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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: 3, Touché) by The Shire on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:06AM (8 children)

    by The Shire (5824) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:06AM (#496150)

    The report was that the couple sat in seats in eco plus, where asked to move to their own seats, which they did, but then they went back to the higher class seats again. Repeat this twice more and that's when the flight crew had had enough and kicked them off the plane for being a disturbance. UA isn't at fault here, the couple is.

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:21AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @05:21AM (#496155)

    Please don't confuse us with the facts. This is SoylentNews.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:57PM (#496378)

      And his statements are more factual because?

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by RedBear on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:24AM (3 children)

    by RedBear (1734) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:24AM (#496171)

    The report was that the couple sat in seats in eco plus, where asked to move to their own seats, which they did, but then they went back to the higher class seats again. Repeat this twice more and that's when the flight crew had had enough and kicked them off the plane for being a disturbance. UA isn't at fault here, the couple is.

    Yes, because corporate employees who feel their job might be at risk would never invent "extra" facts to support their own actions. That's literally never happened. Ever.

    There are in fact conflicting reports about exactly what happened, which is why we all need to start recording every interaction we ever have with any corporate or government employee, period. Personally I have seen so many egregious examples in recent years of authority figures being caught on camera blatantly fabricating elaborate false scenarios to support their rash decisions that I am strongly inclined to give most people at least a 60/40 split versus anyone in any position of authority over others. Let's take the Dr. Dao assault as an example. The United CEO came out early on and proclaimed that what staff had done was all right and proper because the customer was being disruptive and belligerent, no doubt simply repeating what a chain of underlings told him about the incident in order to support their own actions. Meanwhile all the non-United-staff witnesses on the plane and later a video clearly showed Dr. Dao being quite calm and polite just before he was violently assaulted. He lost a couple of teeth, required surgery and had a concussion, by the way, in case you haven't been paying attention.

    In that context, unless these people were already drunk before they boarded or are the most brazen people alive, I have trouble believing they would deliberately disobey the instructions of the flight crew THREE TIMES before the flight even had a chance to take off. I don't think it's rational to accept that part of United's story at face value without some other non-company witnesses backing it up. United also claimed that the couple refused to pay the difference in fares and were just trying to engage in deliberate ticket fare fraud to get themselves a free upgrade, while the couple claims that they asked if they could pay for the upgrade and were refused the opportunity to do so. Again I would bet with at least a 60/40 split that it was the couple who got much closer to telling the unvarnished truth here while the United staff have engaged in significant embellishment of the facts.

    We may never know for sure because in this case we didn't have a dozen witnesses recording what happened. But it is certainly rational to use the past behavior of an organization's employees to help us decide whether to be overly credulous of the factual nature of statements released by that organization.

    --
    ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
    ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:39AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:39AM (#496175)

      ... we all need to start recording every interaction we ever have with any corporate or government employee

      And women/wives.

    • (Score: 2) by chewbacon on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:25PM (1 child)

      by chewbacon (1032) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @01:25PM (#496280)

      They could just be assholes. There are people out there who try to block cars traveling 70mph down freeways in protests (at night!) and if one of them gets hit they blame the driver. You don't think it could be possible there are such people who would feel entitled and unreasonable on an airplane? But none of us were there, so I will stand down to avoid becoming a Facebookesque-expert.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:52PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:52PM (#496417)

        They could just be assholes.

        They could be. But without knowing more about them personally, you have the word of a random couple versus the word of an airline company that is not only known to lie, but to have done so about a similar situation in the very recent past. Without more information, I'd tend to side with the passengers.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 19 2017, @02:25PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 19 2017, @02:25PM (#496310) Journal

    I can see United's side in this. If there were higher class (eg, more expensive) seats that were unused for this flight. It would impose significant costs upon United if passengers booked into lower priced seats were to sit in these unused higher priced seats. How could United stay in business if they allowed this sort of thing to happen. /s

    Go back to your assigned seats and remember your place. Otherwise I'll have to get some police thugs in here to re-accommodate you!

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Wednesday April 19 2017, @08:59PM

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @08:59PM (#496546) Journal

    I was looking through a few stories, but all I could see was that United claimed that. The couple's story on the altercation is different.
    Do you have a link to someone other than United corroborating this turn of events?

    After recent United stories, I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.