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EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

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Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#61

Post by venomsnake »

ig1 wrote: post #10

Freedom of speech is about stopping the government from interfering with your speech. AFAIK there's no law which prohibits a company doing business with you because you made a negative comment about them. In this case it's slightly more grey because the passenger had already bought a ticket and it's not clear if the terms of the sale would allow easyjet to revoke the sale on that basis.

A company should not be able to refuse service for stating a true fact. Or even opinion about them. Especially when they have common carrier protections.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#62

Post by ianstallings »

neya wrote: post #36

It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what. - A quote by Stephen Fry Free speech is one thing, but abuse of free speech is another. When you perform an a…

You should do customer support. For my competitor.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#63

Post by mathattack »

neya wrote: post #36

It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what. - A quote by Stephen Fry Free speech is one thing, but abuse of free speech is another. When you perform an a…

It requires context... Is this a real complaint or a "Look at me and treat me better because I'm a high Klout score quasi-journalist" situation?

That should determine the level of outrage more than the legalistics.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#64

Post by odavo »

colechristensen wrote: post #56

This is infantile, I don't want to see this type of content here. A low level company manager making a stupid decision, an entitled journalist trying to drum up controversy using his position and the squawks of Twitter responding have no place in 'hacker news' or 'news' in general.

well said!

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#65

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

brey wrote: post #44
neya wrote: post #36

It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what. - A quote by Stephen Fry Free speech is one thing, but abuse of free speech is another. When you perform an a…

He already bought the ticket. he was in the boarding queue. Your analogy should be changed to: 'whether McDonalds should let you eat a burger AFTER you buy it from them'. This is simply Easyjet breaking a contract - as long as he's not broken the terms himself. which would be surprising in this case.

Agree that there are two parts - whether they'd have to sell him a ticket in the future and what happens with the current flight but there may be something in the small print that would allow them to prevent him boarding (though almost certainly subject to suitable compensation).

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#66

Post by alxndrmlr »

raverbashing wrote: post #8

"It wasn’t until I asked him if he’d heard of free speech that the tone changed. He asked me if I was a lawyer and I told him I taught law at Strathclyde. "He quickly had a word with his staff and then told me I’d better get on the flight because they were waiting for me." What? So if you are a lawyer things change? I would have sued the company and the manager personally (not sure this is allowed, still). Edit: appa…

Going to the level of suing them seems over the top to me as he didn't have any damages or loss of pay / opportunity as he was allowed to board. That said the employees and staff of the airline should be educated on what their rights for refusal actually are.

Not to say this isn't something that should be taking seriously but peoples tendency to jump to trying to sue someone for anything and everything is getting ridiculous.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#67

Post by k-mcgrady »

colechristensen wrote: post #56

This is infantile, I don't want to see this type of content here. A low level company manager making a stupid decision, an entitled journalist trying to drum up controversy using his position and the squawks of Twitter responding have no place in 'hacker news' or 'news' in general.

>> "This is infantile, I don't want to see this type of content here."

Flag it.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#68

Post by nodata »

switch007 wrote: post #52
nodata wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except easyjet really isn't that cheap any more.

Compared to when? What about comparing their current prices to before low cost flights were popular. I'm flying to Western Europe, with baggage and an extra legroom seat for £120 return. I think that's superb value for money.

They launched as a budget airline. Now they're either same price as BA or slightly cheaper (unless you're lucky enough to get their first few cheap seats).

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#69

Post by ianstallings »

Who cares about the legality of them trying to deny the passenger a flight. Whether they were within their rights or not, this was just plain idiocy on the part of the airline's staff. I hope more stuff like this happens. It's called accountability and we all are subject to it.

Re: EasyJet refuses to let columnist on board for sending critical tweet

#70

Post by simonh »

icebraining wrote: post #30
downandout wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The contract you agree to when you buy an airline ticket normally contains a clause allowing the airline to deny boarding for any reason or no reason at all, with the only compensation to you being a refund of the ticket price. They usually don't exercise these clauses, but they are certainly free to do so at will. Had they denied him boarding, perhaps it would have been a bad business/PR decision, but there almost c…

Not necessarily, because clauses can be ruled invalid if they go against the law. From the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, which implements the EC Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts (the Unfair Contract Terms Directive): Excessive rights for the supplier. Cancellation of a contract by the supplier can leave the consumer facing inconvenience at least, if not costs or other p…

That's one layer of regulation, but the problem with airlines is that there's yet another higher layer of regulations agreed at an international level to specifically govern and regulate air travel. It wouldn't at all surprise me if there's an international treaty governing the terms and conditions airlines can impose that trumps even EC Directives.
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