United Airlines passenger beat down

[heironymouspasparagus]

Ok...as much I as hate to pass up an opportunity for a little creative thread drift...I will start a new thread.


Gotta love how the United Airlines CEO is saying Sorry, not Sorry about his minions beating up a passenger.  Way to go, CEO man!!

And Bill O'Reilly, our Faux Fox News paragon of virtue and moral behaviour...  LAUGHING about the guy getting beat up!!   Well, gotta admit, about what I would expect from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bw_GPI0_do

[Hoss]

So many memes already coming out of this.

This:  http://www.duffelblog.com/2017/04/pentagon-awards-contract-united-airlines-forcibly-remove-assad/

And many image based ones.

https://www.facebook.com/TheConservativePunk/videos/633961390135171/

[rebound]

My Favorite so far:

[heironymouspasparagus]

There may be a quick turn investment opportunity here - price dropped today.  Won't stay down, but might be good for a little fast action.

[patric]

Aside from promising future "re-accommodations" wont be carried out by police, the airline's apology also included smear tactics to demonize the "disturbed" passenger.

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/brian-dickerson/2017/04/12/united-passenger-humiliation/100334210/

[Conan71]

Aside from promising future "re-accommodations" wont be carried out by police, the airline's apology also included smear tactics to demonize the "disturbed" passenger.

http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/brian-dickerson/2017/04/12/united-passenger-humiliation/100334210/

[erfalf]

As someone who has been on the wrong end of overbooking, I will say that I had hoped this would bring it to the forefront. It's kind of a crappy practice. But since the client is more less hostage to the airline that flies to the destination they desire, there is generally no support for stopping it. I just think it is kind of crappy that a business can promise a service, collect the fee in advance, and then renig on it. Any other profession and hte BBB would be all over their donkey and they would be shut down within the year.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

As someone who has been on the wrong end of overbooking, I will say that I had hoped this would bring it to the forefront. It's kind of a crappy practice. But since the client is more less hostage to the airline that flies to the destination they desire, there is generally no support for stopping it. I just think it is kind of crappy that a business can promise a service, collect the fee in advance, and then renig on it. Any other profession and hte BBB would be all over their donkey and they would be shut down within the year.

Pick any pro sports event, or major concert event. You have paid to get in and are subject to their rules. You can be physically removed from any of them.

Air travel and going to a game share the similarities of you pay to get in but you are subject to their rules with very little recourse.

[swake]

As someone who has been on the wrong end of overbooking, I will say that I had hoped this would bring it to the forefront. It's kind of a crappy practice. But since the client is more less hostage to the airline that flies to the destination they desire, there is generally no support for stopping it. I just think it is kind of crappy that a business can promise a service, collect the fee in advance, and then renig on it. Any other profession and hte BBB would be all over their donkey and they would be shut down within the year.

I've been bumped before, but at the ticket counter. I've had flights canceled for lack of tickets sold, which is supposed to be against the rules. It's infuriating. I can't imagine being seated and then bumped.

Clark Howard had a great solution to this that the old Eastern Airlines used to use in these situations. They would sell several tickets at a deep discount on each flight with the upfront understanding that you were at risk of being bumped. If you could be flexible you would save good money. If they did bump you, they refunded your fare and put you on the next flight, with no risk of being bumped again.

[Conan71]

I've been bumped before, but at the ticket counter. I've had flights canceled for lack of tickets sold, which is supposed to be against the rules. It's infuriating. I can't imagine being seated and then bumped.

Clark Howard had a great solution to this that the old Eastern Airlines used to use in these situations. They would sell several tickets at a deep discount on each flight with the upfront understanding that you were at risk of being bumped. If you could be flexible you would save good money. If they did bump you, they refunded your fare and put you on the next flight, with no risk of being bumped again.

I was somewhat surprised they were pulling already seated paid pax to make room for four non-revenue Republic employees.  I guess wherever those four crew members were traveling it meant making more money in the long run with the bumps.  Instead United has a real PR nightmare on their hands.

[Red Arrow]

I was somewhat surprised they were pulling already seated paid pax to make room for four non-revenue Republic employees.  I guess wherever those four crew members were traveling it meant making more money in the long run with the bumps.  Instead United has a real PR nightmare on their hands.

Can anyone find out if a competing airline had a flight to the same destination in a similar time frame?

[BKDotCom]

As someone who has been on the wrong end of overbooking, I will say that I had hoped this would bring it to the forefront. It's kind of a crappy practice. But since the client is more less hostage to the airline that flies to the destination they desire, there is generally no support for stopping it. I just think it is kind of crappy that a business can promise a service, collect the fee in advance, and then renig on it. Any other profession and hte BBB would be all over their donkey and they would be shut down within the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM

[erfalf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM

This scene was literally going through my head as I was being bumped at the ticket counter. And the crazy thing was I could have got to where I was going much faster by driving to Dallas to take another Delta flight, but I was required to take the exact same route to my destination or I would lose my ticket home as well. At the very least they could be a little more flexible to those that get bumped.

And to boot, it was the first time I had flown out of Tulsa since they quit running the shuttles out to the parking lot so I was already pissed I waiting out there and then had to hoof it inside with my bags. A little note at the bus stop would have been nice.

