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United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

latimes.com

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Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#331

Post by stagbeetle »

pcmonk wrote: post #279
michaelt wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm basically against overbooking, but playing devil's advocate: is it that hugely different from fractional reserve banking? They claim you can get your money out at any time, but that's not the case if everyone tries at once.

IIRC, there are safeguards in place to make sure there isn't a run on the bank.

I'm fairly certain retail banks can borrow from the FED to mitigate that.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#332

Post by dmode »

davidf18 wrote: post #320
eCa wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But people that come to NYC have a much greater experience. That's quite a statement. I certainly enjoyed my NYC trip a couple of years ago, but there are many european cities that I rather (re)visit before going back to the US. This is not only because of the current administration (though that doesn't help). People have different preferences.

NYC has a 24/365 hour Apple Store which reflects the vibrancy of the city 24/365. Need I say more? Europe is very beautiful. But for the creative energy and vibrancy NYC is the place to be.

Different strokes for different folks. I find NYC extremely overrated.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#333

Post by [deleted] »

ptero wrote: post #318
rsync wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"IMO the main point is valid -- the person was first to the seat and in general whoever gets into the seat first keeps it in case of a seat collision or a duplicate ticket." I would be extremely annoyed if I were in the same situation as this flyer. However, I'm not really sure what United is supposed to do here ... according to the article they had a mechanical problem with the original plane and the replacement pla…

Duplicate / messed up tickets happen and IME (I travel roughly once a month and saw this maybe 3-4 times) the "first in" is always how things are resolved. Whoever is first keeps his seat, whoever is late is reseated, gets an apology and some goodies especially if this is a downgrade / later flight. I think (but not 100% sure) this might even be codified in some airlines policies. I saw duplicate assigned seats, I sa…

[deleted]

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#334

Post by dawnerd »

manyxcxi wrote: post #232
Klathmon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally I've noticed that for like 5 years now my friends and family have a pretty severe aversion to flying anywhere for anything. From needing to show up hours before the flight, to the invasive screenings, the insane restrictions on what you can and cannot bring, the sentiment that if you check any baggage it's basically as good as gone, the ever increasing cost, the delays, and even things like the worry abou…

Man, I'm not sure if your home airport is not very good, you don't travel that often, or if you just have a higher base level of anxiety or what- but any drive over 4 hours and I'm on the lookout to see if I can fly there. I frequently go from Portland to San Jose and back in the same day- I get meetings done and am home in time to put my kids to bed. I also just generally fly pretty frequently. I've got an Arab name…

I do the pdx to lax route a lot and end up showing up under an hour to the airport most times. Pdx tsa is probably the nicest batch I've run across. Of all my flying I've only had one bad time through tsa anywhere. People just like to play into the joke about how incompetent they are. Now, MCO on the other hand is a complete joke and tsa there all need to be retrained....

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#335

Post by gok »

magic_beans wrote: post #322
e40 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will never do that, since it impacts profit.

Why can't they just make the tickets non-refundable? They still get paid!

They already do make them non-refundable, and they overbook. They want to get paid for (say) 105 seats on a plane with 100 seats.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#336

Post by scriptkiddy »

manyxcxi wrote: post #232
Klathmon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally I've noticed that for like 5 years now my friends and family have a pretty severe aversion to flying anywhere for anything. From needing to show up hours before the flight, to the invasive screenings, the insane restrictions on what you can and cannot bring, the sentiment that if you check any baggage it's basically as good as gone, the ever increasing cost, the delays, and even things like the worry abou…

Man, I'm not sure if your home airport is not very good, you don't travel that often, or if you just have a higher base level of anxiety or what- but any drive over 4 hours and I'm on the lookout to see if I can fly there. I frequently go from Portland to San Jose and back in the same day- I get meetings done and am home in time to put my kids to bed. I also just generally fly pretty frequently. I've got an Arab name…

>Man, I'm not sure if your home airport is not very good, you don't travel that often, or if you just have a higher base level of anxiety or what- but any drive over 4 hours and I'm on the lookout to see if I can fly there.

I'm not the person you're replying to, but I do have something to say about this.

Your situation is a bit different in that you need to be able to get from Portland to SF and back in a single day. Some people, myself included, don't have that restriction and value the journey as much as we value the destination. Personally, I absolutely LOVE long road trips. Seeing sites, eating at cozy roadside diners, listening to super loud music and sleeping in my car are all things I look forward to.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#337

Post by gnode »

GFischer wrote: post #295
gnode wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a few articles about electric aircraft on HN. In addition to the Boeing plane, there's Wright Electric ( https://weflywright.com/ ). Light electric trainer aircraft have already been built, such as the Pipistrel WATTsUP. Not a jumbo jet, but pictures like you asked for: http://www.pipistrel.si/news/wattsup-the-new-2seat-electric-...

That Pipistrel airplane is very interesting. Not having fuel makes it better in a light crash I guess (no explosion). I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to piloting, but here on HN I've read other stories on light aircraft and training, and how forgiving it is and how it handles plays a very important factor in choosing an airplane as a trainer, no idea how that one does.

I imagine it wouldn't (need to) handle particularly differently. You can pretty much put a battery wherever you like. It seems that in the Pipistrel WATTsUP removable battery modules replace the mass of the engine block.

A nice advantage for a trainer is that unlike a combustion engine aircraft, a battery powered aircraft's mass isn't changing over time, so the learning pilot can expect a more consistent handling experience.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#338

Post by formerminister »

tyfon wrote: post #108
tici_88 wrote: post #17

Travelling in the US or with US airlines is not looking very good right now. Not just the United incident(s) but also TSA, Trump travel restrictions, flights constantly overbooked, massively late etc. I wonder if it will start impacting traveller and tourism numbers at some point. I think anyone who doesn't really need to be in the US and/or is planning travelling with kids is likely to have some second thoughts at t…

The company I work at (in Norway) had planed to take all 70 employees to NYC this summer to celebrate a milestone reached. We just moved the whole thing to Paris instead as we had issues with all of the above, including employees that have visited "dangerous" countries. The thing that pushed everyone over was when our former prime minster was harassed[1] at the border for having been to a meeting in Iran. It says in…

Good to see that former politicians are also being treated as badly as the rest of us. The sooner they all start realizing they aren't going to get special treatment the sooner they'll start actually representing everyone.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#339

Post by pascalxus »

anovikov wrote: post #307
e40 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will never do that, since it impacts profit.

Due to airlines' razor thin margins, this is simply impossible. That simple. Every single traditional airline will go bankrupt if it stopped overbooking. Unfortunately it is the greed and stupidity of us consumers that drove this market into the ground. We shouldn't blame airlines. Think about this next time when you pick 'order by price' in skyscanner...

The problem is they have a monopoly now that there's only 1 or 2 airlines to choose from at each airport. If we had more than 3 or 4 choices, then we could pick alternative airlines and United would cease to exist.

Too late for that now. Get ready for more harsh treatment in the future and lots of increases in fare prices, higher than inflation.

Re: United removes first-class passenger to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

#340

Post by dawnerd »

late2part wrote: post #244
coldpie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some TSA clown once told me I had to throw away my water and we just stared at each other for a bit. "My water, seriously?" "Yep, your water." "Water." "Water." Fuck the TSA and fuck the terrified Americans who keep voting to keep them.

Next time try freezing it first.

Which is actually a suggestion tsa gives out. Just make sure it's completely frozen. Any floating water won't be allowed. Aka drink the melt.
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