The friendly skies?

[Benz]

Re: The friendly skies?

SW Airlines new tagline...

That is absolutely brilliant. Bravo.

[SingleWalking]

Re: The friendly skies?

Southwest is another airline notorious for overbooking and offer $$, hotel room, etc to get you off the flight.

If that person who got roughed up is truly a doctor, the way he acted was not too professional IMO. He should and could probably pay his way to an upgrade to the front of the plane.

[ace in the hazard]

Re: The friendly skies?

Where do the flight attendants sit for takeoff and landing?

in little fold down seats in the galley usually

[smc66]

Re: The friendly skies?

He should and could probably pay his way to an upgrade to the front of the plane.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Re: The friendly skies?

Not only is that a ridiculous suggestion, but does United have any guarantee that they won't beat you up if you upgrade?

I'd be interested in seeing that in writing!

[ace in the hazard]

Re: The friendly skies?

Not only is that a ridiculous suggestion, but does United have any guarantee that they won't beat you up if you upgrade?

I'd be interested in seeing that in writing!

Perks of business class:

Larger seat
Free booze
Free luggage
Fewer beatings

[northernpro]

Re: The friendly skies?

The Star Alliance should drop United from their menu of airlines....strictly
I will never fly the friendly skies of United again...this was totally uncalled
for...could have been handled so much better...

[Fredk]

Re: The friendly skies?

Update via the BBC:

One officer has been suspended pending an investigation (somebody in the pd finally saw the video?)

The man identified himself as a Doctor with patients to see in the morning.

$800 was the last offer from the airline, but they could have gone up to $1,300 but did not.

Bumping for crew is highly unusual.

[LongLefty]

Re: The friendly skies?

The video of him saying "kill me now" over and over again is super cringeworthy.

Clearly could have been handled better by everyone involved. I'll be staying away from United whenever possible.

[bl8d]

Re: The friendly skies?

I can't imagine what the flight must have been like for everyone after this.

[bl8d]

Re: The friendly skies?

I hope this doesn't turn out to be another bump for a political party "got to make it to my meeting" orange juicer.

[Bellyhungry]

Re: The friendly skies?

United released this new app yesterday.

The 'drag and drop' feature is a winner.

[sharkhark]

Re: The friendly skies?

But that speaks to the policy, and it's a policy shared by other airlines. And that's 100% on airlines in general, not any individual airline.

With the policy as it is, calling in security from time to time is a necessary response. I don't like the policy, but if someone is on a plane and refusing to leave, you kinda have to turn it over to security. They're the ones who are supposed to be trained to deal with these situations. At that point, it's security's job to deal with it properly. And this is not the first time security has been called in in such situations -- this got violent, though, and the violence seems to have been the fault of security.

The blame for the policy is blame that should be shared by an industry, not an individual airline. The blame for the violence belongs to the security officers.

I think that if we pin this all on United we're giving other airlines a free pass.

Completely disagree.
It's 100% all on the airline.

Hotels, airplanes etc thru choose to overbook assuming cancelations etc later.
They choose that.
We have been conditioned to think that's ok it's an accepted practice.
I've never accepted it and most don't.
If you as an airline don't offer significant enough compensation for overbooking and trying to lure someone to miss they're flight...
Your thinking that in even 1% of the situation the security is responsible I disagree.

The airline 100%.
From what I know from those that work on the airlines in security once they are called in to remove someone it's all the force necessary. They might not have even knew what was the reason only that someone refused to leave.
For sure they'll likely in this sue happy USA they'll be blamed but I see in this situation united as completely wrong.

If your 4 employees are so important and direly needed in another city don't overbook... And try to be greedy maximizing profit and hoping later on that in future there will be room.
Or greatly increase your offer. How bout a flight to Hawaii. Or Australia.
I'd love to hear what they actually offered and chose not to increase when you can remove them by force.

[bl8d]

Re: The friendly skies?

i'd love it if China were to weigh in and hand United The Wok of Shame by refusing them landing rights in Beijing for next week.

[dmcdam]

Re: The friendly skies?

in little fold down seats in the galley usually

I was responding to the poster who said they often block off full seats for staff on long haul flights. This was only a short flight so I'm assuming the jump seats were the only ones for the cabin crew to use in takeoff and landing, therefore couldn't be given to the four interlopers.