Way to go United, airline of the "friendly skies", lol. Statement by United: “Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologise for the overbook situation.” What is wrong with those people? Earlier, United refused 2 girls from boarding an aircraft because they wore leggings. https://twitter.com/search?q=United leggings&src=typd Flying any American airlines has become a ridiculous undertaking, I feel bad for Americans who do not have another choice, domestically. I have never flown any American airlines internationally, even into the US. America, the country of freedom of expression? I guess that was long time ago...(it's not this passenger or those two girls endangered other passengers or put the flight at risk in any way)
I can't believe these guys have 16 million views putting new words to Merle Haggard's "Fightin Side of Me" Funny though. I bet UAL wishes they'd have done right by this guy. They didn't.
We are in the age of social media shit storms. Sometimes unfounded, other times deserved. What United has been doing in the past couple months is despicable. US airlines in general are incredibly shitty. Thank your regulators for preventing any sort of foreign competition. So much to America's free markets and Trump's claim how the US is granting access to its markets but is prevented from accessing foreign markets.
I don't think it was "overbooked". They asked people to leave so that a flight crew could get to Louisville. If you're dragging paying customers off of planes kicking and screaming, so that your flight crews can get to work, I think that's a problem. Find some other way to get your crews to work (or maybe just connect the dots. If crew A needs to get to B, then they'll need n seats on a flight going to B. This should be able to be predicted months in advance). Just my 2c.
This is NOT just social media shit storm. This is a blatant display of American airline companies that just doesn't give a f*** about its customers. Overbooking is already a despicable practice that tramples on customer rights on every front but this is beyond overbooking. This is United Airlines high-handedly PUNISHING a PAYING customer to the extend of causing BODILY HARM for wanting to use the service that he's PAID FOR and NOT even for his own personal enjoyment but for the carrying out of his duties to save lives!!! The passenger didn't refuse to give up his seat because the voucher amount was not high enough or he really wants to get to that Caribbean vacation resort early, no, he didn't want to give up his seat because he REALLY needed to take that flight to attend to one of his patients, to provide medical care, to possibly save LIVES!!! And turning around looking at UA for the reason for bumping off passengers? It's to provide a free seat to one of their own employees to get to their work faster??!!! That employee wasn't even scheduled to work on that particular flight!!! I MIGHT be able to sympathize or understand a little bit if that crew is working crew member on that particular flight but no, he/she is a standby. He/she was just hitching a free ride so he/she can get to his/her next flight where he/she is scheduled to work faster and he/she was obviously too cheap to arrange for his/her own transportation. WHY can't he/she just take a different flight or drive there and then get reimbursed by United Airlines is beyond puzzling. Apparently according to some video commentators, the drive from Chicago to Louisville, this flight's destination is only a 5-hour drive!! And for that, they had to force PAYING passengers to give up their seats that they have already PAID for and rightly expect to use. Hitching a free ride vs. Saving lives. So many wrongs at every front. I think Erin Brockvich is calling this passenger right now and if she's not, I am sending this video link to her. that has the video in fullscreen. And I am not even going to pull up the race card here but after watching this horrible treatment that UA dealt to this passenger, I think every single Asian who's got an Asian name regardless where they are from in this world would AT LEAST hesitate in taking United Airlines if they know this is what can happen to them IF they ever choose to insist on using the service offered by UA that they have paid for. And after all this, United Airline's CEO did NOT even apologize to this passenger in his statement, only saying "it's an upsetting event to United Airlines too". Yes it will be and I hope so when its stock price reflects the reality when every single Asian on this planet avoids giving money to United Airlines.
And guess what the former Continental CEO said about this incident: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/unit...rmer-continental-ceo-gordon-bethune-says.html He called the passenger "immature". LOL A doctor who needed to get to where he is needed to care for his patients "immature" in refusing to give up his seat? Maybe it's United Airline who's "immature" in refusing to listen to the passenger and accommodate his reason WHY he can't give up the seat? And when he refused, the airline did not go to more "mature" passengers to demand for them to give up their seats? There is a reason WHY Continental filed for bankruptcy. LOL
I think he said the reaction was immature. From the link ... "[United] tries to do a professional job, but not everybody on the plane is professional," thereby creating a "scene" on Sunday evening that carried over onto social media, Bethune added. "This immature reaction disturbs us all." I guess CNBC didn't look at the quote too closely. But then they say at the bottom ... "Correction: This story's headline has been updated to say a United passenger was being immature, according to former Continental CEO Bethune's interview on CNBC." I don't get it.
I do not even understand the excuses the airlines used: a) they mentioned in their official statement that they ask for VOLUNTEERS who would be willing to give up their seats. b) the passenger that was removed was ALREADY in his seat. So what is the point to have him removed just so another one can take his seat? Overbookings are at LATEST known at the boarding gate NOT when all passengers are already seated on the flight. The only, really only, reason could be that a booked passenger showed up late and that his seat was given away to that removed passenger. Even then, there are rules, when one shows up xx minutes before departure then one cannot be transported on such flight. The airline in this instance SHOULD wait until such deadline has passed before giving away seats of passengers that did not show up on time.