Kara Spengler

I did pull one thing one time when I got delayed by a combination of customs and an incompetent airline that delayed me from Costa Rica. The closed the gangway and I explained I had a meeting at the White House in the morning.

Of course my 'meeting' was reporting to work after my vacation. Yes, my bad, but I would have been called on it if I was at an east coast airport.

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Ishina

You'd have thought they'd have a seating procedure worked out by now.

Briar Bing

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Wanda Belinda

How did he get on the plane? Every time I've flown you have to have a boarding pass with the seat number printed on it. I assume they can overbook tickets, but they shouldn't be printing boarding passes with duplicate seat numbers.

Twisted Pharaoh

That's a problem they could solve without harming anyone with a little bit of organization. If they can't handle this smoothly, do you really want to entrust them with your life as a passenger?

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Dakota Tebaldi

Heh - well, I don't think corporate managers' kerfuffles over seating assignments have anything to do with the pilot's skill.

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Jolene Benoir

I will say that flying international is better, not perfect, but better.

Domestic air flight is godawful in every way.

Katheryne Helendale

We really need a Passenger Bill of Rights. If we've already got one, then we need one with more teeth.

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Ellie

They 69 year old man pulled off the flight said, making him sound as though his English skills weren't great, so how the hell did they know he understood their directions in the first goddam place?

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Twisted Pharaoh

I was not thinking about the pilot skills, I was thinking about organization, if they are disorganized one of their planes will crash soon.

Argent Stonecutter

They had staff that needed to fly to crew a plane at another airport, so they dumped paying passengers for deadheads.

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Kara Spengler

Some airlines do open boarding so there is no assignment (or maybe just a range of what seats). Point taken though, I have yet to have them ask for volunteers AFTER boarding began. Remove carry-on luggage if the bins are full, yes. Remove people that are in the plane .... never seen it.

Argent Stonecutter

Good point, Kara, and ties into a point that I just saw someone make elsewhere:

Their contract didn't allow them to remove him from the plane. Once he's boarded, none of the "denied boarding" conditions (rule 25) apply, and the section of their contract of carriage document that covers removal of the passenger (rule 21) only specifies they can remove a passenger from the plane under certain conditions. Overbooking is not one of them.

Edit: Contract of Carriage Document

Free Xue

United's phone app just got an update...

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Kara Spengler

Hmm ... I wonder what is the policy for what to do if they let too many people into the plane? Overbooking is simple, you handle it in the airport with whatever procedure you have in place. Letting too many people in though? It sounds like there was a problem in the boarding lounge (my money is on the deadheads not being checked in properly), however there should be some sort of policy to resolve it beyond 'oh sh*t, what do we do now'.

Ambiguous

My understanding is that the plane was fully boarded with checked in passengers, and THEN the United employees showed up to board, with no seats available. At that point, I think the employees are the ones who should have to find alternate arrangements, not already seated passengers.

Kara Spengler

That changes things then. If united did not have another flight to that city in time they should have started calling other airlines to book the seats as soon as they knew about the conflict (and/or seeing if they could get another crew to the other city).

Myf

I believe it's less the case that four United employees turned up demanding a flight, more the case that United had four employees it needed in a different city by a given time. That is to say, it was an organisational decision by United to bully a customer, in preference to rearranging employee work schedules.

Kara Spengler

Which would make sense. I am sure those employees would have no trouble hanging out in some restaurant while on the clock.

Experimental

Looks like a job opened up at UA... Seriously, lol

https://districtdaybook.com/jobs/yu3EFswSjDAGAyhCr

Ambiguous

I agree with your point. I didn't imply that the employees DEMANDED anything. No matter what, United flubbed this one badly.

Rose Karuna

Unfortunately I travel a lot on business and it has progressively become more and more of a nightmare. Obviously the airlines are not thinking in any way of their customers.

The customer gets to the airport and stands in line to check their bag (anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes) and then stands in line again to go through security (anywhere from 10 min to over an hour) and then joins a very crowded, loud, smelly and ugly boarding area where they can find a seat only about 50% of the time.

Because the airlines have started charging for checking bags everyone tries to crowd the gate and get on the plane before everyone else so that they have a place to put their bag in the overhead.

Flights are generally packed, with every seat full so there is no breathing room. Most seats are 18" across, fun times. Customers end up fighting for mere inches of space to put their feet and shoulders.

Airlines have cut several flights in order to have full planes. This has resulted in absolutely packed planes and if a customer misses a flight or they are bumped because of overbooking, they may not make it to their destination for two or three days! Not because there are not flights leaving, but because all those flights are FULL! This has happened to me personally.

The other thing that I have noticed airlines doing more of is cutting direct flights. They are forcing travelers to go through their hubs, which adds a whole other complexity to flying if they (and their bag) have to catch a connecting flight. This was in fact, how I got stranded in Atlanta for two frigging days. Thank you Delta.

Stews and Stewardess are not paid as much as waiters or waitresses, most of them are in it because they bought into the "glamour" of the job. Which they quickly learn is ANYTHING BUT glamorous. My neighbor is a pilot for American airlines and I was very surprised when he told me what his salary after 20 years on the job was (a bit less than 100K).

Deregulation has made us less safe, less comfortable and less likely to make it to our destinations. Airline executives continue to rake in record profits: United Airlines Announces Full-Year 2015 Profit - Jan 21, 2016

American Airlines earns $2.7 billion 2016 net profit | Airline Financials content from ATWOnline

Customers continue to suffer multiple indignities unless they are able to pay for the every increasing price of business or first class. Most business travelers, with the exception of "executives" are not allowed to take business or first class and are stuck in economy. They tend to stick with a particular airline in order to earn "miles" which they trade in for early boarding and on rare occasions, a business class seat.

How Much Money Do You Need To Fly Business Class On Every Flight?

So long as we, as consumers, continue to put up with this kind of behavior from the airlines we will continue to be treated in this manner.

Maybe it's because I'm old and close to retirement, but I have spoken up at work and told HR and my boss that in no uncertain terms, I will REFUSE to fly Spirit Airlines and United. Period. If they want to send me somewhere then it better be with another airline or I won't go. No if's, and's or but's about it. I am sick of being treated like this. I have also refused to accept multiple connecting flights when a direct flight is available.

Somewhere we just have to take a stand. Apparently I'm not alone in this - a lot of business travelers I know are doing everything they can to keep from having to travel at all (thank you webex) but they are also quitting their jobs when the travel becomes unreasonable. Our company alone has lost 4 systems engineers because they just couldn't do it anymore. It is brutal, on your health, on your family and on your spirit.

So my opinion is FUCK YOU UNITED AIRLINES. I don't ever intend to fly your nasty ass planes again.

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Rose Karuna

This actually happens a lot, which is one of the reasons I try and be in the first boarding group and I always keep my boarding pass out, because generally, if a seat is double booked, the person who is not seated is re-booked in another seat (generally a center) or on another airline. Even if they have space in first class I can tell you first hand that they rarely allow an economy passenger to get a first class seat just because economy is full.

Argent Stonecutter

Exit strategy for Sean Spicer?