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posted by martyb on Tuesday April 18 2017, @11:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-will-they-ever-learn? dept.

Ever thought that this headline was a "shit happens" event?
2017-04-09 Passenger Violently Removed From Overbooked United Airlines Flight

And sometimes one can be unlucky twice?
2017-04-12 United is Heavy-Handed Again: Boarded, Seated Passenger Threatened With Cuffs to Disembark

No! United Airlines is at third strike right now 2017-04-15:
  * A couple says they were kicked off a United flight on the way to their wedding
  * A bride and groom were kicked off their United Airlines flight from Houston this weekend as they traveled to Costa Rica for their wedding.

Td;lr: Married couple finds their seats in economy class taken up by a sleeping man. By courtesy they just sit down on seats three rows away which happened to be in economy plus class on a flight which is half empty. They asked to upgrade but were refused and then headed to their assigned seats. However by then the airline had decided that they were rule breakers and must be thrown off regardless.

Details: United Airlines flight number 1737 on 2017-04-15. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston, Texas) on Saturday to Liberia, Costa Rica.

Last time after the second incident, the stock took a fall from 69.8 to 69 US$ (UAL). One can ask how much this will cost in market value decimation and in customers dropping them? What will the economist and MBA, CEO, Oscar Muñoz say?


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 18 2017, @11:36PM (10 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday April 18 2017, @11:36PM (#496066) Journal

    I'm sure that I have changed seats mid-flight when there were many empty rows. It's hard to pull you off the plane at that point. The self-upgrade is what got them here...

    So what do you get in United Economy Plus seats? Apparently 3-5 inches more leg room. And then there's this [frommers.com]:

    United calls its roomier seats "Economy Plus." Economy Plus seats have 34–36 inches of legroom, depending on the plane. They're available on all mainline United flights and some larger jets run by United Express carriers. Some jets have so much Economy Plus seating that people can end up assigned those seats at the airport for free. If you pay, the seats aren't cheap: On a flight from New York to Denver, the airfare was $150 each way but it would have cost another $100 to be bumped into a better seat.

    Also, are we getting bored of bashing United yet?

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  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday April 19 2017, @12:37AM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @12:37AM (#496079)

    Also, are we getting bored of bashing United yet?

    Nope :) I remember as a kid seeing the T-shirt ads in National Lampoon, one was 2 geese, one right behind the other doggy style, with the logo "Fly United".

    / A 13 y/o classmate had a shirt from TWA
    // TWA repeated over and over
    /// TWATTWATTWATTWAT, to hit you over the head.

    --
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by kaszz on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:20AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:20AM (#496123) Journal

    Also, are we getting bored of bashing United yet?

    Not at all. There are so much feathers and tar to be used in public. It has went from oops, wtf? to circus! ;-)

    And any airline that thinks that well behaved passengers can be treated with broken teeth, concussion and dragging while unconscious deserve to get their months in court of public mocking.

    OT, Belkin the malicious router manufacturer is another one that we haven't forgotten [wikipedia.org] about.

  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:38AM (1 child)

    by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:38AM (#496129) Homepage Journal

    Also, are we getting bored of bashing United yet?

    Not me. I've hated those fuckers since 2000 and they're not getting any love from me, ever.

    --
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:18AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:18AM (#496153)

      I last flew United in 2000. Even back then it felt like visiting a 3rd world country.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:38AM (#496130)

    I was on a United bus from LAX to IAD recently. An entire exit row was free. Some guy asked whether he could move there and was gruffly told "No, you have to pay extra for those." I felt sorry for the people that continued on to LHR.

    American corporations have lost their business sense.

  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:48AM (1 child)

    by Whoever (4524) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:48AM (#496147) Journal

    I had a bad experience on KLM. I paid extra for a seat in economy that was in a row of two instead of a row of 3. This was a transatlantic flight, so many hours sitting down.

    What they did not tell me was that the seat for which I had paid extra did not recline. I paid extra to sit in a less comfortable seat. What a ripoff!!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:17AM (#496170)

      Rookie mistake. You have to know which seats are good. For example, "exit" seats have extra legroom while the row in front of them doesn't recline.

  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday April 19 2017, @08:08AM (2 children)

    by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @08:08AM (#496187) Journal
    Economy Plus in United is complicated because people with various levels of premiere status get them for free. Silver lets you upgrade at checkin, gold and above lets you upgrade for free at check in. United is really big on status (you get noticeably better customer service at each premiere level, for example) and so having people gain the benefits of the status without having flown a lot with United is bad for their marketing.
    --
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:22AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:22AM (#496730)
      On the flip side people who've have sneaked a taste of better stuff that weren't given to them, might decide they are worth paying a bit more for. It's not like we're talking about first or business class seats. These are just better cattle class seats that normal folk might be able to afford (Note: if you regularly give the seats to people for free they might start to feel entitled, so don't give em out, just let passengers sneak into them if they are really empty and unbooked).

      Which brings us to the interesting part. The couple allegedly were willing to pay for an upgrade, but instead United decides to throw them out.

      So a customer is saying "take my money!" and the UA staff kicks them off the plane. How retarded is that?

      As far as I know kicking a passenger off the plane costs more in time and resources than just taking their $$$ for an upgrade, especially if they have checked in luggage.
      • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:59AM

        by TheRaven (270) on Thursday April 20 2017, @07:59AM (#496750) Journal

        Which brings us to the interesting part. The couple allegedly were willing to pay for an upgrade, but instead United decides to throw them out.

        That's the weirdest part of this. The recorded announcement on United flights at the start says 'economy plus seats are for our Mileage Plus Permiere members and the customers who have paid for those seats. If you would like to purchase an Economy Plus seat, please ask a member of the cabin crew'. They have a procedure in place for people to buy the seats, so it's very odd that they didn't permit it in this case.

        --
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