There is a communication problem between flight attendants and security/marshals. The violence exerted upon passengers is outside that warranted by the concern expressed.
With the advice and knowledge offered by this analytic statistician, who once helped the Japan's economic recovery, an airline should be able to provide effective solutions. Not PR!
What United had done last Sunday and the two days after with their non-apology apology has gone FAR beyond not being charitable organization. What they had done and had been doing for a very long time now is customer ABUSE. And their ticket is NOT really the cheapest if you add up all the fees and the minuscule of services that they provide. There are airlines who offer cheaper tickets with better service. You miss my point. I am NOT saying passengers would start to brawl from now on. What I am saying is people do have an incentive and in their self-interest to hold onto their seat for a bigger payout especially when majority of passengers are by default inclined to hold onto their seats instead of giving up especially when there is usually not another flight for several hours or not until the next day. They are not too keen on getting all their luggage and have to haul themselves along with their luggage into those cheap, prostitute-frequenting, drug-dealing airport hotels. And the airlines might end up offering substantially larger to entice someone to give up their seats. And it would result into a phenomenon of what's called "Prisoners' Dilemma" even though the passengers might not have colluded or planed for it in any way. Anyway you probably don't understand what I am trying to say. That's fine.
I never said that United handled the situation correctly. It all could have been avoided very cheaply if they just offered a little cash. However, I don't think this will have any affect on them long-term. We'll see. I understand what you mean about Prisoner's Dilemma, but I don't think it will work. Cooperation for a higher payout requires trust. Stranger's don't have that. As soon as the jackpot hits $1k, someone will jump at that offer. To do otherwise would require some people to make immense financial sacrifices for the benefit of someone else. And I certainly don't see people intimidating others to get off the plane so that they don't have to. Most people are non-confrontational and mind their own business.
No I understand what you are trying to say that people would not necessarily engage in collusion behaviour in order to achieve the goal of obtaining the highest financial compensation. But what I am saying is even though people do not covertly collude to try to obtain the highest financial compensation/incentive from the airline for voluntarily giving up their seats, but the outcome of how much the financial incentive that the airlines need to dish out to entice volunteers is actually similar to the outcome of the phenomenon of Prisoners' Dilemma. And the Prisoners' Dilemma is actually NOT based on trust; it's the opposite. It's actually because there is no trust hence the dilemma. If the two prisoners have trust for each other, then there is no dilemma; it's simple, they will both stay mum and not say a word to the interrogator because they both know the other person wouldn't snitch so together they both get out of jail, the best outcome and the police gets nothing. But in this case, people don't even need to worry about financial sacrifices because they are not giving up anything. In return for not getting the incentive, they get to keep their seat and FLY instead of waiting for HOURS or even overnight for the next flight. So by default people would want to hold onto their seats until they get an incentive that would not only compensate them for their lost seat but also hotels, meals, time lost, inconvenience and tort lawyer's favorite term, pain and suffering then and only then they would put their hand up and volunteer. Then if everybody does that, it's as if everybody is holding out and the longer they hold out, the higher incentive that the airline would need to dish out so that outcome is more like Prisoner's Dilemma even though it might be unintentional, unplanned and uncoordinated.
That's not quite true as everything has an opportunity cost. If I see a quarter on the sidewalk and don't bother to pick it up, I just passed up the opportunity to increase my net worth by a quarter. You're right that for some people, it won't be worth the effort of bending over and risking injury. However, if someone calculates that it would take $800 for them to give up their seat (considering all costs and inconveniences) and take the first flight out tomorrow, why wouldn't they take the airline's offer for $800 or more?
%% I dont hold his bad temper against him; or his gambling WINS/LOSSES.As far as an Asian from Vietnam, no problem also; i have a BIG PROBLEM WITH HIM IGNORING an LEGAL ORDER+dragging his heels[LOL] again after a legal order. I also have a problem with rebel remarks to the police ''i have to get back to my patients'' But the doc maybe right not to return AP calls LOL
Physician who was dragged off flight settles with United http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Physician-who-was-dragged-off-flight-settles-with-11104105.php
It's a shame--we'll never know the value. If I had to guess, I'd say they got out of this one for an even $500k.