Airline, not tossed man, broke contract

The writer of the letter discussing the removal of a person from the United Airlines flight had one thing right — it could happen to any of us.

The problems becomes, when does a vendor, any vendor, have the right to use police force for the solutions of their own created problem.

United overbooked a flight, then realized they still didn’t have room for a crew they knew prior to the flight needed to be on it. They offered money for people to give up their seats. Some chose to do so. The person in question chose not to; he held a valid, paid for ticket, with an assigned seat and was in that seat. That is a contract the airline made with that passenger. If for their own reasons they chose not to honor that, what right did the passenger give up when he already was cleared by security (he had already agreed to that)? He was within his legal right to say he was not leaving because he didn’t want their money; he wanted to stay in the seat his ticket contract had gave him. So to solve their problem, they called police to remove him.

As to a lawful order from a flight crew, the passenger was not rowdy or creating a disturbance or safety issue before they tried to remove him. Airline crews are not police. That is the only time they can make a lawful command — not when they want to throw a paying passenger off to fix a mistake they created.