51–60 of 464 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently united position is that you haven't "boarded" until the door has closed and plane has left the gate
That works both ways. If you are on a flexible ticket you can get a refund up until the door is closed. All these rules work 2 ways.
He and the doctor may have a solid legal case: http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/united-cites-wrong-rule-for-... I hope for United's sake these are anomalies and not a pattern of behavior.
> ...not a pattern of behavior. It's actually far worse than just a "pattern of behavior", it is how United and other airlines (mostly US, but rest of the world is catching on) have deliberately structured their enterprise and the entire customer experience. Everything revolves around "privilege". Even 20 years ago, this used to be bad. On most European airlines' flights, you just waited at the gate until your flight…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That works both ways. If you are on a flexible ticket you can get a refund up until the door is closed. All these rules work 2 ways.
I'd like to see you try?
This was all on Asian airlines. My few experiences on United have been terrible.
So in this case I'd say the regulations guiding airlines is fair. United's execution of these regulations is the problem. There are a million things United could have done in the chain of events to have avoided facing a PR backlash. As this is HN, I'd give a simple technical solution that would have avoided this whole problem:
The computer could have deboarded 8 passangers at random from order of lowest priority. United could have explained that if their employees don't catch this flight another flight with XXX passengers will be delayed / cancelled. This would allow the supervisor to use their own discretion to allow 4 of the 8 passengers to reboard.
Making the practice of "overselling" illegal is not the solution. There are times where problem could be cause by equipment swaps changing seat numbers. If we stop the airlines from overselling then travelling will become a lot more expensive.
If I paid full-fare and I'm already seated, who could possibly be more important than me?
on United -- it was almost certainly a Global Services passenger. Those folks get whatever they want.
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>Obviously the safety of passengers can not be ensured anymore. Let's not be dramatic. Actual airline safety issues that lead to horrific deaths are not being discussed here. This is just piss poor customer service that could be encountered on any property (e.g. hotels that have overbooked, etc).
Trying to remember the last news story about someone being dragged out of a hotel room they've already checked into.
People being kicked out of hotel rooms because of scheduling errors does happen. It's pretty rare.
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No, it's not legal. Edit: See lawyer quote from tiatia.
In a way, there are two questions at work here. The first question is whether you can have rent-a-cops throw a passenger off a plane after they have taken their seat. As I understand it, that is not legal. The second question is about over-booking more broadly. After all, though there's a legal distinction between a passenger a second before boarding and a second after, from a customer service standpoint they're stil…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> ...not a pattern of behavior. It's actually far worse than just a "pattern of behavior", it is how United and other airlines (mostly US, but rest of the world is catching on) have deliberately structured their enterprise and the entire customer experience. Everything revolves around "privilege". Even 20 years ago, this used to be bad. On most European airlines' flights, you just waited at the gate until your flight…
Unfortunately, due to the economics of airline class[0], privileged passengers account for about 70% of airline revenue. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB5xtGGsTc
Time for regulating the oligopoly of the airline industry. Obviously the safety of passengers can not be ensured anymore. https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/united-airlines-should-go...
er, they're getting skewered in the media. United is paying the price for their mistake. If they're regulated, next time they drag someone off a plane, they'll say "We were just following the handbook and were in accordance with federal regulations. Take it up with the FAA" So no, no need to regulate the industry. Also, the body you want to regulate them (the government) routinely does much, much worse to people.[0]…
I agree; hard to see precisely how more government intervention should have been expected to fix this.
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Also, we know now that it's illegal to remove customers after boarding, unless they do something illegal. Saying no isn't illegal.
That's not true. Airlines can remove a passengers for safety reasons whenever they need to.