UNITED AIRLINES – OVERBOOKED FLIGHT…

POST Canuckland DATE April 10, 17:39

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. This story clearly banishes that theory into the dustbin. And the lawyers must be wringing their hands with glee. As opposed to the UA employees who’ve clearly lost the plot.

PeterCoultas April 10, 21:35

Fly the friendly skies and get beaten to a pulp on the ground… totally disgusting as a long-term UA executive frequent flyer…

Rferguson April 10, 21:35

United could obviously have resolved this by offering generous compensation – which apparently it didn’t. The irony being it will likely cost them thousands of times more now. It is absolutely shameful the way they handled it.

Ah,Mr.Bond April 11, 11:30

I am sure anyone would become “disruptive” if asked to leave for no reason whatsoever. I hope this doctor takes UA to the cleaners for millions.

JohnHarper April 11, 11:58

This is shocking. I don’t travel to the US but if I did it would never again be on United. That their CEO is defending this situation based on their own overbooking and their desire to prioritise their crew tells me it’s not a company I want to do business with. Given that the gentleman had paid for his ticket and was in his seat United should have found another solution. Surely they knew before boarding that this situation was occurring and could have stopped it at the gate. If they did not know that then should they be operating an airline?

MartynSinclair April 11, 14:04

@stevecoots – “Unfortunately anything to do with flying in the US now is a licence to be treated like something scraped off your shoe by everyone involved.” Steve, never a truer word spoken. On my flight to the US yesterday, I witnessed a senior cabin crewmember (an American airline) threatening a passenger mid-flight, something that on any other Western (nonUS) airline would probably have resulted in the captain being called to intervene. Truly, truly shocking, and not all these incidents are in the name of “security”…

Edski777 April 11, 15:17

Apparently United used a method where they exclude unaccompanied minors and families. I suspect that they will also exclude high mileage frequent flyers and those sitting in a premium cabin. That leaves any single traveller or pair in economy open to being picked to be offloaded. It just requires going through the list of passengers and their status, no complicated piece of software required. Overbooking and trying to entice passengers to give up their seat in exchange for vouchers and a guaranteed seat on the next flight seems to be more common in the US than in Europe, although it happens. Interesting to see how this develops. It may change the business practice in the US on overbooking.