United overbooked a flight so they dragged a passenger off the plane

[Raelbo]

Actually its not how overbooking work. They dont do it to keep cost down. They do it to make extra money.

As I said to the previous poster that's just semantics. Failing to maximise income has the same nett result as increased costs. By aggregating the costs over a larger number of tickets, they keep the cost per ticket lower.

You dont get a refund for not showing up. Its clear you never traveled. They do it so that some seats will give double the revenue.

This is not an issue of having travelled or not, and your conclusion to that effect is ridiculous. It's a question of basic economic principles. Yes, they do it to make more revenue, at a given ticket price, from the flight. This is not a mystery. Nor is there anything wrong with it because in the end, they will end up charging less per ticket than they otherwise would, which benefits all the passengers.

So yes its a practice law makers needs to deal with already. At least the video made my own country wake the fuck up. They are planning to get a law against it before the end of april.

That's fine. It just means that in your country air tickets will cost a bit more. If this is deemed to be a worthwhile trade-off then that's great. For what it's worth I would probably agree with this approach. People are always happy to accept a discount for a low probability risk...until they land up being the statistical outlier. Then suddenly they change their tune and become all obnoxious and entitled (as happened here). That's just human nature. Sometimes it's better to simply never give people the option because even though they think they'd be better having the freedom to choose, in reality it just leads to misery.

[Wyrt]

No, even before. A Doctor would have the rationale to get up and leave the plane and find another way to get home in time. You dont think so? Then screaming like a little girl and just get dragged off. Then coming back on the plane doing nothing but mumbling, I have to go home, I have to go home, I have to home. I almost want to say the guy has a mental disorder.

He was screaming because he was being beaten. And he came back mumbling because he had a concussion from having his face smashed in.

[Spectral]

Clearly the airline has no fucking clue how to handle themselves or this situation wouldn't have happened in the first place.

I guess United could really stand to hire the real experts like yourself...

[Wyrt]

I guess United could really stand to hire the real experts like yourself...

I wouldn't work for a shit tier company like United.

That's an assumption. I also wouldn't say they beat him.

Ok, go smash your face really hard on something and then come back and tell us how you feel.

[Spectral]

The solution would be to plan better. I work with airports and we run into this sort of thing often. Pilots and crew are generally unionized - and can only work X amount of hours. The problem is that United probably didn't plan around those sorts of things well enough and some pilot somewhere ran out of hours. My company specifically pays people to ensure this doesn't happen. (and its a well paid job)

If hours wasn't an issue, then they probably didn't plan for some surge in flights. Either way, the cause of this is on them. The market is showing United how it feels about these shitty policies, and their poor planning.

I think what you'll wind up finding is that after like a two day dust-up, the market won't show United much of anything. People basically seem to just keep taking the same routes/flights based on pricing and availability with little regard to some overblown news coverage of a logistical mistake combined with a temper tantrum.

I mean, personally I don't fly United because I think they're a shitty carrier, but other people don't really seem to have the same concerns.

[Deleted]

That's an assumption. I also wouldn't say they beat him.

That's an assumption as well. So this discussion ends right here. You criticize others for using assumptions in their arguments by making assumptions of your own. You're a hypocrite.

You go into these type of circular ad-hominem discussions that hardly touch the subject all the time. Your only goal is to up your post count on these forums. Pathetic.

[caervek]

Here's a quote from the article I linked.

That's interesting but irrelevant because what we were discussing was your idea that being bumped didn't mean being denied boarding, that's what I posted the quote to disprove then gave the CAA link to cite the quote when you questioned it.

[Raelbo]

Right - obviously if there was demand for that and people were willing to pay X% more (whatever that number is) to have an airline that doesn't overbook, someone would simply accommodate it. It's possible that airlines have calculated incorrectly and people really would pay another 20 or 30 bucks over the competitor to be assured that they'll never be bumped, but I frankly doubt it.

It's one of those funny situations where I actually think that basic human psychology leads us to make the wrong decision.