[cannon_fodder]

I had a hell of a day yesterday.  I had a really amazing day planned and it kept going sideways:

I made a reservation for a birthday lunch well in advance.  To reserve the space I had to pay for the meal in advance, weird but the place is popular. I showed up, signed in with the host, was seated, and ordered my meal.  Before the food came I was told they needed my table to serve a meal to their night crew employees.  It was explained to me that when I signed in with the host I agreed to be kicked out if they took more reservations than they had space and its  my fault if I didn't read the fine print.  When I complained they explained that if they don't feed the night crew, then the crew won't be able to serve all the customers who have reservations later, so its better this way.  I demanded to speak with the owner  - he was shocked that they wanted to kick out paying customers to accommodate employees.  He said he would be happy to pay for his employees to eat somewhere else in order to take care of his guest and apologized for the inconvenience.

About that time someone ran in and told me that my car was being towed! I went to see what was going on and, sure enough, a guy was getting ready to tow my car away.  I ran over and explained that I had a parking permit and that spot #42 was my reserved spot.  He explained that the parking agreement fine print said that just because you pre-pay for a reserved parking space, doesn't mean it is reserved for you -  the lot retains the right to tow your car if they sell more spaces than they have.  In this instance, the lot down the street was going to be repaved and they needed somewhere for the construction crew to park.  I asked to speak with the manager and the guy got him on the phone.  When I explained the situation he told me that he'd simply find somewhere else for the work crew to park and apologized.

Unfortunately, when the tow truck unloaded my car it wouldn't start!  The tow truck guy told me he'd drop me off at a car rental place so I can go about my day, so I called and made a reservation.  I showed up, paid at the counter, and they rolled my rental car around front - the last one on the lot!  As I was adjusting the mirrors the rental car guy runs out in front of my car with his hands up.  He goes on to explain that I need to get out of the car because the location at the airport is getting really busy and they need an employee over there ASAP. The fine print on the back of the document I signed said they could do this, and without that employee a ton of other people with reservations wouldn't get the car they paid for.  Luckily, his manager was returning from break and told the clerk he'd pay for an Uber to get the extra employee to the other location.  Whew!  So I went to meet my friends at the movie theater.

Like most movie theaters, you now have to buy your tickets online ahead of time and you get assigned seats.  We had ordered the tickets a few days before to get seats on opening day for Super Awesome Movie!  Good thing to, because the place was sold out.  Just as the popcorn advertisements started a guy showed up and told me that a theater employee needed my seat.  I got out my ticket stub and explained in hushed tones that I reserved these seats a few days ago. It was explained to me that the employee is also a movie critic, and if he didn't see the movie on opening day then a ton of people would't be able to read his review.  He said something about clicking through the fine print, but at this point I was tired of people not understanding what a reservation meant, so I ignored him and sat quietly to enjoy my movie. Eventually they left me alone and the movie was great.

Then I went home and went to bed.  It was a good day.

[Conan71]

I had a hell of a day yesterday.  I had a really amazing day planned and it kept going sideways:

I made a reservation for a birthday lunch well in advance.  To reserve the space I had to pay for the meal in advance, weird but the place is popular. I showed up, signed in with the host, was seated, and ordered my meal.  Before the food came I was told they needed my table to serve a meal to their night crew employees.  It was explained to me that when I signed in with the host I agreed to be kicked out if they took more reservations than they had space and its  my fault if I didn't read the fine print.  When I complained they explained that if they don't feed the night crew, then the crew won't be able to serve all the customers who have reservations later, so its better this way.  I demanded to speak with the owner  - he was shocked that they wanted to kick out paying customers to accommodate employees.  He said he would be happy to pay for his employees to eat somewhere else in order to take care of his guest and apologized for the inconvenience.

About that time someone ran in and told me that my car was being towed! I went to see what was going on and, sure enough, a guy was getting ready to tow my car away.  I ran over and explained that I had a parking permit and that spot #42 was my reserved spot.  He explained that the parking agreement fine print said that just because you pre-pay for a reserved parking space, doesn't mean it is reserved for you -  the lot retains the right to tow your car if they sell more spaces than they have.  In this instance, the lot down the street was going to be repaved and they needed somewhere for the construction crew to park.  I asked to speak with the manager and the guy got him on the phone.  When I explained the situation he told me that he'd simply find somewhere else for the work crew to park and apologized.

Unfortunately, when the tow truck unloaded my car it wouldn't start!  The tow truck guy told me he'd drop me off at a car rental place so I can go about my day, so I called and made a reservation.  I showed up, paid at the counter, and they rolled my rental car around front - the last one on the lot!  As I was adjusting the mirrors the rental car guy runs out in front of my car with his hands up.  He goes on to explain that I need to get out of the car because the location at the airport is getting really busy and they need an employee over there ASAP. The fine print on the back of the document I signed said they could do this, and without that employee a ton of other people with reservations wouldn't get the car they paid for.  Luckily, his manager was returning from break and told the clerk he'd pay for an Uber to get the extra employee to the other location.  Whew!  So I went to meet my friends at the movie theater.

Like most movie theaters, you now have to buy your tickets online ahead of time and you get assigned seats.  We had ordered the tickets a few days before to get seats on opening day for Super Awesome Movie!  Good thing to, because the place was sold out.  Just as the popcorn advertisements started a guy showed up and told me that a theater employee needed my seat.  I got out my ticket stub and explained in hushed tones that I reserved these seats a few days ago. It was explained to me that the employee is also a movie critic, and if he didn't see the movie on opening day then a ton of people would't be able to read his review.  He said something about clicking through the fine print, but at this point I was tired of people not understanding what a reservation meant, so I ignored him and sat quietly to enjoy my movie. Eventually they left me alone and the movie was great.

Then I went home and went to bed.  It was a good day.

And never once were you roughed up or dragged off in front of others?  I'll be damned.