@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
Courtesy of Raw Story:To repeat, United stmt. to NBC News confirms the flight was overbooked & the passenger refused to leave. Doesn't explain that kind of force. pic.twitter.com/uMeEkrmeOH— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 10, 2017
United Airlines is coming under heavy criticism after it had security officers forcibly remove a passenger from an overbooked flight.
A series of videos posted on social media show security officers asking a passenger who was on a Sunday United flight from Chicago to Louisville to leave the plane.
When the man refused, the officers reached in and did something to cause the man to shout out in pain. Afterward, the officers dragged the man off the plane as horrified passengers yelled that there was no need to resort to such force.
In a statement provided to NBC News, United explained that the plane’s crew initially looked for people to leave the flight voluntarily because the flight had been overbooked. When no one volunteered, they chose a passenger to be removed, and he refused to cooperate, which forced the crew to call law enforcement officials.
The airline apologized for overbooking the flight but did not apologize for having security drag the passenger off the plane.
The man claimed to be a doctor who had to see patients in the morning as his reason for refusing to leave the aircraft, and really who can blame him for refusing?
Ultimately it seems that the man returned to the plane looking disoriented and with a bloody face, which really makes no sense whatsoever.
I have to admit that currently I have no interest in flying anywhere with the TSA acting like the Gestapo and demanding that people give up their laptop and cell phone passwords.
But once I do decide to fly again you can bet it will NOT be on United Airlines.
A couple of points:
ReplyDeleteThis was not United Airlines, but a United Express partner.
The officers are not UA or UAX employees. They are airport cops/security guards.
It would be nice if the airlines would stop using these small carriers that pay their employees next to nothing. Must of these UA/DL/AA sucks stories are actually the "Express" or "Connection," or whatever others silly name they call them.
Ultimately, of course, this is on UA, but it's not so straight forward as it might have looked at first view.
The crew should have stopped this, period.
DeleteYes it IS very straight forward. It's abhorrent.
They're still UNITED. They fly under the UNITED flag. When you end up with these toy planes it's because you booked with UNITED and they didn't tell you they were fobbing you off on some dipshit service.
DeleteThere was no excuse for this. They could have gotten their crew to wherever they needed to be another way.
This is just the most recent in a long line of passenger abuse by United.
Fuck them.
Fly Delta. Fly Southwest. Fly anyone but United.
The flight was full, not overbooked. United had crew that needed to get to Louisville to service a flight there after they already seated the plane.
ReplyDeleteThey asked for volunteers and went up to $800 plus a new flight. There were a few takers, but not enough, so they invoked the right to "bump" i.e. remove a paying passenger and get the crew member aboard.
The Asian doctor was selected by computer but he needed to get to Louisville to see patients, so he didn't want to leave his seat. He put up a fuss.
Flight crew then called Chicago police, who pulled him from his seat. Supposedly the doctor "fell" on a seat arm in the aisle. Somehow he lost consciousness and was dragged out the door by his arms.
Birdbrain
Yes, and this is terrible. United used poor judgement in involving LE brutes to remove the man. United is the worst of the "big 4", lowest in customer satisfaction and marketshare, for a reason.
DeleteTheir new motto is "We don't let girls wear leggings on our flights but we'll have the shit kicked out of you if you don't give up your seat".
They should have gone higher - eventually somebody would take it.
DeleteNO EXCUSE!
Also, it shouldn't matter whether he was a doctor or an unemployed person. They bought the seat, they had a RIGHT to that seat.
If they had upped to offer to, say, $2K it would have been SOOOOO much cheaper than what they now will end up paying.
Ha!
They should have gone higher - eventually somebody would take it.
DeleteNO EXCUSE!
Also, it shouldn't matter whether he was a doctor or an unemployed person. They bought the seat, they had a RIGHT to that seat.
If they had upped to offer to, say, $2K it would have been SOOOOO much cheaper than what they now will end up paying.
Ha!
I have no doubt in the ticket contract, the airline does reserve the right to bump any passenger for such situations. So fighting it does no good really.
DeleteAny passenger is better off accepting their bad luck and fate. Passengers don't own the plane or the seat, they are paying guests, and their rights are not unlimited.
That said, the nature of flying these days with airlines stuffing their planes to the max, sucks. And these situations become almost unavoidable.
I say drive if you have the time.