I don't think most people bother with understanding the possibility of being bumped. Or alternatively they think it's so low that it will never happen to them anyway. So effectively their choice of ticket comes down to price. Which means that airlines will end up mostly overbooking in order to keep their enterprise profitable at a lower price.

[Polarthief]

Plane tickets are already overly expensive. I don't see the need to overbook because corporate greed and you need to squeeze out every fucking dollar you can from each and every flight. The "potential no-shows" are already paying and can't get their money back, and the lawsuits you will probably face from dragging people off a plane when they did literally nothing wrong will cost you a lot more than you're making off of the few extra customers per flight.

[caervek]

That's an assumption. I also wouldn't say they beat him.

You do understand that there's videos (as in multiple) of the assault? You can clearly see him knocked unconscious on the armrest then dragged away before he returns dazed.

[Wyrt]

We don't know how much force was used. Your nose can bleed very easily. Until him having a concussion is confirmed, you shouldn't state it as fact and spread misinformation.

Got his face smashed in, displays symptoms of a concussion.

[Spectral]

Plane tickets are already overly expensive. I don't see the need to overbook because corporate greed and you need to squeeze out every fucking dollar you can from each and every flight. The "potential no-shows" are already paying and can't get their money back, and the lawsuits you will probably face from dragging people off a plane when they did literally nothing wrong will cost you a lot more than you're making off of the few extra customers per flight.

Airlines don't make much money and flights are quite cheap already. You simply don't have any idea what you're talking about.

[caervek]

I specially said "Being bumped isn't always being denied boarding". That's not excluding either or.

I know, that's why I explained that being bumped was a slang term for being denied boarding and they mean the same thing, then I provided a quote and CAA link to prove it. I feel we're going round in circles here lol, not sure if you actually don't get it or are leading me on XD

- - - Updated - - -

Again, not a confirmed concussion.

Not confirmed no, but as it's very difficult to knock somebody unconscious via blunt force trauma without causing a concussion, it's more likely he was than wasn't.

[Wyrt]

Airlines don't make much money and flights are quite cheap already. You simply don't have any idea what you're talking about.

Maybe they shouldn't pay their executives such ridiculous amounts of money if they're struggling to make profit.

[Spectral]

Maybe they shouldn't pay their executives such ridiculous amounts of money if they're struggling to make profit.

Dang man, you've got all the business solutions. Just do the smart things and don't do the stupid things and you'll rake it in hand over fist!

Frankly, I don't know why United hasn't tapped you to run their company yet. I guess it's because you're too good for them, as you note above.

[Polarthief]

Airlines don't make much money and flights are quite cheap already. You simply don't have any idea what you're talking about.

Call me ignorant, but I'm skeptical to read or trust anything with a typo in its title (and it not being corrected).

Also:

Maybe they shouldn't pay their executives such ridiculous amounts of money if they're struggling to make profit.

Edit: I guess making ~$1.2b in 3 months isn't "making much money"

[Wyrt]

Dang man, you've got all the business solutions. Just do the smart things and don't do the stupid things and you'll rake it in hand over fist!

Frankly, I don't know why United hasn't tapped you to run their company yet. I guess it's because you're too good for them, as you note above.

If they're too stupid to figure it out on their own then they deserve to go bankrupt.

[Hammerfest]

Just because this time it got videoed does not mean it doesn't happen with other airlines.

Never said doesn't. Times have changed now, though. More people have recording devices.

[Spectral]

Call me ignorant, but I'm skeptical to read or trust anything with a typo in its title (and it not being corrected).

Also:

Rejecting a summary from a highly reputable publication because they use standard British spelling is spectacularly ignorant. I guess you're pretty dedicated to believing things that are just plain wrong.

[Visor]

perfect title: "welcome to capitalism baby"©
I suppose it because he looks like "dirty asian". I don't think they are even try to kick a white man in jacket. Also exuses from this company sooooo pathetic. Pretty sure problem not in just this one "security officer" because every1 else simply assist him. Not trying to stop his obviously unlawful actions. So pretty hope this asian doctor will punish them with nice plaint. Especially if his patient got some kind of harm.