United Drags Passenger from Plane

The airline does not have to make optimal decisions such as driving the crew rather than bumping four paying passengers. Its the same thing as the leggings... a lousy and whimsical decision, but once made ... that is it. No arguments. Get up and go get a drink.

A word from inside the industry:

http://www.askthepilot.com/passenger-forcibly-removed/

"What I sense is that the airline’s staff reached a point, after perhaps offering whatever dollar amounts their procedures called for, where they simply didn’t know what to do, and nobody was brave enough, or resourceful enough, to come up with something. Summoning the police simply became the easiest way to pass the buck. I hate saying it, but airline culture is often such that thinking creatively, and devising a proverbial outside-the-box solution, is almost actively discouraged. Everything is scripted and rote and procedural, and employees are often so afraid of being reprimanded for making a bad decision (not to mention pressed for time) that they don’t make a decision at all, or will gladly hand the matter to somebody else who can take responsibility. By and large, workers are deterred from thinking creatively exactly when they need to."

Quote: AZDuffman

Well, a MD should know that when you are on a plane you have next to no rights and the pilot is in charge.

Why? Do thy teach that in medical school? lol

Maybe this guy is a Ben Carson-type MD: completely brilliant at his field, but dumb as a rock when it comes to everyday life.

Can't 100% support someone who defies the directions of police officers but there were multiple other options available to United that would have both avoided the shitstorm of bad publicity and saved them money. The flight attendants could have been accommodated on another flight, either a later United flight that actually went out with a few empty seats or they could have paid for them to fly a different airline. They could have also paid for a rental car for the employees. All options would have cost significantly less than the compensation offered to the confirmed passengers and certainly would have cost a bucketload less than what this negative incident will cost them in lost sales.

Quote: Nareed

if so, therein lies the root of the problem. Regardless of the reason to bump people off the plane(*), you never, ever do it after boarding unless the issue develops afterwards (sudden change of winds, sudden change of weather along the route, stuff like that).

FAA data indicates that 46,000 people were involuntarily bumped in the latest year for which statistics are available, up from an all time low of 34,000 in 2002.
The FAA does not enumerate how many were already seated and asked to disembark. Logically, I would assume that the vast majority of those 46,000 people were bumped before getting on the plane.

I was bumped by Mexicana in Zacatecas and I showed up an hour early and they did not ask for any volunteers or offer any type of incentive. It's a terrible place to get bumped as there are almost no options. They left us in ZCL for a few hours with only a sandwich for compensation, then flew us to MEX where we had a layover long enough to explore the city in a taxi (my first time there), and finally into TIJ about 12 hours later.

(2015 data)
Boarded 613,141,000
Bumped Voluntary 505,000
Involuntary 46,000

Quote: FAA comments

include nonstop scheduled service between points within the United States (including territories) by U.S. air carriers with at least 1% of the total domestic scheduled service passenger revenues and operate aircraft with a passenger capacity of more than 60 seats. In 2014, the air carriers were Hawaiian, Jetblue, Delta, Virgin America, Alaska, American, United, Southwest, Frontier, Envoy, Expressjet , and Skywest. Before 1994, carriers included both majors and national airlines, i.e., airlines with over $100 million in revenue.

Number of passengers who hold confirmed reservations and are denied boarding ("bumped") from a flight because it is oversold. These figures include only passengers whose oversold flight departs without them; they do not include passengers affected by canceled, delayed, or diverted flights.

I read a news account that said the four asked to deplane were chosen "randomly by computer", but I also read that there was a team of high school students and their chaperones aboard who decided to up and leave when the "cleaners" were called in. Are we to believe that the selection process would have selected a minor and forced them off the plane? Somebody had to choose who could get the boot, as not everybody on that plane was a live choice. United should be very careful about pushing their "random" selection story to the public since it is not true.

Quote: Nareed

Summoning the police simply became the easiest way to pass the buck. I hate saying it, but airline culture is often such that thinking creatively, and devising a proverbial outside-the-box solution, is almost actively discouraged.

I know a 350 lb physicist who boarded a "people mover" only to find it wasn't moving. He complained to an airline employee who told him that it was out of commission. He suggested three times that they take down the BOARD HERE sign, but received no satisfaction. He finally took down the sign himself. They called four policeman to arrest him in front of his relatives. So now he has a police record and had to pay a hefty fine for defacing airport property.

Quote: Pacomartin

He finally took down the sign himself.

Life's lessons are learned hard sometimes.
I was parked in a line of cars at a store
waiting for my wife. It was in a fire lane
and I was the last car in line. A cop
pulls up and says I had to move. I
opened my mouth and said 'but'.
Before I could go further he said
in a monotone 'Do you really want
to argue with a cop? Really?'

I said no and moved. It's always a
lose/lose on somebody elses turf.
Like the idiot that got dragged off the
plane. He was old, he should have
known better.

The officer has been suspended with the department saying it's not within their normal operating procedures. Basically an admittance of wrong. Pretty obvious he will win a lawsuit if he decides to go that way.

Quote: terapined

Why should an MD know?

Quote: ams288

Why? Do thy teach that in medical school?

Because an MD is an intelligent and educated person who has been exposed to many things in life. We are not talking about someone who is working in a call center that was hired not for total intelligence but because they were intelligent enough to follow he script and not think for themselves. We are talking about a guy who had to get thru college, medical school, and post-school training. One that has been trained to make life-saving decisions.

When you get trained to do that you get trained to assess situations. He assessed very wrong. Hopefully I never have to use his medical services, his judgment is awful.