United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea • Hacker News Board

Re: United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea

#21

Post by mcantor » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 4:56 PM UTC

hartleybrody wrote: post #8

Total non-sequitur but this thread has 20 points and 5 comments in 36 minutes, posted by a 5k+ karma user... and it's buried at the bottom of the second page? How'd that happen? I've seen posts with 3 or 4 up votes in an hour make it to the front page.

I'm pretty sure it's because I submitted it. I don't have official confirmation on this, but experience has led me to believe that deep within the heart of the HN source code lies a cruel logic branch...

   (if (eq username "mcantor") set-no-frontpage)

Re: United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea

#22

Post by pasbesoin » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 5:55 PM UTC

jethroalias97 wrote: post #18

Symbol wrote: post #13

Major airlines do not guarantee the safety of any living thing in the hold of the aircraft. Unless something has changed, my understanding is that small animals (cats, dogs under something like 10 lbs) are allowed to fly with you in an approved carrier. Any other creature must go in the belly of the plane with the baggage. You will be charged the price of a seat, and in return the airline does not guarantee any parti…

I'd say it was a business opportunity if it wasn't for the abysmal track record airlines have for remaining profitable transporting humans.

OTOH, pursued as a niche market, it might be as profitable as first and business classes (while targeting similar demographics). (Aren't those generally fairly revenue-positive portions of the airline industry customer demographic?)

Re: United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea

#23

Post by pasbesoin » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 5:58 PM UTC

If the call from United to the author's vet really did take place and can be documented, that is wire fraud. Which is, IIRC, a Federal felony.

Good luck getting a Federal prosecutor to pursue such a case (unless you have personal connections). However, I would suspect that per United's own internal policy, the people making and authorizing that call must be terminated. If it happened to include one of their fancy legal staff, that in itself could be a significant threat when combined with the proper publicity.

Re: United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea

#24

Post by gregcohn » Thu, Sep 27, 2012, 5:06 AM UTC

A sensor of some kind seems like a natural and not very hard-to-do thing. Similar to the tags workers with potential radiation exposure wear to capture & monitor exposure over time, a sensor could capture heat, motion, etc and be retrieved via bluetooth or USB afterward (if not wirelessly in real time). Like a "black box" for your pet.

Has anyone made anything like this?