261–270 of 274 posts
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So United should not have tried to board their flight personnel so that another plane full of passengers could sit on the tarmac for hours in Louisville with no crew?
They have inter-airline relationships that they can put people on Southwest/Delta/American flights for a discounted rate. Easily avoiding this type of situation.
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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.
More legroom? Premium Economy (or business/first class) Aisle seat? Pay for seat selection. Slow boarding? Pay for priority. No food? Onboard purchases. Security line too long? TSA Precheck. Long lines at immigration? Global Entry.
Whether you're willing to purchase these upgrades is a personal decision, the options are there.
In your original post you commented about the pricing "race to the bottom" and the "unbundling of baggage fees". Unbundling means more granular pricing segmentation to attract a higher volume of customers.
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That's how it always is right? It's always a voucher, not actual cash.
You are legally entitled to cash compensation but you specifically have to ask for it. http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/04/11/what-are-y...
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On average, the people being arrested are more likely to attack the cops. If, on average, people went quietly with the police and fought this in the court system, things would change for the better.
>On average, the people being arrested are more likely to attack the cops. Compared to... people with no contact with the police? You cant actually be saying that the average arrest is resisted, can you?
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So United should not have tried to board their flight personnel so that another plane full of passengers could sit on the tarmac for hours in Louisville with no crew?
What? No, they should have kept upping the offer. It wasn't worth a penny more than $800 + hotel and rebooking x 4 to United so they called the police to enforce their profit margin rather than pay the market cost of doing business.
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I doubt that United would be party to the lawsuit. It would be the airport cops who were called and roughed up the passenger.
They will be party to a lawsuit; and I'm guessing that they'll settle for some amount even if they would almost surely win. Their legal costs will be far more than $800 in any case.
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He was a doctor trying to get to the hospital he works at. In this case he actually is "too important to accept being bumped". Not that that would justify doing this to anyone else but he had a very good reason to not want to get off the plane. This is why offering more and more money is a good strategy. There almost certainly were people on the flight willing to get bumped for $1500. But the doctor likely would have…
They should have offered more. But he's a doctor, not royalty. Hospitals have more than one doctor in case someone can't make their shifts. He was no more important than any other passenger.
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UK rail isn't high speed and probably the worse in Europe outside of the old com block countries. London to Manchester is somewhat still OK but London to Newcastle takes longer and costs more than London to Brussels via the Eurostar.
The Virgin train was definitely faster than a normal train . I'm not 100% clear on the semantics of what counts as high speed rail. I believe they are 100-120mph or so. The thing that mattered to me is that it was 2 hours, because a 1 hour flight isn't really a 1 hour flight after you deal with the airport.
IIRC the barrier of entry for "High-Speed Rail" in Europe (or in general) is 150-155mph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Europe
The UK has only 1 line with a speed permit of upto 300km/h (186mph) which is used for the Eurostar.
It has 4-5 other "fast" lines with a speed limit of 200 km/h (125mph) which doesn't technically count as highspeed.
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https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights The airline may offer some alternative compensation (and of course one can accept it) but you have a right to a check. Of course the airline may try to hide this from you, or give you a hard time, but according to the Dept. of Transportation you're entitled to cash.
I doubt many passengers who got bumped are aware of their legal rights - I didn't until you linked it out. Edit: I read it again, it read like cash compensation is not guaranteed though. > Those travelers who don't get to fly are frequently entitled to denied boarding compensation in the form of a check or cash. In other words, if you have a frequent flyer number or enrolled in customer loyalty program, airlines can…
I'm not sure I follow your edit. How often you fly has no bearing on your rights. The DOT page says:
"Airlines may offer free tickets or dollar-amount vouchers for future flights in place of a check for denied boarding compensation. However, if you are bumped involuntarily you have the right to insist on a check if that is your preference."
If you were involuntarily bumped from a flight and certain other conditions are met, you are entitled to compensation (cash if you wish). It has nothing to do with frequent flier status.
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Also their right to deny boarding ends once a passenger is boarded
Not true. Boarding basically means haven't left the gate. If you get to your seat, sit, then they realize that your seat belt is broken, they can deny you "boarding" instead of dispatching a tech to fix the belt. You were seated on the plane, now you're not. Boarding is an overly broad term, but that's how it is written.
In your example the basis for refusing transport is that due to an equipment problem it's not possible for that passenger to comply with FAR safety regulations and therefore is in breach of the contract of carriage for the airline. The terminology of the word boarding isn't even relevant in your example.