I'm sure this is going to cost them a lot more in legal fees and lost revenue from bad publicity.
DeletePersonally, I will never fly United again. Not because of this specifically but this just hardens my resolve.
United sucks. They're just getting more blatant about it. Kimmel's video on this is truer than he intended.
United's new tagline is "Fuck You."
United's advertising campaign:
ReplyDelete"Fly the friendly skies of United."
I don't fly United anymore due to bad experiences. The flight attendants always seemed crabby, miserable, and unhelpful. My favorite is Alaska Airlines!
ReplyDeleteJo4:39 PM-
DeleteAlaska Airlines is my favorite and my California son's favorite as well. :-)
If you are "asked" to leave, it is NOT voluntary.
ReplyDeletePMom_GA
Bingo.
DeleteI remember when my husband wouldn't allow me to travel on a Greyhound bus because it would be unpleasant and dangerous...
ReplyDeleteAirlines are now flying Greyhounds...
Deletei hope people boycott the HELL out of that airline and that man sues the HELL out of them. If United needed to transport 4 staff members that is NO excuse to randomly bump paying customers for some minimal token "reward". It sure as HELL does not justify the force used. They need to figure it out versus SCREWING over their passengers that have plans around their flights.
ReplyDeleteBOYCOTT UNITED !!!!
Because "our" employees.......
ReplyDeleteMay they go the way of TWA.
No rhyme intended.
TWA and Eastern Airlines.
DeleteThe initial screaming sounded forced or fake to me. Who would know an airline would have police or security physically remove you from a reservation you purchased?
ReplyDeleteThey need to not sell some seats in case they need them for employees!
The passenger was a physician. He had patients waiting to see him. Why was this not important to united airlines? This is one more example of how citizen "united" and united airlines, united health insurance. united heritage and several other united baloney this and that have completely told the "USA Consumers" we don't like you nor care about you and we will take, steal and trash your money and life for our investors and profits. This is awful and must be stopped. They feel empower since their ugly face rigged a presidential election and lies become the alternative truth. It is the hateful deranged bad people attempting to promote and force communism in America and it will not happen. Never,
ReplyDeleteI've been on a couple of flights where passengers were asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to take a later flight. Complete with incentives, like free flights and cash. This was simply tyrannical behavior. In all likelihood, someone would have agreed to take another flight; everyone on the plane would have applauded; and no one would have been dragged off and roughed up. it seems as if, anyone with the least little authority, has suddenly decided to be a super-bully. Could this be because we have a bully as president?
DeleteBeaglemom
Yeah, we have all seen how the bump system works beaglemom. You should read all the facts of this story, because your story doesn't match here.
DeleteWhat happen to consumers are first? or customer satisfaction? or the customer is always right? This again shows the world the mentality of greedy CEO's and corporate greed. Share holders must stop it,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Trump's America. ME ME ME!
Deletelol, so this is Trumps fault 6:26?
DeleteAn overpriced sardine can selling peanuts is not worth the money. Tell them so. Small seats and rude attendants don't fly well.
ReplyDeleteOT, Bristol is on the Daily Mail again. Does she make money from that? Anyway, she's pushing out her belly trying to look 8 months pregnant. She doesn't even look bloated. Those Palin people are weird.
ReplyDeleteAre you telling me they couldn't pull the four or six people who bought their tickets last? What happened to "first come, first served"? Stupidity is wrecking this planet.
ReplyDeleteGeorgiaPeach
They could have paid for tickets on another airline for their staff. They could have rented a limo and have them driven. United is simply cheap ass and FASCIST.
DeleteKimmel's parody commercial got it right.
Meanwhile...
ReplyDeleteAfter much discussion w/ advisors POTUS has been decided that the official US position on Syria is "whatever the Hell I want it to be."
https://twitter.com/RoguePOTUSStaff/status/851599310831706114
AP confirms what I posited last week: Russia was behind the chemical gas attack in Syria
What a lousy thing to have been right about. Last week I posited, using political logic and circumstantial evidence, that Russia was behind the chemical gas attack in Syria and that it had been arranged so Donald Trump could look tough and independent by pretending to fight back. Sure enough, the Associated Press is now confirming that’s pretty much how it went down.
The day of the gas attack, I posited that none of it made any sense on its face unless Russia was behind it all. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is so dependent on Russia, he wouldn’t have done something like that unless the Kremlin signed off on it. But the Kremlin wants to keep Assad in power, and it wouldn’t have exposed him to outside attack from the U.S. unless it knew that the attack would be harmless (link).
