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Phoenix is another one of those big sprawl suburbs with some Big Fatty's.....

"Of U.S. metros with at least 50,000 people, Phoenix ranks 57th for population density. As of 2010, (the most recent data available), there were 3,165 people per square mile in the Phoenix metro area. More than 3.6 million people in the metro area were spread over 1,147 square miles."
 
this needs to be a thread.

how dangerous is it to fly with United Airlines??.... these f_ckers made a guy famous today .....

and not in a good way.......... disastrous pr incident aboard a United Airlines jet....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ited-flight/zWN41a6vf1qPgpBrns1vgM/story.html

on the heels of another disastrous pr incident over leggings just a few days ago.....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ited-flight/zWN41a6vf1qPgpBrns1vgM/story.html




in other transportation news,

reports Barry got busted stemming from massive quantities of coke being found his yacht, and is being held on cocaine charges in a Club Fed lockup appear to have been greatly exaggerated.....

http://www.snopes.com/obama-arrested-in-japan/

he's not only a commie, but a drug trafficker man.......
 
C9D393kVwAAdTRX.jpg:large
 
odurandina said:
this needs to be a thread.

how dangerous is it to fly with United Airlines??.... these f_ckers made a guy famous today .....

and not in a good way.......... disastrous pr incident aboard a United Airlines jet....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ited-flight/zWN41a6vf1qPgpBrns1vgM/story.html

on the heels of another disastrous pr incident over leggings just a few days ago.....

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ited-flight/zWN41a6vf1qPgpBrns1vgM/story.html




in other transportation news,

reports Barry got busted stemming from massive quantities of coke being found his yacht, and is being held on cocaine charges in a Club Fed lockup appear to have been greatly exaggerated.....

http://www.snopes.com/obama-arrested-in-japan/

he's not only a commie, but a drug trafficker man.......
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'd take a "dragged off United Airlines kicking and screaming" if it means that you stop posting conspiracies that are proven false by the link you cited and the constant need to mention height.

That being said, I avoid United like the plague, though maybe I should start booking my flights on overbooked United Flights so I can pocket about $800 on each flight by volunteering to deplane.
 
United: pure capitalistic greed.

If no one gets off with $800 worth of payment, then they need to up it to $1000, $1200, and so forth until someone gets off. They think they want a free market, right...but when people ain't buying what they're selling, they beat the shit out of them as a solution? Sorry, United, pay up for your risky profit-seeking behavior (overbooking)...

There have been, very realistically, situations where I would not give up my seat for thousands of dollars. Gotta-be-there business deals/situations...research opportunities where I had ONE shot to collect my data...family emergencies. Sure, I'd gladly give up my seat for $800 in other situations. But sometimes it is what it is. I guarantee you someone would have said, 'Ok I can't pass this up', and taken the payment if they proceeded by incrementally increasing it.
 
bigpicture7 said:
United: pure capitalistic greed.

If no one gets off with $800 worth of payment, then they need to up it to $1000, $1200, and so forth until someone gets off. They think they want a free market, right...but when people ain't buying what they're selling, they beat the shit out of them as a solution? Sorry, United, pay up for your risky profit-seeking behavior (overbooking)...

There have been, very realistically, situations where I would not give up my seat for thousands of dollars. Gotta-be-there business deals/situations...research opportunities where I had ONE shot to collect my data...family emergencies. Sure, I'd gladly give up my seat for $800 in other situations. But sometimes it is what it is. I guarantee you someone would have said, 'Ok I can't pass this up', and taken the payment if they proceeded by incrementally increasing it.
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I'm leaning toward "F*ck United" too, but I'm still holding out until more information is available. The video shows security on the plane. We don't know exactly how it went down before the camera started rolling, and how it got to this point. Don't get me wrong, I don't like United one bit; but if it got to the point where they had to forcibly remove this guy from the plane, he might be a dick too.

