de-plane boss

[BoSoxGal]

The process for deplaning was random, not rude or unfair. He was the one behaving rudely. Had he not been he wouldn't have suffered any injury because no security would have been necessary.

Why in the world is it defensible for airlines to remove rude passengers who make a couple of comments to Ivanka Trump while boarding, and it's not defensible to remove a man who clearly shows absolute contempt for the authority of crew on a common carrier? I can't comprehend that hypocrisy.

We agree to disagree, you will not persuade me to your snowflake coddling position.

[Bicycle Bill]

This is what our world is now and why so many people make life so unpleasant. He's an entitled puke. He's been convicted of exchanging drugs for sex from patients - his own wife turned him in to the medical board! He's been psychologically evaluated and has anger control issues.

And still you will defend him. So that means people who abide by the law and honor the contracts they've entered without resorting to totally unnecessary temper tantrums and refusing to move like a bloody toddler are what, stupid sheep?!



No wonder we are surrounded by snowflakes.

What does a past history of exchanging drugs for sex have to do with being allowed on an airplane?
Answer: nuthin'.  Unless he was exchanging drugs for sex (or a seat upgrade) with one of the stewardesses flight hostesses cabin attendants, or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

And if the truth be told, I imagine that almost everybody here would be found to have some form of "anger issues" if they were to be "psychologically evaluated", so that's also a non-starter.

We also need to remember that the flight *WASN'T* overbooked until United tried to fit four airline crewmembers who were dead-heading to wherever to get to their next assignment onto the plane.  In light of what happened — even, for example, if the guy *HAD* accepted an $800 bribe, like the other three passengers did, and gotten off the plane 'voluntarily' — United would have still been money ahead to have used the $3200 to hire a limo or an air-taxi service to get these four crewmembers to their destination.

-"BB"-

[dales]

We agree to disagree, you will not persuade me to your snowflake coddling position.

Something I'm sure Donald Trump would say.

[BoSoxGal]

It's the propensity for unethical, unlawful behavior - he doesn't think rules apply to him, including the most essential oath taken by a physician. He deserves no defending. A decent person would have deplaned without acting the jackass and committing trespass - because legally that's what it is when the airline has told you to leave and you refuse, and stamp your feet and go limp like a rag doll and scream, acting no better than an out of control toddler.

[liberty]

Excuse the language, but this asshole is part of the problem with this country: there are too many self centered people that think that they are the center of the universe. Anything that inconveniences them is a crime and someone has to be punished. Here is the point: An airliner is private property and no one has a right to be there. All he has a right to is to have his money returned. He should be ashamed of himself : he showed himself to be spoiled brat instead of a man. Do you really think people like this would submit to a military draft. We are screwed if this country every has another national emergency like WW II.

If it was so important that he get back to his practice perhaps he should have left a day earlier.

[Econoline]

He's an entitled puke. He's been convicted of exchanging drugs for sex from patients - his own wife turned him in to the medical board! He's been psychologically evaluated and has anger control issues.

Huh? Are you seriously suggesting that United Airlines knew this and that that is why he was removed from his flight???

As for United's need to move company personnel from ORD to SDF, how can they not have known about this urgent need before boarding and seating a full planeload of people? And if they didn't know, why not, and why not find an alternative crew from another city, or an alternative way to get that particular crew to Louisville?

• • “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” ― Benjamin Franklin
    
    “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine.” ― Unknown

ETA: Random involuntary "de-planing" of paying customers is in itself "rude" and "unfair". The passenger didn't begin "behaving rudely" until after he was treated rudely.

[Big RR]

Why in the world is it defensible for airlines to remove rude passengers who make a couple of comments to Ivanka Trump while boarding, and it's not defensible to remove a man who clearly shows absolute contempt for the authority of crew on a common carrier? I can't comprehend that hypocrisy.

Well, other than the fact that I never said it is defensible in the first instance, I cannot understand why you bring that up. And contempt for the authority of the crew? Ya vol mein authorities! Some kid mouths off to the authority of policeman and I'd bet you'd look at it differently. Authority is earned, not granted as a right.b

further, I never said that an airline does not have the authority to remove a passenger is a legitimately overbooked situation; but I do think they should make every effort not to do so--and they had a lot of alternatives available to them, form offering more compensation to dealing with getting their crew to Louisville without inconveniencing their paying customers. But the way the airlines act now, customers are treated as more of an inconvenience than someone valued.

you will not persuade me to your snowflake coddling position

And you will not persuade me to your pro corporate, pro authoritarian position. So that's that.

