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A Man Was Dragged Off A United Plane After The Airline Overbooked The Flight

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Apr 10, 2017.

  1. Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Alicia Melville-Smith, writing for BuzzFeed:


    Bridges said passengers were allowed to board the flight but were later told four people would need to give up their seats for four United employees who were needed in Louisville on Monday.

    She said no passengers volunteered, so a manager came aboard and said passengers would be randomly selected and asked to leave.

    When asked to leave, the man in the video became “very upset” and said he was a doctor who had patients to see the next day, Bridges said. A manager then told him security would be called if he refused to leave the plane. Three security guards then removed him from his seat while other passengers yelled in disgust.

    Holy shit. The videos and pictures are horrific.

     
  2. Eml182

    Regular

    It's not even that the flight was oversold. United's crappy planning to get their own employees to a different destination was the cause of this? What an absolute disgrace. Not hard to figure out that United could give two shits about their customers.
     
    MrAirplane, Raku, beachdude42 and 2 others like this.
  3. domotime2

    Great Googly Moogly Supporter

    I've been pretty anti United lately and now this is the dagger
     
    Raku likes this.
  4. Larry David

    I'll see you again in 25 years Prestigious

    This is horrifying
     
    Raku likes this.
  5. tyramail

    Trusted Supporter

    Will never fly United. That's terrifying.
     
    Raku, beachdude42 and coleslawed like this.
  6. bmir14

    Trusted Supporter

    Insane. But still better overall customer service than calling Comcast.
     
  7. FTank

    Prestigious Prestigious

    Fuck this, absolutely disgusting
     
    Raku likes this.
  8. AndrewRnR

    Newbie

    I've been on the other end before - used to be a front desk manager at Disney World and there were times we were overbooked and had to turn people away. Generally it went smoothly (money talks - we would throw large sums of money, park tickets, etc at them to fix it). We never had an issue because the more desperate we were the more we paid up. If they couldn't get anyone to volunteer sounds like they needed to perhaps offer more $$$. The one time we couldn't get anyone to voluntary switch when that last check in came in and we had to move them it was basically a blank check.
     
  9. Loki

    God of mischief

    I expected to click through it and think "another overblown situation" because of how sensitive the times are, but damn that is worse than I expected to see...
     
  10. swboyd Apr 10, 2017
    (Last edited: Apr 10, 2017)
    swboyd

    are we still lucky to be here? Prestigious

    I'm gonna assign most of the blame here on United (technically their subcontractors - it's a Republic Airlines/United Express flight) and the Chicago aviation cops. Lord knows they shouldn't drag people off planes like this in this day and age when everyone has a video camera in their pocket especially as a result of what looks like it's the result of a logistics fuckup on their part. This should've been resolved before the plane was boarded and upped the ante for incentives before randomly bumping four people like that. They've inherited a nice PR nightmare for themselves as a result of bad logistics, terrible situational awareness as a result of employees, and some good ole'fashioned Chicago police brutality.
     
    Raku and coleslawed like this.
  11. honkytonk

    Narcissism on narcotics

    That was worse than I expected. Crazy that no one gets up and does anything to stop it aside from their remarks, but I guess if some passengers HAD to get off the plane, it was going to happen one way or another.
     
    Raku likes this.
  12. jpmalone4

    Stay Lucky Supporter

    United is absolutely the worst airline, this doesn't shock me at all. They treat humans like cattle.
     
    Raku likes this.
  13. Fucking Dustin

    Please click "like" Supporter

    Aside from the obvious horrid things that occurred, this blows my mind.

    Good time to offer flyers incentives for going on a different flight? When everyone's already checked in at the airport and still has an hour or two to kill.
    Bad time to offer flyers incentives for going on a different flight? When, after all that waiting, they're loaded up on the plane and ready to go.

    The obvious thing is "don't overbook flights" and the even more obvious thing is "don't cause physical trauma to your passengers" but the timing of all this is probably #3 on the list of 20-30 wrong things that just happened.
     
    Raku, beachdude42, FTank and 2 others like this.
  14. Fucking Dustin

    Please click "like" Supporter

    It also blows my mind seeing people (not here but in other places) say "Well at least he's gonna have a lot of money now so I don't feel sorry for him."

    1. No
    2. He's a doctor so I highly doubt he's hurting for money
    3. Despite how money desperate we seem as a generation I'm sure not many people would ever want to go through that experience for money and I'm sure he'd forfeit it to not have to go through that
    4. No
    5. No
     
    Raku, BirdPerson and Serh like this.
  15. coleslawed

    Eat Pizza

    so, who is going to fly United after this and the leggings ordeal?
     
  16. jpmalone4

    Stay Lucky Supporter

    Probably most of the state of NJ since they have a near monopoly on all flights at Newark.
     
    Fronnyfron likes this.
  17. MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

    I've grown pretty frustrated with United over the years, but I've also had awful experiences with American. It's a shame the big 3 carriers (inc Delta) all suck.
     
    Fucking Dustin likes this.
  18. SuNDaYSTaR

    Regular Prestigious

    So, obviously, they're blaming the guy because he "refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily". Fuck them a million times.
     
    Raku likes this.
  19. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    I'm looking forward to seeing what the size of that lawsuit is.
     
    Raku likes this.
  20. bloodinthesand

    Regular

    Lmfao...I have the best Comcast story but it would take pages to write...talk a disorganized company
     
    Raku likes this.
  21. Fucking Dustin

    Please click "like" Supporter

    Are there any actual good carriers

    I'm genuinely curious, only Delta ever gave me a good experience and I'm like the only one
     
  22. Craig Manning

    @FurtherFromSky Moderator

    There are not.
     
  23. MexicanGuitars

    Chorus’ Expert on OTIP Track #8 Supporter

    Unless you go outside of North America, not really.
     
    beachdude42 and Fucking Dustin like this.
  24. BirdPerson

    fuck tammy! Prestigious

    The obvious answer here was to up the money until someone bit. It's not like upping it from $800 to $1000+ was going to break United's bank or something.
     
    Raku, coleslawed and Fucking Dustin like this.
  25. dvdjmskng

    The horizon is my home... Supporter

    Hold on a sec...wasn't this how the Hunger Games started?

    [​IMG]