There are plenty of times when I've strategically booked flights where I thought I might get an opportunity to give up my seat for compensation. There are others where you couldn't pay me enough to give up my seat. Even if the situation is the latter, I'd get off the plane and raise hell before I'd make security help me off. There's no scenario where that ends well. If an injustice was done to this guy (and it appears that was the case), it should be fought the right way. Not holding up a flight like and forcing security to have to remove you.

On a side note, how would it feel to be the person who took the seat this guy was pulled from?
 
This is bad---The video is disturbing and I'm not sure how it really went down without seeing and understanding it all.

But those passengers should have stuck up for that guy because that could have been them--
 
Lrfox said:
Don't get me wrong, I don't like United one bit; but if it got to the point where they had to forcibly remove this guy from the plane, he might be a dick too.
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This mentality only feeds into the problem - the notion that somehow the victim might "deserve" the excessive use of force. That type of force is NEVER justified, even if the person had committed a crime, which "being a dick" is nowhere near. This is part of a national trend of excessive use of force by authorities.

Chicago PD Statement:
C9ElGZjXcAEfDkc.jpg:large


This is why people don't trust police statements - he "fell." The fucking video shows otherwise.

"His head subsequently struck an armrest." Notice the lack of attribution - his head was smashed into the armrest by the officer.
 
Oh, he admitted he was being stubborn. He is a doctor who had to get back to see his patients. He had no intention of voluntarily leaving that seat he paid for. And United had the right to remove him too. Just like a bouncer has the right to remove any patron from a bar. It's question of 'should' & 'how'.
 
statler said:
It's question of 'should' & 'how'.
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Exactly. A transparent of system of escalating the offering price for voluntary opt-out solves a lot of this. And it puts the risk management onus on the airline, who is the one who took the risk in the first place by selling something they weren't sure was theirs to sell.
 
odurandina said:
on the heels of another disastrous pr incident over leggings just a few days ago.....
Click to expand...

dragging a passenger off the plane is a PR disaster, and rightfully so, but the leggings was a non-story (beyond your failing to link to the correct article). People traveling on an employee pass did not follow the dress code specified as part of the employee pass. If you want to travel for free, follow the rules. And don't throw a fit to the media when you ignore those rules.
 
This incident is going to end up costing United many millions of dollars, and rightfully so. And it all could have been avoided if they just upped their bump offer by a couple thousand dollars...

I'm a little bit surprised, however, that United is getting all the blame for this, and nobody is turning their outrage towards the goons from the CPD. It's their job to protect and serve the public, not due the bidding of the airlines in a price dispute.
 
The leggings story was less about 'does a company have a right to enforce rules?' (of course they do) and more about 'are said company's rules really fucking stupid?' (yes, really, really fucking stupid).

Pretty much the same deal as today, honestly. Says a lot about United.
 
datadyne007 said:
This mentality only feeds into the problem - the notion that somehow the victim might "deserve" the excessive use of force. That type of force is NEVER justified, even if the person had committed a crime, which "being a dick" is nowhere near. This is part of a national trend of excessive use of force by authorities.
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I'm not saying what the "Aviation Officers" did to the guy was justifiable, nor did he deserve any of it. What they did was indefensible. I'm saying:

A) I don't believe that United should be held responsible for the officers' use of force.

B) The guy should have probably gotten off the plane before police had to come aboard. He definitely should have gotten off when they did come on the plane.

He can be a dick and also not deserve the treatment he received.

I feel like United (and any airline) should make it clearer when dealing with overbooked flights that if volunteers don't come forward, they have the right to randomly remove passengers. There should also be language on the boarding to emphasize that they have the right to do that when necessary (if it's not there already). It's an easier pill to swallow if it's right there in writing. However, I think it would be better if the "compensation" were more enticing to passengers. It shouldn't be too hard to coax 4 passengers into giving up their seats. The fact that they couldn't get any volunteers speaks volumes. United needs to make some changes. I hope they do.