Liberty

If it was so important that he the airline get the crew back to his practice to Louisville, perhaps he theyshould have left sent them a day earlier.

FTFY

[Econoline]

If it was so important that he get back to his practice perhaps he should have left a day earlier.

Riiiight. If it's important to get to a particular place at a particular time, people ought to drive and not fly. (That actually seems to be the new rule-of-thumb that a lot of people follow nowadays...)

[BoSoxGal]

I am not pro-corporate, I believe in both binding contracts and basic adult mannered behavior. I'm frankly surprised that you are so vigorously defending such a man-child. It is what it is.

[Econoline]

Liberty

If it was so important that he the airline get the crew back to his practice to Louisville, perhaps he theyshould have left sent them a day earlier.

FTFY

They wouldn't even have had to send them a day early; maybe they could've just got them on the plane before filling all the seats with other passengers?

[Econoline]

[Long Run]

This is what I meant when I said in the initial post that it will be interesting to hear the full story. The video I saw indicated there was something wrong with this dude, and the background story is definitely confirming this. There were two bad actors here -- United and this passenger. In the initial stories, the only bad actor being criticized was United when clearly this passenger was truculent if not unhinged. The reason for this piling on is of course everyone's dislike of United.

[liberty]

I am not pro corporation any more than I am anti corporation: A united group of individual have no more or any less rights than an individual. If someone was in your house, that had no right to be there, and you wanted them out you have a right to have them removed.

[liberty]

This is what I meant when I said in the initial post that it will be interesting to hear the full story. The video I saw indicated there was something wrong with this dude, and the background story is definitely confirming this. There were two bad actors here -- United and this passenger. In the initial stories, the only bad actor being criticized was United when clearly this passenger was truculent if not unhinged. The reason for this piling on is of course everyone's dislike of United.

If they are disliked enough it will have an effect. In business if you don’t take care of your customers you don’t have customers and in the end you won’t have a business.

[Joe Guy]

Do the security guards work for United? I don't think so. Should United have made a better offer to the passenger? I think so. Should the passenger have left peacefully. I think so.

The only thing United Airlines could have done after calling security is to physically intervene or scream at the security guards.

That "doctor" looked very mentally unstable to me. I've not heard anyone comment on him running up the aisle saying, "I have to go home!" over and over again. That's not normal for an adult. Maybe a 10 year old. He was not willing to cooperate with authorities. If he gets a lawyer, he will probably claim racism was an issue.

Is liberty an airport security guard?...

[Crackpot]

It's clear to me that the doctor way clearly asking to be abused just look at the way he was dressed.

[Burning Petard]

Was this passenger/paying customer really chosen at random? The company protocol includes picking from the lowest fare passengers first, and lots of other details that reduce the pool for selectees. The incentives offered these passengers for voluntary delay did not reach anywhere near the maximum in company protocol. I suspect there were passengers on board familiar with the rules of United and were waiting for a better deal.

What about the stated reason for this whole fiasco? In all the turmoil and delays that finally resulted, did the four employees who so urgently needed transport on this flight actually get there on time? Were flights delayed because those four more-important-than-our-paying-customers, did not arrive in time?

Right now, I think if I ever am in a similar situation, I shall keep my seat belt fastened and say in a loud clear voice "Is there a Lawyer on board?"

snailgate

[oldr_n_wsr]

The only good part of flying is when you are actually in the air.
The guy was an a$$. United too.
Plenty of blame to go around, not enough responsibility being accepted.
People get angry/mad long before getting on a plane. Having to get to the airport multiple hours before the flight so you can be made to undress, and then scanned prodded and groped only to put you clothes back on then go to the waiting area. Can't bring in any of your own beverages so you get to pay $$$$$ for a water and if you are hungry pay even more $$$$$$$$$. So ones attitude has been adjusted downward before they even board the plane. Then to have them tell you you must leave, well what can you expect.

Patience tolerance and love are in short supply now-a-days.

[rubato]

Apparently United has a habit of unjustified use of force to get what they want:

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus ... story.html

They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to. — Geoff Fearns

It’s hard to find examples of worse decision-making and customer treatment than United Airlines having a passenger dragged from an overbooked plane. But United’s shabby treatment of Geoff Fearns, including a threat to place him in handcuffs, comes close.

Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last week for a business conference.

Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.

Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.

“I asked why,” he told me. “They said the flight was overfull.”

Fearns, like the doctor at the center of that viral video from Sunday night, held his ground. He was already on the plane, already seated. He shouldn’t have to disembark.

“That’s when they told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute,” Fearns said. “They said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me.”
They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to. — Geoff Fearns
LA 90: United Airlines incident

Here's United Airlines' latest PR nightmare. (April 11, 2017) (Sign up for our free video newsletter here http://bit.ly/2n6VKPR)

Apparently United had some mechanical troubles with the aircraft scheduled to make the flight. So the carrier swapped out that plane with a slightly smaller one with fewer first-class seats.

Suddenly it had more first-class passengers than it knew what to do with. So it turned to its “How to Screw Over Customers” handbook and determined that the one in higher standing — more miles flown, presumably — gets the seat and the other first-class passenger, even though he’s also a member of the frequent-flier program, gets the boot.

“I understand you might bump people because a flight is full,” Fearns said. “But they didn’t say anything at the gate. I was already in the seat. And now they were telling me I had no choice. They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.”

You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

It shouldn’t make any difference where a passenger is seated or how much he or she paid for their ticket. But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. If there’s anybody whose business you want to safeguard and cultivate, it’s that person.

So how could United possibly make things worse? Not to worry. This is the airline that knows how to add insult to injury.

A United employee, responding to Fearns’ complaint that he shouldn’t have to miss the flight, compromised by downgrading him to economy class and placing him in the middle seat between a married couple who were in the midst of a nasty fight and refused to be seated next to each other.

“They argued the whole way back,” Fearns recalled. “Nearly six hours. It was a lot of fun.”


Back in Southern California, he consulted his lawyer and then wrote to United’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, who commended airline workers after the passenger-dragging incident “for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”

Fearns requested a full refund for his flight from Kauai and asked for United to make a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. This is how rich guys do it.

He received an email back from a United “corporate customer care specialist” apologizing that Fearns apparently had an unpleasant experience. But, no, forget about a refund.

As for that charitable donation, what are you kidding? A hard no on that.

Instead, the service rep offered to refund Fearns the difference between his first-class ticket and an economy ticket — about a week later, as if that wasn’t the first thing they should do in a situation like this — and to give him a $500 credit for a future trip on the airline.

“Despite the negative experience, we hope to have your continued support,” the rep concluded. “Your business is especially important to us and we'll do our utmost to make your future contacts with United satisfactory in every respect.”

I reached out to United and asked if anyone cared to comment on Fearns’ adventure in corporate catastrophe. No one got back to me.

Julia Underwood, a business professor at Azusa Pacific University, said United’s actions in both the dragged-off-the-plane episode and with Fearns reflect a coldhearted mindset utterly devoid of compassion for customers.

“They’re so locked into their policies, there’s no room for empathy,” she said.

As a result, Underwood said, situations that should be manageable spiral out of control and result in unnecessarily messy PR disasters.

“What United and all companies need to do is to train and empower workers to deal with specific issues as they arise,” she said. “Don’t just follow whatever is written in your policies.”

I couldn’t agree more. United is neck-deep in trouble this week because its workers are clearly out of their depth in handling out-of-the-ordinary events. You have to think someone on the flight crew would have been able to step up, if given the trust and authority to do so by the carrier.

Fearns said three different members of the crew on his middle-seat, economy-class return to L.A. apologized for how he was treated in Hawaii. But they said they were unable to do anything.

He’s now considering a lawsuit against United — and he certainly has the resources to press his case.

I asked if he’ll ever fly United again.

Fearns could only laugh. “Are you kidding?”
90 seconds: 4 stories you can't miss

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

There are thousands of United Airlines flights every day. One day there is a situation in which a passenger is mistreated on a UA flight. Suddenly, United is the worst airline in the world and the company is guilty of prejudice, extremely bad business practices, assault & battery, the revocation of human rights and bad food.

Wake up lambple!... I mean sheeple!! Your minds are being molded by the conspiratorial media machine. You've got to start thinking for yourselves! The tyrannical media has connected to your head by Wifi through your electric utility's smart meter and it's using your brain as a zombie to fulfill an evil conspiracy.

It may be too late but it's not too late maybe...