Travel
Travel
Posted on Apr 12, 2017
Do you feel it's fair for an airline to deplane (in any way) a paying passenger when they are oversold?
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Travel
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 25
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Absolutely! They have policies in place which we all agree to abide by every time we buy a ticket. But they also need to realize there is a right way and a wrong way to accomplish this. BTW, I hold United much less at fault than I do the police officer involved for turning this into a spectacle. But what was he to do after being told there was a trespasser on the airplane? Best course of action would have been to continue raising the bribe to find a volunteer. I'm sure all of United would agree paying me $10000 or even $100000 to give up my seat would be a better solution than the black eye they received.
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LTC Joseph Gross
PO3 Donald Murphy - You're missing the point. YOU benefit by over booking when you are that 101st guy with a ticket for a plane that holds 100. The airline never loses money because they so rarely have to pay out more than another flight and $400. Those stand by fliers you are talking about would not be there if not for the over booking policy...
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PO3 Donald Murphy
You can still glean that extra money from standby fliers without overbooking. Face it, if I need to get from A to B, I'm standby for EVERYTHING. Not just United. I'll fly anyone, right? So the airline has no way of knowing how many stand by flyers are there "just for them" or for anything else. I myself have asked Delta if they have a flight, gotten a "no" answer and then walked over to American, etc. If United doesn't have a standby seat I'm not going to continue waiting for them. I'll go somewhere else. And have. I've gone to four or five airlines at times.
Remember, before the gate opens, the flight is fully paid for. 100 seats. As you don't care if someone misses their flight as you don't refund their money, you have no reason to overbook. The booking should stop at 100 tickets. If ten people fail to show up, you announce that ten standby seats are available. If no one is there, you haven't lost. If only three people are there, you win.
People don't just randomly show up to the airport expecting standby tickets, so the overbooking culture is done out of stupidity, not greed. I'm standby because my already paid for flight got cancelled. I didn't just wake up and decide to go to the airport on the off-chance of scoring a cheap ticket. See what I mean?
Remember, before the gate opens, the flight is fully paid for. 100 seats. As you don't care if someone misses their flight as you don't refund their money, you have no reason to overbook. The booking should stop at 100 tickets. If ten people fail to show up, you announce that ten standby seats are available. If no one is there, you haven't lost. If only three people are there, you win.
People don't just randomly show up to the airport expecting standby tickets, so the overbooking culture is done out of stupidity, not greed. I'm standby because my already paid for flight got cancelled. I didn't just wake up and decide to go to the airport on the off-chance of scoring a cheap ticket. See what I mean?
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It wasn't even overbookd or oversold. They had a crew of four from United that needed to get to another airport to make sure that flight didn't get cancelled. So they asked who would give up their seats. Of course no one wanted to. Why would anyone? I'm not giving up my seat because you didn't plan your employees' travel very well. Then they offer $800. Really? What's that going to help you with? You would have to probably spend the night there to get a new flight. So you have to pay for hotel and food and whatever else and hotels in Chicago probably aren't cheap. There is no limit for what they can compensate someone in this situation. They should have kept pushing up the price. AND they don't do this on the plane. It's supposed to happen at check in or before people board. Not after. This was a horrible PR disaster for United who doesn't usually have the highest customer satisfaction to start with.
But that's ok because Sean Spicer saw this and said 'Oh I got you" and one upped them anyway.
But that's ok because Sean Spicer saw this and said 'Oh I got you" and one upped them anyway.
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SGT Dave Tracy
A rose by any other name...
I don't care what they call it. When you have a plane full of paying passengers, and don't have the room to accommodate more people (the employees), the effect is the same. Their logistics and operations could use a little bit of work along with their customer service. You're right that United should have negotiated a better deal (money, hotel, etc) to get one more customer off...bet they regret that decision!
BTW, I think what Sean Spicer actually said to United was "Hold my beer, watch this."
I don't care what they call it. When you have a plane full of paying passengers, and don't have the room to accommodate more people (the employees), the effect is the same. Their logistics and operations could use a little bit of work along with their customer service. You're right that United should have negotiated a better deal (money, hotel, etc) to get one more customer off...bet they regret that decision!
BTW, I think what Sean Spicer actually said to United was "Hold my beer, watch this."
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MAJ Raymond Haynes
First of all, they were not United Airlines employees, the were Republic Airlines employees. Second, The last minute need to board deadheading crews is not in and of itself, a sign of poor aircrew management. It was the last flight that they could legally transport the reserve crew (on standby at the airport) to cover a trip the next morning. Third, No airline employee (United or Republic) touched the guy, it was the ORD airport security. The problem here is that they are a lot harder to sue. If United had chose to take this the whole trip through the courts, they would have won. However, a poor corporate decision, from a PR decision. Get it off the front page as fast as possible and give the guy his millions, before the stupid copy cats come out of the woodwork and start crying that they made her pee in a cup.
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No it's not fair and in this specific example, the plane wasn't overbooked. The company just felt it was more important to put their aircrew in seats after the paying customers were already seated.
If the company needed seats open to get a crew into another city, they should have literally been the first people on the plane before anyone started boarding.
It's one thing if the person was being a disruption, threatening, etc. Then fine, remove them from the plane. But asking someone to leave and then ejecting them because they refused crosses the line.
If the company needed seats open to get a crew into another city, they should have literally been the first people on the plane before anyone started boarding.
It's one thing if the person was being a disruption, threatening, etc. Then fine, remove them from the plane. But asking someone to leave and then ejecting them because they refused crosses the line.
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