on-call when he gets back and no one can back him up, and something happens when he's supposed to be in the hospital that he can't be there for because of United?

My basic takeaway was that there's a very short list of worse professions that United could have picked to do this to from a lawsuit perspective. Seems juicy with all the video evidence for a competent lawyer.

 
Limp Ditka said:
Haven't read the reddit thread, but this guy really got back on the plane? His behavior in the 3rd link, pacing around, that didn't lead to the Air Marshalls getting involved?
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" Kids were crying people are disturbed. Also after being removed the bloodied man somehow ran back on the plane repeating-I have to get home."

 
Niles Standish said:
Close to 10 years ago I flew United and my connector flight was late.  I ran between gates and made it something like 18 minutes prior to departure where their policy said you need to be 20 before.  They were still boarding passengers but had sold my seat to somebody going standby.  They gave me a crappy hotel room and my flight from Denver to Columbia, SC took more than 24 hours.  They did give me enough of a dinner voucher that I was able to almost cover a subway sandwich at the airport.  I have not flown United since and never will again.  If I had been late enough that they were done boarding I would have been less angry.  But it kind of sucks when there is still a line of people 10 deep boarding (I'd assume all standby at that point) and I wasn't allowed to use my ticket.
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Our United flight out of Maui was cancelled due to mechanical failure.  It was the last flight of the night so there were no other flights to get us out.  I spoke with a United customer service rep that helped us avoid the line for a hotel voucher, got us set up on an early flight the following day, and set us up with $500 in future flight vouchers (that I received within 48 hours) for our trouble.  I was actually quite impressed with their level of service and commitment to providing me with a positive customer experience.

 
So they kicked off people for their own employees?

Passengers were allowed to board the flight, Bridges said, and once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats, Bridges said, and the offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.

:lmao:  Their employees are more important to them than their customers.

 
Statorama said:
Our United flight out of Maui was cancelled due to mechanical failure.  It was the last flight of the night so there were no other flights to get us out.  I spoke with a United customer service rep that helped us avoid the line for a hotel voucher, got us set up on an early flight the following day, and set us up with $500 in future flight vouchers (that I received within 48 hours) for our trouble.  I was actually quite impressed with their level of service and commitment to providing me with a positive customer experience.
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Probably a tad easier to get people to hang in Hawaii for an extra day.

 
I haven't been on a flight in years that hasn't been overbooked (oversold).  What gives?  They know how to take the reservation, just not how to keep the reservation.

 
The General said:
Probably a tad easier to get people to hang in Hawaii for an extra day.
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I deal with customer service types quite a bit and really appreciate those that go out of their way to help, regardless of the circumstance.  The extra Hawaii day didn't matter for us since our flight out the following day was early (and the rep did provide me with a number of different flights/times to choose from, I chose the first one out).

Full disclosure, I am white, so I may have gotten preferential treatment.

 
lod001 said:
So they kicked off people for their own employees?

Passengers were allowed to board the flight, Bridges said, and once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats, Bridges said, and the offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.

:lmao:  Their employees flight which those employees needed to work so that flight's net income wasn't lost to United are more important to them than their customers.
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Fixed.

 
Sadly, a person who claims to be a lawyer doesn't think the guy will have a case:

Nah. The plane is private property. Per a comment below the airline followed its procedure for overbooked flights. When the guy refused to leave the plane he became a trespasser. Even if there was negligence on the part of the security company, and I doubt there was, the laws on how you treat trespassers typically give a lot of leeway to the property owner (and their agents). It's a PR problem for sure, but as someone who defended large companies my entire career, they aren't giving him anywhere near a million dollars and anything he filed would probably be tossed at the pleading stage for failure to state a claim (I don't know that for sure because I don't know aviation law but I bet it is very favorable to the airlines). My guess is that an airline would not even settle this kind of case because it could incentivize people from following crew requests. Edit: Wanted also throw out the possibility that he committed a crime by refusing to leave. I believe refusing a crew order is possibly even a felony.
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From a different thread on reddit.

 
Ultimately, this wont matter. People will continue to choose United if the price is right and the flight is scheduled when it works for them. 

 
3C's said:
That avoids the question. Sure, it would have been better to avoid it in the first place but at that point their options were limited. So once everyone was on board and their policy says they can offer up to this amount to get passengers to volunteer and no one accepted, what options did they (strictly talking the crew there) have?
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bring in a flight crew from literally any other city where they have one i have to guess this is not the only other flight crew they could have gotten over there but hey that would be no fun and no doctor would be a beatdown so i see what you are saying bromigo take that to the bank

 
shader said:
How anyone on earth could defend the airline here is incomprehensible.  Legally, yes, they can do whatever they want, and they did.  It's their plane and they used their security to drag a man off the plane.

But what an absolute joke and a total embarrassment for the company.  It's a horrible way to treat a paying customer.  Perhaps the worst business decision I've ever seen.  I guarantee a bunch of people on that flight will never fly United again.  Same for many people who now see the video.  And why?  So they could get some EMPLOYEES on the flight????

Employees should ALWAYS come behind customers.  Always.  No exceptions.  If you forget that, you don't deserve to stay in business.  

If it's an urgent, urgent matter, you offer 500, 1k, 2k, 3k, whatever it takes to get a seat open.
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I get where you are coming from but this is a grown man not complying with federal air marshals. Would any of you let this get to the point that you had to be physically dragged from your seat, i know that i wouldn't?  I am not condoning what the airline did buy there seems to be plenty of blame to be handed out.  

 
Statorama said:
Our United flight out of Maui was cancelled due to mechanical failure.  It was the last flight of the night so there were no other flights to get us out.  I spoke with a United customer service rep that helped us avoid the line for a hotel voucher, got us set up on an early flight the following day, and set us up with $500 in future flight vouchers (that I received within 48 hours) for our trouble.  I was actually quite impressed with their level of service and commitment to providing me with a positive customer experience.
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Typically I've found the same with Airlines.  If you don't get what you want from the local airport staff, be friendly and call their national customer service and they'll go above and beyond.

 
SWC said:
bring in a flight crew from literally any other city where they have one i have to guess this is not the only other flight crew they could have gotten over there but hey that would be no fun and no doctor would be a beatdown so i see what you are saying bromigo take that to the bank
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How many planes with a spare crew are flying into Louisville at that time?

 
sbonomo said:
I get where you are coming from but this is a grown man not complying with federal air marshals. Would any of you let this get to the point that you had to be physically dragged from your seat, i know that i wouldn't?  I am not condoning what the airline did buy there seems to be plenty of blame to be handed out.  
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Yeah, I'd probably be with him until the police were on the plane.  Someone said he probably committed a felony.

 
If I'm United, I'm taking CNN off the TV at the gates and showing this as a warning to others. .

 
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