United Airlines

I'd imagine Sbyrne may come in handy for this debate but yes as Bhob says if you are asked to leave an airplane by staff and refuse then you are seen as a disruptive passenger and are therefore trespassing and can be removed by force if necessary

Kinda happened to me and Trapped coming back from Armenia, they were over booked and offered $500 and 2 nights hotel not to get on the plane, luckily for them us 3 rocked up 1 hour after check in and they wouldn't let us through

lassassinblanc wrote: I'd imagine Sbyrne may come in handy for this debate but yes as Bhob says if you are asked to leave an airplane by staff and refuse then you are seen as a disruptive passenger and are therefore trespassing and can be removed by force if necessary

Newryrep wrote: Flying with them in the summer They offeerred 800 dollars supposedly and no takers

Surely they are able to ensure that flights don't become overbooked in this day and age.

Roberto Baggio wrote: Surely they are able to ensure that flights don't become overbooked in this day and age.

I would have thought that too tbh, Actually always assumed Airlines left about 4-5 seats unfilled for this reason

Roberto Baggio wrote: Surely they are able to ensure that flights don't become overbooked in this day and age.

FREEWHEELER wrote: I was only thinking that Bhob, surely to fook they can identify who the last four bookers were and tough titty, we're overbooked, last bookers first to leave.  Assaulting yer man should ensure a nice lawsuit and humiliating the guy like that, those apes who carried it out should be sacked and jailed.  Vile stuff.

Devrozex wrote: I think it's emerged in the last few hours that the flight may not have actually been overbooked at all - United Airlines were trying to make space for four employees of a partner airline and wanted four passengers to give up their seats to accommodate them. If this transpires to be definitively proven then the story has just gotten a lot worse from United Airlines' perspective.   I think nearly all the issues I've encountered flying around different places have related to US airlines. The likes of United Airlines and American Airlines are the absolute dregs of international air travel.

Yeah, that's correct. They were bumping 4 passengers to make room for a crew who had to move to get to work in Louisville (or wherever the plane was heading).

Overbooking does happen commonly though, because they know that a certain percentage of passengers won't show up. If you have a fleet of planes that all hold 200 passengers, and you know that on average 10 passengers won't show, why wouldn't you sell 205 tickets? It happens all the time.

The other issue is that flexible tickets cause things to change at short notice. The passengers with flexible tickets have generally paid a heap for them (well, their employers have), or else are very valuable frequent fliers. You have to accommodate those passengers, because they're the ones who will fly with you again and again. If it means having to pay one or two passengers a few quid because the plane is overbooked, boo hoo: you get the frequent flier on board. Hell, even if it means bumping the frequent flier up to business or first, they do it.

Having said all that, the gate staff and onboard staff should have had the data to show that there were 204 places required (200 booked & checked in plus the 4 staff they wanted to bump on) and only 200 seats on the plane. That data should have been available to the staff *before* boarding started. If it wasn't, that's an IT failure on United's part. If that data was available, it's a staff failure not to deny boarding to people at the gate. That's a matter of staff discretion, and seeking volunteers from the queue, but if it comes to it, it should boil down to the last four people to check in, provided each of those four was on a no-flex, cheap ticket. You don't want to piss off business travellers or those who have paid a fortune for tickets.

Overbooking happens for multiple reasons and 99% of the time, it doesn't even give rise to issues, because of no shows. And even when it is an issue, 99% of the time, the crew handle it properly and/or there are volunteers for a few hundred quid and a night in a decent hotel. This time, very much the exception, they f**ked up. It could definitely have been handled better but it's no reason to get rid of overbooking.

If you get rid of overbooking, it makes all flights a little more expensive, and when the airlines normally get it right, why worry about it?