United Airlines carnage

[hhyftrftdr]

Randomly picked people on their computer
Will be whoever paid the least for their flights

Is that seriously how they work it?  Budget boys get booted first?  Makes sense from a business angle.  You wouldn't want to boot a guy who had just paid top dollar 6 hours before the flight to fly last minute.  Still incredibly harsh PR wise.  Surely you just up the ante with bribes until someone bites to get off and avoid the bad PR?  How often does this style of 'boot off' happen?  Surely never happens otherwise it would be on SM all the time right?

Can't imagine it would have been totally random; guessing there would have been at least a few frequent fliers/VIP customers on board and these people probably would have been immune from selection. It might have been random from a pool of passengers who United Airlines felt were fair game to remove?

Yeah its a massive own goal from them. It went from $400 (no takers) to $800 (2 takers), but then instead of offering more they got the heavies involved it seems. Whilst overbooking is prevalent, I've never seen anyone forcibly removed from an aircraft like that.

America; land of the free.

[Marky147]

Randomly picked people on their computer
Will be whoever paid the least for their flights

Is that seriously how they work it?  Budget boys get booted first?  Makes sense from a business angle.  You wouldn't want to boot a guy who had just paid top dollar 6 hours before the flight to fly last minute.  Still incredibly harsh PR wise.  Surely you just up the ante with bribes until someone bites to get off and avoid the bad PR?  How often does this style of 'boot off' happen?  Surely never happens otherwise it would be on SM all the time right?

Why don't they just operate a policy of the last 2 to check in get booted off?  Would speed up the take off process if people knew this.  Last minute check in types wouldn't be getting pissed so often in the bar if this was the policy.

Had two muppets doing this on the way back from Tenerife after Cheltenham. Was the flight before mine, and they had to move mine to another gate, because this dopey bird and her boyfriend were plotted up in the bar.

Best thing was, it was being piped every two minutes from the gate, and the bar was less than 20 yards away.

[4KSuited]

There's something we are not being told.

Airlines know whether a flight is oversold way before everybody gets to the gate, let alone gets to their seats on the aircraft.

The editorial mentions that they had to accommodate 4 airline personnel, therefore 4 paying passengers had to come off. This "positioning crew" are also known in advance, and are taken into account usually before the gate opens, so that if people have to come off, they are held at the gate.

Seems like the Flight Management Unit screwed up in this instance.

All airlines have their own policies in terms of how they get the "oversolds" off the flight. I can't speak for United, but other airlines will take people off based strictly on the cost of the fare - so be careful when you use your airmiles, or pay for Handluggage Only tickets if you really need to get to where you want to on the day you want. But in any event, this kind of thing (people being forcibly removed) would never happen here in the UK unless they were being aggressive or disruptive.

[exstream]

If they boot off the people that paid the least, they have to compensate less. Supposedly 4x what the they paid for flight in usa

[Marky147]

Drag an old guy off by his legs, and pay 4000x.

[DropTheHammer]

But in any event, this kind of thing (people being forcibly removed) would never happen here in the UK unless they were being aggressive or disruptive.

You're not wrong there. I had the pleasure of a London > Ibiza Sleazyjet evening flight in September and the Police were called onto the flight to remove three passengers. After what seemed like an age of negotiations, ONE of the lads was booted off. Then some more talk and the rest were left there. I couldn't believe they didn't just yank them all off straight away on the stewards' say so.

I couldn't believe when I heard this story and am disgusted that they forcibly removed this customer from their plane. I hope United Airlines goes bust over this, and wouldn't be shocked if it happens.

[TightEnd]

why do airlines overbook?

[Woodsey]

why do airlines overbook?

Because there is always a certain number of no shows, and they know this,  they use it to max profits. When they get it wrong people are usually quick to take the £££.

[tikay]

why do airlines overbook?

Because there is always a certain number of no shows, and they know this,  they use it to max profits. When they get it wrong people are usually quick to take the £££.

Exactly that.

And the optimised revenue, even at, say, 5%, can be the difference between profit & loss. 

[doubleup]

This wasn't really overbooking.  They threw off seated passengers to make way for their staff for operational reasons.

The CEO said

Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this," the Associated Press quoted the email as saying.

"While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right."

WAC

The airlines license should be revoked until they amend their procedures.

[Longines]

2000+ post thread here, has a good summary in the Wiki at the top:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-airlines-mileageplus/1835638-man-pulled-off-overbooked-flight-ua3411-ord-sdf-9-april-2017-a.html

[4KSuited]

Aviation Security Officers... These are the guys who man the security scanning processes at US airports. I've rarely met one who's had the benefit of customer service training. Standard approach is that everyone's a potential threat rather than trying to do their vital job whilst making travellers feel that it's simply an essential (if inconvenient) part of the air travel routine.

I must say that, having read the summary that Longines provided the link to, I do feel a little sorry for United.

Their part of this cock-up was the mis-management of the re-positioning crew's seating. All of this should have been dealt with before all the commercial passengers were allowed onto the aircraft. However, they got 3 of their volunteers by using the cash offer before encountering this guy who allegedly became increasingly belligerent and abusive. What's not their fault is the way in which the Aviation Security Officers chose to deal with the passenger, but they're getting the full blame for it.

[Doobs]

It is four and a half hours by car.  Shove the crew in a taxi if it is already fully boarded.  Seems stupid to delay the flight in the first place, never mind what happened after.

[Longines]

It is four and a half hours by car.  Shove the crew in a taxi if it is already fully boarded.  Seems stupid to delay the flight in the first place, never mind what happened after.

I think the contract between the airlines and unions/flight crew prohibits this otherwise they'd be doing it for lots of 'short' hops in the US.

[Ironside]

the crew seating could of been air marshalls rather than pilots and cabin crew