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Old April 13th 17, 08:14 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,aus.aviation,alt.law-enforcement,talk.politics.guns,sac.politics
RD Sandman[_2_]
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Posts: 9
Default United Airlines, We put the "Hospital" in "Hospitality"!

First-Post wrote in
:

On Thu, 13 Apr 2017 13:02:39 -0500, RD Sandman
wrote:

First-Post wrote in
m:

On Wed, 12 Apr 2017 11:33:24 -0500, RD Sandman
wrote:

Sylvia Else wrote in
:

On 12/04/2017 12:06 PM, de chucka wrote:
On 12/04/2017 11:43 AM, Sylvia Else wrote:
On 12/04/2017 7:51 AM, Air Gestapo wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STJQnu72Nec

Find us on http://www.facebook.com/flightorg. On the 9th April,
2017, a man was forcibly removed from United Airlines Flight
3411 in Chicago, set for Louisville. While we'd normally say
that until we have all the information, we have no information
at all, the United response tends to confirm the incident as
described by passengers. United Airlines said that ... "Flight
3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team
looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the
aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to
the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation."


It's a difficult situation. If a person refusing to leave were
allowed to stay, then passengers would never comply. If force
has

to
be used to remove a non-compliant passenger, then that's what
has

to
be done.

Bumping passengers in favour of its own staff looks strange, but
it may be that if those staff weren't carried, it would have
knock on effects for other flights.

To my mind, the proper solution to the overbooking problem is

either
to ban it outright (given that it's deliberate, not just a

mistake),
or to require that the airline just keep offering more and more
money until they do get the needed volunteers. If that means
they have to offer tens of thousands of dollars, then so be it -
that's the price of overbooking.

There is absolutely no excuse for overbooking flights and
bouncing booked passengers with valid tickets. In this case they
bounced him down the aisle


If they didn't overbook, then there'd be many more flights with
empty seats when people didn't show up. If you were an airline
exec

wouldn't
you been looking at those seats, and wishing you could earn some

money
from them.

The problem is not the overbooking, but how it's handled when, as
occasionally happens, too many people actually turn up.

Pretty much. The problme in this case is that the passengers were
bounced to make room for United employees who are not fare paying
passengers.

They probably could have easily talked some economy class passengers
to take a different flight if they simply offered them first class
fair on another flight, even if it had to be on a competitive
airline.

The broader picture I get from this incident is that United and
likely a few other airlines seem to have forgotten that they are in
a customer service industry. They may legally be able to treat
passengers like they are conscripts in the military but just because
you can do something doesn't mean that you should.


I would assume you to be correct.

Lastly, the four employees big emergency was that they had to be at
a meeting the next day.


Aaah, I thought that perhaps they were needed for another flight from
the destination airport. I have been on many flights where airline
personnel were being flown to their duty station for the day. A
stewardess friend of mine lived in Waco but often flew out of Dallas
or New Orleans. She would fly to the airport where her day started.


I would think that they probably did have another flight out of
Louisville as well. But the report I read stated that the meeting
wasn't until the next morning which means that their flight would be
after that. So they had plenty of time as well as, I believe, 28
other flights for Louisville from Chicago that same afternoon and
evening.


That was news to me. I had not seen those reports as I was tied most of
last night and this morning. Thx.

The whole situation could have been avoided had
United simply rented the employees a nice car and let them make the
4½ hour drive which still would have had them in Louisville in
plenty of time to have dinner, settle in and still get a full
night's sleep before their meeting the next morning.
And it wouldn't have cost the airline as much as those 4 non paying
seats did.


And still may. It appears that the doctor suffered broken teeth,
broken nose and a concussion. It ain't over, mon ami.


My bet is that UA will try to settle with him if he sues regardless of
whether he has a good case or not.


I would also assume so.

This incident is hurting them bad in the PR department and the stock
holders are obviously getting nervous from the way their stock is
looking. So they'll want this to go away ASAP.


Exactomundo!!



--

RD Sandman

Airspeed, altitude and brains....two of the three are always
required to complete a mission.

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