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

[zenkai]

Source



If you think you’re having a bad Monday, at least you don’t work for United Airlines. Videos from an incident on a United flight from Chicago to Louisville are going viral this morning, and for all the wrong reasons. United overbooked the flight and after no one volunteered to leave the plane and take a later flight, police were called in to forcibly drag a man from his seat and off the plane:

According to the Courier-Journal, United needed four seats for their own employees, and offered passengers $400 and a hotel stay to give up their seats and take a flight the next day. When no one volunteered, they randomly chose four seats via a computer, and after one couple was chosen and left the plane, a manager approached the man in the video above. The man refused to give up his seat, telling the manager that he’s a doctor that needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning. After he said he was going to call his lawyer, security approached him and eventually, dragged him off the plane.

Absolutely awful.
(video in link)

What would you do if you had to be somewhere and you were chosen to be removed from the flight?

How in the hell with computers today, do you overbook a flight? I see it happen all the time.

Looks like they smashed his face into the armrest before dragging him off the flight

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3038898

Another source - http://www.kcci.com/article/video-sh...flight/9254661

Here we go - http://www.courier-journal.com/story...ast/100318320/

When airport security yanked David Dao off an overbooked flight Sunday, bloodying him as they dragged him down the aisle, he was thrust into the international spotlight. Dao, an Elizabethtown doctor, is familiar to many Kentuckians who recall his convictions on drug-related offenses in 2004.

Dao's removal from Lousiville-bound United Express Flight 3411 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was captured on video. United has come under scathing criticism for how it handled the situation, ranging from its insistence that passengers give up seats to the level of violence used by officers who yanked Dao from the aircraft.

In the video taken by passengers, Dao refuses to give up his seat. He screams as three Chicago Aviation officers begin pulling him from his seat. Dao's head strikes an armrest before he is dragged down the aisle by his arms, seemingly unconscious.

The Chicago Department of Aviation has placed the security officer who dragged Dao from his seat on leave, and said in a statement Monday that it does not condone his actions and that the incident on the United flight was not in accordance with its standard operating procedure.

United's CEO has apologized for the incident, and the U.S. Transportation Department also is investigating whether United complied with federal regulations regarding overbooking.

As he is dragged, some passengers can be heard admonishing the security officers.


Dao, his wife and two other passengers were asked to leave the aircraft because the flight was full and four crew members needed their seats, according to witnesses who were on the flight. The airline had offered vouchers worth up to $800 for passengers to give up their seats, but no one took the offer. Four passengers, including Dao, were then selected to be bumped.

A Louisville resident on the flight, Audra Bridges, told the Courier-Journal that Dao said he was a doctor and needed to see patients the next morning. Bridges said passengers were "shocked and appalled" by the incident, and thousands of people on social media have expressed sympathy for Dao and outrage over the way the situation was handled.

Dao, who went to medical school in Vietnam in the 1970s before moving to the U.S., has worked as a pulmonologist in Elizabethtown but was arrested in 2003 and eventually convicted of drug-related offenses after an undercover investigation, according to documents filed with the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure last June.

As for Dao's history as a doctor in Kentucky, the medical licensure board documents allege that he was involved in fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was sexually involved with a patient who used to work for his practice and assisted police in building a case against him.

Dao was convicted of multiple felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud or deceit in November 2004 and was placed on five years of supervised probation in January 2005, according to the documents. He surrendered his medical license the next month.

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure permitted Dao to resume practicing medicine in 2015 under certain conditions.

[Kujako]

Happened to me once, the airline cut me a check for double the air fair I paid and put me on the next first class seat going to my destination (oh and they gave me a voucher so I could go get a meal while I waited, but since it was airport food that's almost a mark against them).

Seems the rules have changed a bit since then....

[Deleted]

How in the hell with computers today, do you overbook a flight? I see it happen all the time.

As far as I am aware, (some?) airlines usually do it on purpose to some extent - and speculate on some people cancelling/rebooking/not showing up. So that they won't have empty seats in the end.

That said, I'd probably call the national consumer protection etc. If you buy and pay for a ticket on a specific day, it's not acceptable to just get removed from the flight like this. It's one thing if you take their offer and do it voluntarily (which I personally wouldn't), but if not, it's their problem.

[LongTimeCreeper]

Typically when they overbook, they don't let all the passengers board the plane. I'm thinking that there is a little more to the story than "Kentucky Sports Radio" reported.

