Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

resistancereport.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 274 posts

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#201

Post by wdr1 »

askafriend wrote: post #59
cube00 wrote: post #4

If they had just increased the compensation passengers would have voluntarily given up their seat, everyone has their price. It didn't even need to be money, free flights, upgrades, it costs them next to nothing, especially when you consider this is still running in the media days later. Everyone hates to hear they overbook flights so you'd think when they get bitten United would take some of the savings made overboo…

Apparently someone on the plane offered to give up their seat for $1600 and the manager laughed in their face. Here's an account from someone who was actually on that plane: https://twitter.com/flsurfr/status/851556475013038080

Note that's $1,600 in United credits that expire.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#202

Post by dang »

antisthenes wrote: post #49
tyingq wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jimmy Kimmel pointed out the main reason why they get away with this. “The next time we book a flight, it doesn’t matter if it’s United or Delta or American, if one of those flights is a dollar less than the other one, that’s the one we’ll pick. They know this. That’s why we’re stuck with them.” I don't understand the dynamics of how it ended up this way. Air travel used to be a luxury, and had fairly high margins. T…

Isn't that what most of HN is so frantically behind? Free markets at work, deregulated to the point of making little to no economic profit, no consumer protections, and what you call a "race to the bottom" is actually what occurs under perfectly competitive markets. Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts and being surprised when something happens according to basic economic theory i…

> Isn't that what most of HN is so

Such perceptions are common but usually in the eye of the beholder. HN is divided about such things.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#203

Post by vidanay »

tyingq wrote: post #43
cortesoft wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the alternative to commercial airlines for someone who isn't crazy rich?

High speed rail would kill off a lot of shorter routes, but it just doesn't work in the US for some reason. When I was in the UK, I took the Virgin Rail from London to Manchester. The additional room and ability to walk around made it so much better than a flight. I would have paid more. The time difference was negligible once you count all the extra screening time for airports.

Good to know! I just booked round trip Manchester London on that rail in June.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#204

Post by cmurf »

valuearb wrote: post #175
BlackFly wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a fantastic link. Summary of the points: CFR 250.2a covers overbooking but only applies before boarding. Since the United employees had no confirmed reserved seats on the aircraft, they cannot be given priority over a customer with a confirmed reserved seat. The passenger was already boarded, so they cannot rely on oversales rules to refuse service. Instead they need to rely on their Contract of Carriage whic…

"which does not allow them to eject customers for any reason whatsoever. The most circular thing they could eject him for was failure to follow the terms of the contract of carriage for refusing to disembark" You should go back to law school. They can eject anyone at any time for any reason. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/757712/passengers-rejoic... http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/201...

You're wrong.

Both of your examples would violate Rule 21, H, 1, and therefore removal is allowed.

In the case under discussion, the passenger was not in breach of rule 21 for any of the listed reasons.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#205

Post by antisthenes »

tyingq wrote: post #55
antisthenes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what most of HN is so frantically behind? Free markets at work, deregulated to the point of making little to no economic profit, no consumer protections, and what you call a "race to the bottom" is actually what occurs under perfectly competitive markets. Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts and being surprised when something happens according to basic economic theory i…

>Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts Er, okay. There are other products and services with heavy competition that aren't a terrible experience. There's more going on here than just generic capitalism.

> Er, okay. There are other products and services with heavy competition that aren't a terrible experience.

Please, elaborate, and be specific about the regulation present in the sale of those products and services.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#206

Post by jstandard »

tyingq wrote: post #55
antisthenes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that what most of HN is so frantically behind? Free markets at work, deregulated to the point of making little to no economic profit, no consumer protections, and what you call a "race to the bottom" is actually what occurs under perfectly competitive markets. Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts and being surprised when something happens according to basic economic theory i…

>Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts Er, okay. There are other products and services with heavy competition that aren't a terrible experience. There's more going on here than just generic capitalism.

You have the option of paying more for a less terrible experience. Pricing is also customizable, allowing you to target the exact part of the experience you find terrible.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#207

Post by unprepare »

pdelbarba wrote: post #184
cortesoft wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the alternative to commercial airlines for someone who isn't crazy rich?

PPL ASEL will cost you about $8k (doable if you really want it) and a 172@$105/hr wet to travel around in at 110kts. Take two fearless friends and you have yourself a private airline.

Whats the time commitment like? is it full time for 3 months or a couple hours every weekend for 6 months ?

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#208

Post by tyingq »

vidanay wrote: post #203
tyingq wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High speed rail would kill off a lot of shorter routes, but it just doesn't work in the US for some reason. When I was in the UK, I took the Virgin Rail from London to Manchester. The additional room and ability to walk around made it so much better than a flight. I would have paid more. The time difference was negligible once you count all the extra screening time for airports.

Good to know! I just booked round trip Manchester London on that rail in June.

It was great. Not posh or anything, but better all around. You can use a laptop, eat actual food at an actual bar/table, see some pretty countryside views. And even if the train is packed, you aren't crammed into the passenger next to you. Not to mention the relaxed boarding experience.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#209

Post by ntsplnkv3 »

bronco21016 wrote: post #185
tomaha wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should make sure they have the seats for their personnel and not sell them to customers. In every other business if you sell the same thing to two people I would call it fraud.

It's really not that simple at all. A multitude of things could have happened in SDF (Louisville) causing the crew there to be unable to fly. Since it was a whole crew I would guess they hit up against FAA mandated rest requirements. In the interest of making sure that flight in SDF still went out the airline scrambled to get a reserve (flight crew members that are on-call) crew down to SDF. These things often happen…

> Since it was a whole crew I would guess they hit up against FAA mandated rest requirements.

Gee, I wonder if they could, I don't know, hire more people so that these situations don't happen as often? Heaven forbid they lose a little bit of profit a year...

You simply delay the other flight. You don't force someone off of a flight they've already boarded.

Re: Leaked email from United Airlines CEO blames passenger for violent removal

#210

Post by tyingq »

jstandard wrote: post #206
tyingq wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Thinking you can have the good parts of competition without the bad parts Er, okay. There are other products and services with heavy competition that aren't a terrible experience. There's more going on here than just generic capitalism.

You have the option of paying more for a less terrible experience. Pricing is also customizable, allowing you to target the exact part of the experience you find terrible.

There's really only two tiers, and the price jump is crazy. And does nothing for large parts of the bad experience.
Post reply on HN