69 year old violently dragged from overbooked United flight


K

Klumpen

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And people wonder why I don't use planes.
Those companies have been free to make all kinds of exceptions to several human rights for a long time already now.
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I'm angry enough as it is. Watching that hasn't improved my mood in the slightest.
 
Unfortuantely, it seems to be something you signed into your contract when you booked the ticket, that you won't be permitted always to fly on the flight you booked. Letting the passengers get on and strapped in before deciding you need to fly more staff home than you planned for is unprofessional in the extreme, and causing these apparent sort of injuries to the guy may be classed as assault, but it's otherwise all legal and what you signed up for. The fact dozens of people filmed this has turned it into something of a PR own goal for united though, and especially the CEO talking about re-accommodating passengers in a bit of professional speak I can't even begin to decode the meaning of.
 
The airline screwed up big time by not offering more money for volunteers to willingly leave. I can't believe they stopped at just $800. Whatever they would have needed to spend is nothing compared to the PR cost of their actions.
 
There is a great post on reddit, but basically the company did NOT overbook. Overbooking is when you sell more seats than you have.

This practice is allowed by law (even though it shouldn't be). However the law also states that people with already reserved seats should be minimally impacted by overbooking.

Since they were transporting crew who didn't buy a ticket the law does not apply and the airline has no recourse to remove a paying passenger with a reserved seat, let alone assault them. Basically United will get f-ed big time.
 
Swordfish II said:
There is a great post on reddit, but basically the company did NOT overbook. Overbooking is when you sell more seats than you have.

This practice is allowed by law (even though it shouldn't be). However the law also states that people with already reserved seats should be minimally impacted by overbooking.

Since they were transporting crew who didn't buy a ticket the law does not apply and the airline has no recourse to remove a paying passenger with a reserved seat, let alone assault them. Basically United will get f-ed big time.
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As far as I can find it doesn't matter if they're overbooked or not, the airliner is allowed to deny transportation so long as they provide compensation to a value which is legally mandated:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5

They couldn't offer another flight until the next day so they would have had to compensate either 400% of the ticket's value or $1,350, whichever is less.

The passenger may have more of a case against the flight authority that injured him, with a claim that excessive force was used.

The penalty from a lawsuit is probably the least of United's worries in all of this. Their stock lost $1 billion in value and there's word of boycotts in China (where they have a ton of revenue) because the incident is being framed as racist.

I'm not sure if it's worthwhile to make overbooking illegal, since it'll increase the cost of tickets across the board for very little benefit. Instead the mandatory compensation should be increased by a lot and the airline should be required to advertise it to volunteers before forcing people off. If they offered a few thousand they'd probably find some takers.
 
Why exactly does this need to be dragged out in every corner of the internet ?
 
thatgui said:
Why exactly does this need to be dragged out in every corner of the internet ?
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Because thanks to cameras in mobile phones, officials and companies don't get away with such things as easily anymore when everybody will see it.
In the days of yore, all that was left of such things afterwards were opinions and testimonies but no proof, this has changed and that's a good thing so of course it needs to be spread.
 
Klumpen said:
Because thanks to cameras in mobile phones, officials and companies don't get away with such things as easily anymore when everybody will see it.
In the days of yore, all that was left of such things afterwards were opinions and testimonies but no proof, this has changed and that's a good thing so of course it needs to be spread.
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To what end ? Why is this so dramatically different from any other bit of unfairness that happens millions of times everyday ? Because a phone was involved ? This is just hyped up shit, people can get angry about and "share" their "righteous" anger.
 
Pyrate said:
No idea. Probably to take people's mind off of more important stuff happening in Syria and North Korea I guess
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Maybe because on the places you visit on Internet there are probably more people occasionally boarding planes than living in Syria or North Korea.
 
thatgui said:
To what end ? Why is this so dramatically different from any other bit of unfairness that happens millions of times everyday ? Because a phone was involved ? This is just hyped up shit, people can get angry about and "share" their "righteous" anger.
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Most dont like the idea that they can pay, have a contract, be receiving the agreed upon contract service. Then be told you aren't receiving it because they don't want to fulfill their end. Oh and they man handle you.
 
thatgui said:
Why is this so dramatically different from any other bit of unfairness that happens millions of times everyday
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Because this is a short term investment with almost immediate payoff. Share a video, people see it, backlash against United, and there's a very good chance that United might finally change its policies. United has been a garbage airline for as long as I've been flying but despite the number of anecdotes about how bad it is it's never been bad enough for the general public. I don't know why. This has gone viral, and there's a very good chance it'll have a real effect. Reblog a video, increase the reach, United changes policies, user feels good at being part of something.
The real issues, however, we've been fighting for years, decades even. And nothing seems to help: video of police brutality goes viral, police officer is put on leave with pay, and brought back after a month, and nothing changes. Videos of refugees in need go viral, people speak out, and the government literally shuts them down. It's actually pretty hope destroying, that feeling that you can't make a difference.
Viral videos like this need to be spread because they show that you can make a difference, even if it's only in a small way.
Just because it's a small issue compared to the real problems of the world doesn't mean it should be ignored.
 
thatgui said:
Why exactly does this need to be dragged out in every corner of the internet ?
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Because United deserve as much bad PR as possible.
If you want big companies to actually remember that their only value is within their clients, the consumers have to fight back every time a company screwed up big time. And here, United screwd up at universal scale.
The billion in stock value lost on this event is very cheaply paid if you ask me
 
thatgui said:
Why exactly does this need to be dragged out in every corner of the internet ?
Click to expand...

Because it's a great illustration of the violence underpinning capitalism, and because reaction against new violence is generally stronger than violence that has already been normalized. Also, because this way we can resist new violent norms, or at least blunt them.
 
thatgui said:
To what end ? Why is this so dramatically different from any other bit of unfairness that happens millions of times everyday ? Because a phone was involved ? This is just hyped up shit, people can get angry about and "share" their "righteous" anger.
Click to expand...

There's a very good chance United will change their policies as a result of this. And if they don't, people will know to avoid them.

The media and internet in general does cause a lot of overreaction and is very sensational, which can lead to unintended consequences when some story is misunderstood or blown out of proportion. The other recent controversy with United kicking off an employee related passenger for violating dress code is a good example. But if no one exposes anything no one gets held accountable and little changes for the better...
 
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