Fly the not-so-friendly skies

[CraigM]

@Stepsongrapes

don’t see anything in that post that says they couldn’t have uber’ed them. I fully get you can’t hose another flight (causing a domino effect), but I don’t see anything in that post that says you have to get them there by plane. Now, that may well be the case, but it isn’t evident from what’s in that post.

Possibly that they have to get them there with a certain gap between arrival and their flight, which ground transport may not have covered.

[Stepsongrapes]

@CraigM

Possibly that they have to get them there with a certain gap between arrival and their flight, which ground transport may not have covered

Definitely possible. Which gets back to the mistake of starting boarding before straightening it out.

It’s been mentioned up thread, but I’m amazed at how little people are paying to the police fuck up in all this.

Personally, I see the blame for the situation, that day, as being more on the cops than on United. United, admittedly, gets 100% of the blame for the PR clusterfuck side of it. A statement about never imagining it would go so far and being horrified by how it turned out and there goal being to simply get the other passengers to their destinations on time would have really helped.

[ShivaX]

@CraigM

Possibly that they have to get them there with a certain gap between arrival and their flight, which ground transport may not have covered.

Pretty sure there are regulations that the pilot needs X amount of time before a flight or the like because you don’t want your flight crew falling asleep at the stick.

That said, the flight ended up delayed like… 2+ hours because of the incident iirc, so they didn’t really come out ahead much on that one. They should have just increased the offer. Or you know, not boarded the fucking plane before it was all sorted out.

[Strollen]

@Stepsongrapes

I don’t see anything in that post that says they couldn’t have uber’ed them. I fully get you can’t hose another flight (causing a domino effect), but I don’t see anything in that post that says you have to get them there by plane. Now, that may well be the case, but it isn’t evident from what’s in that post.

Now, if it truly was a “we must do this”, the big management screw-up was the choice to start boarding before sorting it out. Probably happened due to fear of a delayed flight, but in retrospect, obviously a bad, bad decision.

I’m not positive but I’d be willing to bet that Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) require that the crew be flown in. So even if a star trek transporter was available the rules would say you have to fly by commercial carrier. I’m inactive Private Pilot and most FAR are written in active stong voice. You shall do this, you shall NOT do that.

[ShivaX]

Another Insane United Airlines Incident Occurs; Handcuffs Involved This Time

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Stepsongrapes]

That article has so few details. It reads like some wannabe journalist breathlessly typing up a story to get in on the current craze before someone scoops him/her.

[wavey]

One detail from the LA Times version of the story made it sound like a bad sitcom (context: passenger downgraded from first class after boarding):

A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.

“They argued the whole way back,” Fearns recalled. “Nearly six hours. It was a lot of fun.”

[Timex]

So, uh, that makes it even more bullshit.

Because it means the fight wasn’t overbooked. Instead, some other “more important” person got the seat.

Fuck that noise even more.

[Nesrie]

The article make it sounds like it was overbooked… because they swapped out the original plane for a smaller plane, but didn’t know it when they sold him a full fare first class ticket AND let him through the gate? This is just weird.

He had to ask for a refund… it’s like UA is on cruise control.

[rrmorton]

One good thing that came out of all of this… my Overwatch main Pharah’s voiceline “Fly the friendly skies” is suddenly a lot more timely.

[Misguided]

I think the plane switch happened last minute or close to it. I read that story yesterday, and if I were that guy and was threatened with handcuffs, I’d have replied, “ok, I’ll wait here while you go get them”. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Pyperkub]

@Telefrog

@Banzai

After boarding, United decided that they needed four seats for their own, not paying, employees, who did not have tickets for a seat on that plane.

United made their first offer before anyone boarded. No one accepted the $400 offer. Then, they boarded the flight. United made their $800 offer after everyone was seated. No one took that either. That’s when the lottery picks started.

And that was the first mistake, because the law, as well as the ticket contract makes a clear distinction between denial of Carriage/bumping before boarding and post boarding.

The second mistake was stopping at $800.

The third mistake was not finding alternative travel for their employees.

The fourth mistake was illegally asking the police to forcibly remove the passenger.

The police also should have ignored the illegal request to remove a legally boarded passenger, unless of course united lied about the reason force was needed to the police.

[Woolen_Horde]

Yeah, United just needs to keep upping the offer.

It’s like a game show. Sure, someone is probably holding out for maximum money, but their problem is that there are a couple hundred people on the flight who might settle for slightly less. At which point, when do you give in and accept? It’s game theory at that point.

Eventually, someone’s greed will shine through.

[magnet]

United finally ups the offer

With United Airlines under intense scrutiny over its handling of a Sunday night flight out of O’Hare International Airport in which a passenger was violently forced off the plane because the flight did not have enough seats, the airline now says it will refund the tickets for all passengers on the flight.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Department of Aviation is investigating what happened, and has put two more aviation officials on leave of absence. One aviation officer was already put on leave earlier this week for his role in grabbing and dragging the passenger off the flight as his face bled.

[divedivedive]

Just in case you needed one more reason not to fly United:

Emergency crews called to airport after man reportedly stung by scorpion on...

[Enidigm]

I had to book United for my vacation. I wonder if the travel insurance would accept a cancellation reason being “United”.

[Telefrog]

That’s how United can spin the “re-accomodation” issue.

“We were just trying to get him away from the overhead compartment scorpion den.”

[divedivedive]

Yeah I kind of figured that’s probably just a cultural difference. It would be rude to confront a passenger directly to ask them to deplane, just drop a scorpion on his head instead.

[Timex]

“In the event of a water landing, your seat cushions can be used as a flotation device. In the event of an involuntary de-boarding, motherfucking scorpions will drop from the ceiling onto your head.”

[CraigM]

I have had it with these motherfucking scorpions on this motherfucking plane.