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United Air's Abuses: Doing the Heavy-Handed Thing a Third Time

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

kaszz writes:

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: 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.

    --
    sudo mod me up