Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire United Airlines in heap of trouble

Not exactly the hero folks are looking for.

crow hunter, the gate agent simply can't push aside a policy and say "wow, this is stupid, I should just offer him another $500" Might (MIGHT) get the guy off the plane, but would cost that person their job.

There are 200+ people who didn't take the offer. Yeah, they should have upped it, but the gate person can't do that if the company policy outlines EXACTLY what they are supposed to do.

I had a flight cancelled just last week due to scheduling conflicts. I was headed to Hawaii for a hunt, and I was planning to meet someone in Honolulu that day. I had to take a flight the next day. It sucked but it was what it was and I waited until the next day to go. It would have made no difference if I had thrown a fit or not about it.

Outfitters deal with cancelled or delayed flights all the time and adjust their client pick up times accordingly.

So [bleep] what.

Wife and I and some friends were in Cancun a couple years ago and the entire group of us were ready to board our full flight home.
The airline had no pilots and staff available as all that were scheduled for our flight were past legal working hours, in other words, they had to rest to be able to legally work more.

We were sent to some cheesy-assed hotel overlooking a parking lot for the next 24 hours. There were 150 of us.

Getting staff to an airport might mean the difference between a scheduled full flight and a cancelled full flight.

That's all well and good on a vacation, but when you're a business traveler gone all the time that isn't an option. Some months I'll get on a commercial flight 5-6 times, getting there a day early on each trip would cost almost a week at home, that's a lot when you've only got a week and a half at home that month. It's also a lot of lost productivity for a business traveler that doesn't have the luxury of sitting around for a day twiddling his thumbs, many will take an overnight to europe, change into a business suit on the plane & immediately go to a meeting after landing in Paris, spend all day working then sleep and be on the first plane back to the states the next morning. That's their weekly routine, it's not the same as a vacation every couple of years where you can afford to take an extra day getting to/from it.

With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about. There were multiple ways to handle this, that's what managers are there for. This was a huge screw up by the gate agent and her immediate bosses.

The hell it don't! Should have beat the druggie POS 'moe senseless, right on cam...

Weather causes a lot of problems out of the control of the airlines or the passengers.

This United situation was not handled well, we all agree.

But often decisions do have to be made that inconvenience one or a few, in order to take care of a couple of hundred people.

Like that planeload of people waiting for a crew in Louisville, to make meetings, or attend weddings and funerals, or to go on a hunting trip. Their needs count, too.

It might be smart to buy a few lears to use as a Taxi service for the crews and avoid this kind of bad PR.

Soo ah broomd, you knew at the time the Dr. was all the things you profess him to be? Fascinating.

Well, the other side of that coin for the business traveller is that since you're doing business, you need to plan for a certain amount of unpredictable SNAFU's when it comes to airline travel. They overbook flights, they cancel flights, they bump people off flights. All the time.

I have had to take overnight layovers that I didn't want. I've had to rent a car in Dallas/Chicago/Atlanta and drive 4-6 hours to get to the meeting I had scheduled, because the connecting flight wasn't gonna fly. I've had to call the hospital I was travelling to and tell them I wouldn't be at their ER at 0700 the next morning because my commercial flight was socked in.

And guess what? The world didn't end. People made accommodations and life went on. That's just how commercial air travel goes.

I have been in situations where I listened to the gate agent bump up the incentives, with nobody coming forward. A couple of times I've gone up to the agent and told them that I'd take their deal, IF they gave me a voucher for the FULL cost of a night in the airport Hilton/Marriott/whatever. Both times they snapped my offer up like a duck on a junebug... so don't tell me the gate agents don't have some bargaining authority!

I have some sympathy for people who don't like being computer-selected to not fly, but I recognize that this part of the contract you have with the airline. If nobody will volunteer and accept the incentives, it's gonna get ugly. But screaming and crying and making the security guys drag you off the plane like an unruly toddler negates the sympathy I might have had.

Yes, United Airlines has a PR problem. They need a better way to bump people off flights, and a better way to transport their flight crews in emergency situations. I expect they'll come up with something.

Believe me, the crews would love that.
But it all comes down to money, and keeping the ticket prices as low as possible.

No, not at all.

He may be a model Buddhist.
But the squealing, cryin'-assed display I watched by him when he was asked to get up was disgusting. I simply have no tolerance for it.
Typical 'victim' looking for his next score.
He may score some big coin from UA, but with these latest 'druggie' 'mo character revelations, his ass is toast.

Did anyone else notice the 'barely conscious' doctor clinging to his phone with kung-fu grip on the way down the aisle?

POS...

Following established protocol (assuming it is legal protocol) is about the only way a company isn't liable when something like this happens these days. The protocol may or may not have a shred of common sense, but by following it an employee is covering themselves and their company. It is unfortunately a CYA world.




This is a classic example of jumping to conclusions. Nobody here knows what the full story is, what happened before or after the video(s) were made and what events happened leading up to or after the incident.

First of, let me just say, I hate United. If they'd been smart, they would have just kept raising the stakes.

I used to set myself up to get bumped all the time. On frequent flights I'd take for business or pleasure, I'd pick the flights I knew were the most popular and usually heavily booked.

For example: MIA to CUN is a 1 hour and 10 min flight and that sometimes includes a gratuitous run down the hotel zone, and the usual circling to land.

I'd set myself up on the mid-morning flights when I was going down to fish or just relax with ex-wife or GF. Used to take a bump often from AA on those flights. Not much difference in getting there at 10:30-12 and 12:30-2. I usually wait for comps to get in the $400 range. Some people will waffle at $250'ish. Greedy bastids.

You gotta point

Exactly...

So charter a small plane if you're too cheap to properly incentivize paying customers. Once they're seated, negotiating for paid seats is bound to be a bit more expensive, but it would surely be cheaper than a chartered plane or a lawsuit. Placing hands on a customer whose only indiscretion was buying a ticket and being randomly selected by a computer is really, and rightly, asking for the lawsuit. Previous legal actions on the part of he on whom hands were placed should have nothing to do with it. Neither should it matter whether that person is Beyonce' or Dwayne Johnson.