Then on the night the U.S. launched a military strike in Syria, I pointed to the fact that all fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles had gone out of their way not to hit anything important, and the fact that Russia didn’t bother to use its S-400 missile defense system, as circumstantial evidence that this was all indeed arranged so that Donald Trump could pretend to fight back (link).
Now the Associated Press is reporting today that a Russian drone flew over the hospital where the gas victims were seeking treatment, and then a MiG fighter jet came back shortly thereafter and blew up the hospital to try to bury the evidence (link). The AP is concluding that this means “Russia knew in advance” about the chemical attack.
This raises the question of why Russia would blow up the victims to try to destroy the evidence. Assad was going to be blamed for any chemical attack in his country, because he’s done it before, so bombing the hospital would not have been aimed at protecting Assad. Instead this suggests Russia itself launched the chemical attack, and wanted to destroy any evidence that it was behind it. And Russia’s only reason for being behind the attack was so that Trump could indeed look tough by fighting back a bit against Assad. What a terrible thing for me to have been right about.
https://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/ap-syria-russia-chemical-gas/2266/
Another loudmouth draft-dodging sanctimonious hypocrite phony patriot republican sending us to war
https://twitter.com/MorinToon/status/850758107437387778/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Faddictinginfo.org%2F2017%2F04%2F10%2Fwashington-post-reporter-wins-pulitzer-for-his-work-exposing-trumps-campaign-lies%2F
This Reporter Just Won The Biggest Prize In Journalism For Exposing Trump’s Lies (DETAILS)
http://addictinginfo.org/2017/04/10/washington-post-reporter-wins-pulitzer-for-his-work-exposing-trumps-campaign-lies/
You can watch Spicer make a fool of himself below:
http://addictinginfo.org/2017/04/10/sean-spicer-blows-press-briefing-contradicts-trump-administration-with-insane-statement-on-russia-video/
http://addictinginfo.org/2017/04/10/trump-devastated-as-new-poll-shows-just-how-much-americans-hate-him-tweet/
As far as I'm concerned this was all a charade designed to make it look like Trump isn't in Putin's pocket. it failed. Millions spent; lives lost and most of us are not convinced that Putin is not pulling the strings.
DeleteBeaglemom
Amid news that Russia was behind Syria gas attack, Trump White House pulls plug on briefing
ReplyDelete...ShareBlue caught the switch-up this afternoon when it noticed the New York Daily News had reported that the White House briefing was switched from on-the-record background, to fully off-the-record, just as it was beginning. ShareBlue reporter Tommy Christopher characterized the matter thusly: “as someone who worked as a White House reporter for seven years, beginning a briefing on background and changing it to an off-the-record is something I have never heard of” (link). So what exactly is Trump’s White House suddenly trying to cover up?
https://www.palmerreport.com/news/news-russia-syria-trump-briefing/2271/
http://shareblue.com/breaking-panicked-white-house-forbids-reporting-on-russia-briefing/
While debating Missouri Senate Bill 67, yet another state TRAP law designed to shut down clinics, Republican state Senators Bob Onder and Wayne Wallingford suggested that women should go to the St. Louis Zoo for abortions
ReplyDeleteONDER: So we inspect our McDonaldses, we inspect our nursing homes twice a year, our preschools twice a year, we —
WALLINGFORD: Our school — school lunch programs, they’re in there inspecting that.
ONDER: Inspecting all the time, and the zoo! The zoo! The St. Louis zoo gets inspected once a year.
WALLINGFORD: Well maybe we should send the people that want an abortion to the St. Louis zoo, because we know it’ll be safer.
ONDER: You know it’s funny you say that, Senator.
Fact check: It is actually not funny that he said that; it is repulsive and terrifying. It is also illustrative of a party that just elevated Misogynist-in-Chief Donald Trump to the presidency, and continues to wage war on women’s health care at every level of government.
http://shareblue.com/missouri-republicans-say-women-should-get-abortions-at-the-zoo/
Airlines overbook because people no-show. I've seen people book two or three flights so they will have a choice between flights.