[cuafpr]

wow i'd be checking with a lawyer if the forced you off the plane and you broke no rules... Over booking happens A LOT though mostly on low airfair air lines far as i know. It's done with the assumption some people change their mind, or be no-shows.

[Revik]

It's kind of weird and stupid but you can't just fly on a plane without a seat.

Personally I would be majorly pissed. Flying the next day with some money and a hotel stay is IMO not enough compensation for their fuck up. They should be throwing in a first class round trip flight to wherever I want then we are talking.

That being said if they are coming in with security to eject me I am not going to throw some temper tantrum. At some point you have to accept reality and that its going to happen.

[Cerilis]

Wth, I don't even... why is overbooking even a common practice? Is it really that important to get a full flight? This is like betting with money you don't have and then letting someone else pay the price. Absolutely disgusting.

[Zoranon]

Typically when they overbook, they don't let all the passengers board the plane. I'm thinking that there is a little more to the story than "Kentucky Sports Radio" reported.

I concur, this is strange, airlines tend to do this before booking starts. This is a nice example of why. Even stranger that police was not involved.

[Sunaka]

Happened to me once, the airline cut me a check for double the air fair I paid and put me on the next first class seat going to my destination (oh and they gave me a voucher so I could go get a meal while I waited, but since it was airport food that's almost a mark against them).

Seems the rules have changed a bit since then....

The quoted story is much shorter than the one I saw that said the offer was doubled to $800 before people even boarded the plane, and was repeated before they did the computer picks. That story also implied that the United employees thing wasn't realized until after boarding had happened, though they were still overbooked. And then later he was let back on anyway and people ended up having to be ushered off the plane so they could "tidy it up" or something after this guy bled a bit. The whole "smacking him around and dragging him out" thing isn't good, of course.

[Deleted]

As far as I am aware, (some?) airlines usually do it on purpose to some extent - and speculate on some people cancelling/rebooking/not showing up. So that they won't have empty seats in the end.

Much rather every airline overbooks all the time. It's standard procedure in the business and almost always works well - for the reasons you mentioned.

[the game]

If the guy would have complied then they wouldn't have to drag him off the plane. Yeah it sucks and was definitely the airline's fault but when you behave like a toddler you're going to be treated like a toddler.

[LongTimeCreeper]

Looks like they smashed his face into the armrest before dragging him off the flight

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3038898

[zenkai]

Typically when they overbook, they don't let all the passengers board the plane. I'm thinking that there is a little more to the story than "Kentucky Sports Radio" reported.

It was piggy backed off the local paper.

[Independent voter]

I've always wondered how overbooking is legal. A lot of times if they kick you from a flight they'll take pretty good care of you, let you go to the VIP room if they have one, pay for a hotel room, etc.

[Uselessrouge]

happend to me to had to wait 3 or 4 days at the airport.. but had they payed me a realy good hotel in the airport with pool and stuff...

was not even mad few days to chill , but yeah i guess if you need to be somewhere you could be pissed

[Allybeboba]

Just because the person is a doctor doesn't give him special privileges.

With the said it sucks what the airline industry does to it's customers each and every day.

[zenkai]

I've always wondered how overbooking is legal. A lot of times if they kick you from a flight they'll take pretty good care of you, let you go to the VIP room if they have one, pay for a hotel room, etc.

Yes, missing flight times can really mess you up financially too. When I flew down to FL to go for a cruise last year, I flew down an day early. The airline messed up and we sat on the plane for 5 hours, because the crew timed out and they had to get another crew to fly us. Needless to say the nice hotel I booked I didn't get there till 11pm, I was suppose to arrive at 2...

Other people on my flight was leaving on a cruise that day and they missed their cruise!

[nacixems]

I think when u buy the ticket ur agreeing to terms/conditions. but 400 was fine, i always take it if its that or higher. easy money.

[PosPosPos]

If the guy would have complied then they wouldn't have to drag him off the plane. Yeah it sucks and was definitely the airline's fault but when you behave like a toddler you're going to be treated like a toddler.

- He claimed he was a doctor and needed the flight that day to see patients at the hospital he works at.

- He was let back on the plane, which further corroborates that maybe his claim holds water.

- I guess to Trumpets, a doctor placing the welfare of his patients first, is acting like a toddler. Alternative logic/morals in action.

[PosPosPos]

Just because the person is a doctor doesn't give him special privileges.

Having the medical and moral responsibility to take care of his patients does, though.

Since when is getting what you paid for when the service provider gladly accepted your money a "special privilege"?

Trumpet Alternative logic is what is going on here.