Chicago PD Statement:
C9ElGZjXcAEfDkc.jpg:large


This is why people don't trust police statements - he "fell." The fucking video shows otherwise.

"His head subsequently struck an armrest." Notice the lack of attribution - his head was smashed into the armrest by the officer.
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Yeah, it's classic wordsmithing and it's been going on for decades. I'm glad cameras are making it harder for LE to do this, but it's wild to think about how long this has been going on unchecked.
 
Lrfox said:
I feel like United (and any airline) should make it clearer when dealing with overbooked flights that if volunteers don't come forward, they have the right to randomly remove passengers. There should also be language on the boarding to emphasize that they have the right to do that when necessary (if it's not there already). It's an easier pill to swallow if it's right there in writing.
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But why? If the airlines overbook a flight and they allow all the overbooked passengers to board the plane, why should they have the right to then randomly remove passengers? It's their fault that they overbooked and it's their fault that they didn't catch this at the gate and prevent the passengers from boarding in the first place. The passengers shouldn't be the ones to suffer the consequences.

What usually happens in this situation is that the airline keeps upping to cash offer to "take a bump" until enough people step forward to take them up on their offer. United did that here, too, but only up to $800 before they called in the Pinkerton Guards. It's unclear why they didn't keep going to $1000, $1200, etc. That would have avoided this whole mess, and it's the resolution that should be encouraged.

The same basic forces of supply and demand that push ticket prices up around the holidays should also push up "bump prices" when an airline overbooks. The more seats you overbook, the higher the price you're going to have to pay to find people to catch the next flight. The airline shouldn't be able to just choose which passengers they want to screw over at random without having to pay the price for their mistakes.
 
Lrfox said:
I feel like United (and any airline) should make it clearer when dealing with overbooked flights that if volunteers don't come forward, they have the right to randomly remove passengers. .
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Then United Airlines would face bankruptcy overnight. No sane person is going to risk buying a ticket to an airline only to risk the possibility of being overbooked and kicked off the plane due to United Airlines gambling on how many people actually show up for the flight.

Not only that be humiliated by the Chicago Police Dept taken off by FORCE.
 
TheRifleman said:
Then United Airlines would face bankruptcy overnight. No sane person is going to risk buying a ticket to an airline only to risk the possibility of being overbooked and kicked off the plane due to United Airlines gambling on how many people actually show up for the flight.
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Nope. Not at all true because this is currently how it works. There's always a chance you'll get bumped (not just due to overbooking). Having it in writing is just making it clearer to passengers. To be clear, anyone bumped is entitled to compensation from the airline. They also always seek volunteers first.
 
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JumboBuc said:
But why? If the airlines overbook a flight and they allow all the overbooked passengers to board the plane, why should they have the right to then randomly remove passengers? It's their fault that they overbooked and it's their fault that they didn't catch this at the gate and prevent the passengers from boarding in the first place. The passengers shouldn't be the ones to suffer the consequences.

What usually happens in this situation is that the airline keeps upping to cash offer to "take a bump" until enough people step forward to take them up on their offer. United did that here, too, but only up to $800 before they called in the Pinkerton Guards. It's unclear why they didn't keep going to $1000, $1200, etc. That would have avoided this whole mess, and it's the resolution that should be encouraged..
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It should definitely be encouraged. Maybe some changes to laws regarding overbooked flights are due as well. However, there will always be instances where there aren't enough seats for ticketed passengers (equipment changes make this a problem too) and there may be times when people simply don't voluntarily give up seats on an overbooked flight and someone gets bumped. This should be clearer in the language on the ticket so people aren't as blindsided in the event that it does happen. It should also be clear that they will get significant compensation in the event that they are bumped (more than the highest amount offered to volunteers). Having it clear in writing may give passengers more incentive to volunteer as well.

United did a shitty job of handling the situation. It looks bad on them as it should. But there will always be situations where people have to give up seats and they shouldn't be so blindsided.
 
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