ReplyDeleteThe crew that was left on the plane were on duty travel to work another flight. The doctor paid a cheap ticket and showed up late. The airlines have a list of which people to deny boarding to, and he fit all of the criteria to be removed involuntarily. Unless you've worked for an airline at the airport or in reservations, you don't know what you're talking about. I have worked airport, check-in, gate, and reservations.
He wasn't denied boarding. He was boarded and then pulled off the plane by these thugs.
DeleteNice try tho.
It's still bullshit and they are guilty of abuse. There is no excuse for dragging that man out the way they did. They don't have a right to assault him.
DeleteAt some point the guy is getting off the plane mlaiuppa, the hard way or the easy way. He chose the hard way when it really comes down to it. Either way, the decision had been made.
DeleteHey 8:56 pm I think I've met you a few times at the airport. You are one of the lovely "service personnel" who make an already miserable experience unbearable. They could probably use you at Gitmo.
Delete8:56 is one of the Deplorables looking to Make America Fascist.
DeleteLol. You people want to blame the bottom of the rung ticketing agents for following corporate policy and instructions.
DeleteWhat a ridiculous statement. The doctor wasn't denied boarding, nor apparently was he late. He was on the flight. You're just speculating.
ReplyDelete‘I shouldn’t be laughing, but…’: Bill O’Reilly chuckles after watching violent removal of United passenger
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/i-shouldnt-be-laughing-but-bill-oreilly-chuckles-after-watching-violent-removal-of-united-passenger/
Cop who bloodied United passenger suspended pending ‘thorough review of situation’
ReplyDeleteAn aviation security officer who was involved a dragging a screaming man off of a United Airlines flight Sunday night, leaving the passenger battered and bloody, has been suspended.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the unidentified cop was placed on leave Monday afternoon.
The officer was suspended “pending a thorough review of the situation,” the Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement. “The incident on United Flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions are obviously not condoned by the department.”
Videos of the man later standing in the plane showed him looking dazed as blood covered the lower portion of his face.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/cop-who-bloodied-united-passenger-suspended-pending-thorough-review-of-situation/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-united-drags-passenger-0411-biz-20170410-story.html
Below is the text of the letter United Airlines' parent company CEO Oscar Munoz sent to employees after a passenger was dragged from a United plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The summary below the letter was compiled by United:
Dear Team,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-united-ceo-oscar-munoz-letter-20170410-story.html
Another Republican resigns amid a sex scandal. Alabama will get a new governor. Oh, and this guy used to be a Baptist Deacon.
ReplyDelete"Bentley, a staunch family-values conservative who won two terms partly because of his reputation for moral rectitude, was first engulfed in scandal last year after recordings surfaced of him making sexually charged comments to the 45-year-old Mason."
Can't wait until Putin leaks that Trump pee tape.
We've been on flights that have been overbooked (the fault of the airlines) and there have always been, before boarding, volunteers who have agreed to take a later flight for money or free air travel. I hope the victim sues the airline.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
You should probably read more about the facts of the story.
Delete7:56
DeleteReading comprehension!
They always ask BEFORE BOARDING.
Once you're on, the seat should be yours.
The airline fucked up and they're trying to make it the victim's fault. He *is* the VICTIM here.
I hope he sues them and the court case is blasted all over the media so that United can relieve, once again, their latest PR nightmare.
The company is a piece of fascist shit.
"They always ask BEFORE BOARDING."
Deletelol. Usually is not Always,
"Once you're on, the seat should be yours."
There is a difference between "should be" and "is".
Are you implying the airline was not within it's rights mlaiuppa? I guarantee you they were, and it doesn't matter what your angry little self feels or thinks. Read the ticket agreement.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/courier-journal-faces-instant-backlash-for-hyping-doctors-troubled-past-after-united-beating/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/msnbc-scrambles-to-slime-united-passenger-were-working-hard-to-confirm-he-had-run-ins-with-the-law/
DeleteThey won't have to worry about overbooking now.
ReplyDeleteUnited is the worst of all of the airlines and I'm sure the others won't wait to make the most of this latest insult on the public by United.
United did not even offer the amount required by law that bumped passengers would get. They deserve all the trouble they get from this.
ReplyDeleteIt was also crappy VOUCHERS. Meaning you had to fly United again, plus all of the restrictions associated with a voucher including being the first one bumped.
DeleteJimmy Kimmel has the best United promo ever.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jimmy-kimmel-united-commercial_us_58ec7654e4b0df7e2044b81e?