Remove United from your flight results • Hacker News Board

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#81

Post by paulddraper » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:29 AM UTC

rm999 wrote: post #69

The comments in here are oddly fatalist about the whole thing. We put a lot of trust in airlines; and not just in safety or to get us somewhere, but we also give them an unusual number of legal protections once we're in their care. When the drama first started I kind of wrote it off: "this must have been a misunderstanding compounded by a single employee's stupidity". But when I found that it was not only condoned, b…

> when I found that it was not only condoned, but fully defended by the company top-down, red flags went off.

I thought United Airlines and CEO apologized?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-united-boarding-201704...

> “That is not who our family at United is,” Munoz said.

> Later Wednesday, United said all customers on that flight are receiving compensation for their ticket costs.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#82

Post by s0rce » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:31 AM UTC

jballanc wrote: post #40

product50 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am assuming you are not in SF. SF is United's hub - you really lose out on a number of conveniently timed direct flights (which many cases are also cheapest) if you just chose to drop United from your consideration.

JetBlue from San Jose is often just as convenient, and the only cost is an extra hour or so on the train.

A lot more from the East Bay sadly, takes about 1hr on BART to SFO from Oakland, to get to San Jose I would have to take BART + Caltrain or just drive. I wish their were more flights out of Oakland.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#83

Post by empath75 » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:31 AM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #81

rm999 wrote: post #69

The comments in here are oddly fatalist about the whole thing. We put a lot of trust in airlines; and not just in safety or to get us somewhere, but we also give them an unusual number of legal protections once we're in their care. When the drama first started I kind of wrote it off: "this must have been a misunderstanding compounded by a single employee's stupidity". But when I found that it was not only condoned, b…

> when I found that it was not only condoned, but fully defended by the company top-down, red flags went off. I thought United Airlines and CEO apologized? http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-united-boarding-201704... > “That is not who our family at United is,” Munoz said. > Later Wednesday, United said all customers on that flight are receiving compensation for their ticket costs.

That was his third statement on it. The first one strongly defended their actions.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#84

Post by paulddraper » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:34 AM UTC

belovedeagle wrote: post #29

lifeformed wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are legally entitled to cash if you ask for it.

Only if you were involuntarily denied boarding. The $800 offer is just that, an offer, and the carrier can set their own terms.

Isn't that what happened?

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#85

Post by btgeekboy » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:36 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #11

Why is United taking more blame than the Chicago PD?

I've been wondering this myself. Yes, it sucked that 4 people were required by United to deplane. This was awful planning on United's part. But 3 passengers deplaned without the situation escalating to this catastrophe. Then we have the 4th passenger who decides he wants to potentially add resisting arrest to his trespassing and interfering with a crewmember, and a set of sworn police officers who couldn't properly deescalate the situation. But somehow, it's the airline's fault? If United truly is to blame, how far does it go? How much could the passenger and officers have gotten away with and assigned the blame to the airline?

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#86

Post by jackweirdy » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:37 AM UTC

empath75 wrote: post #83

paulddraper wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when I found that it was not only condoned, but fully defended by the company top-down, red flags went off. I thought United Airlines and CEO apologized? http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-united-boarding-201704... > “That is not who our family at United is,” Munoz said. > Later Wednesday, United said all customers on that flight are receiving compensation for their ticket costs.

That was his third statement on it. The first one strongly defended their actions.

And an internal one defended the event because the passenger was "belligerent", as if that made their actions and what followed OK

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#87

Post by ams6110 » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC

chrismcb wrote: post #60

ams6110 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL but pretty sure there are some specific exceptions for employees en route to another location to staff a flight (deadheading). If airlines could not do this they would have to possibly cancel flights that they could not otherwise staff, inconveniencing dozens or hundreds of passengers instead of just a few. That said, United utterly botched this in the way they handled it. And I don't let the PD off the hook ei…

There is nothing in the contract of carriage that says it is ok to remove a passenger from the plane for dead heads. About the only reason they are allowed to remove a passenger from the plane is safety reasons. Three fact that united might have to cancel a flight and inconvenience other people is totally irrelevant.

You are correct and my post was not precisely worded. I was not trying to say it was OK to forcibly remove a boarded passenger for this reason.

I was responding mostly to the claim that they can only denying boarding in the event of an oversale because they can deny boarding to accommodate positioning crew, it happens all the time.

I agree that once the passenger was boarded, the situation was different. United screwed up, and they compounded the problem in their violent removal of the passenger and their subsequent public responses to the incident.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#88

Post by peteretep » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:41 AM UTC

learn_more wrote: post #80

peteretep wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general policy makes sense for United , they just got unlucky this time. A law requiring all bumping to be voluntary would fix this, and require United to come up with a system that wasn't just "meh, call security".

We don't need another regulation to solve this. Seems like the free market is going to handle it just fine.

It'll be forgotten in a week if United fares are $5 cheaper.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#89

Post by cylinder » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:41 AM UTC

sitepodmatt wrote: post #10

United screwed up by not having a decent incentive system in place to avoid deplaning people. People have presented many options, including taking a ballpark figure on checkin, or whilst on the airplance a speaker announcement anyone to travel later for $800, wait a minute, $1000, $1200, okay great thanks folks.. That was extremely badly handled and shocking that no process was in place for this - as last minute crew…

This was not an overbooking situation.

Re: Remove United from your flight results

#90

Post by myrandomcomment » Thu, Apr 13, 2017, 2:43 AM UTC

I do 100K miles a year on JAL. Rockstar airline. In the US go out of my way to fly Virgin even when I have top status on One World and could fly American. I took the American Tokyo-SF flight one as JAL was so booked. Never again. I will stay in another day.

A co-work of mine just went to Japan for the first time and he has status on One World. I talked him into the JAL flight. He was amazed at the difference.

America air carriers suck.