boltonblue

Ok United what were you thinking...
first there is the girls yoga pants debacle.
ok so we can cut you a little slack as they were free tickets for employees family members.

but then you got really stupid today.

United passenger dragged off flight by police in Chicago - Business Insider

it seems the good man hard paid his hard earned money and booked his seat and boarded.
but after everybody boarded you realize you screwed up and want to fly a flight crew some where so you needed some folks to get off.
But nobody wanted your cheap deal, they just wanted to get home.
so you arbitrarily pick folks and drag the guy out of his seat and throw him off the plane.

So everybody.
what's the dollar impact on United?
bah nothing?
a million, 5 million, 10 million, a 100 million?
I'm leaning towards the 100 million number in lost sales myself.
after hours trading hasn't been kind either.
What good is making a reservation with an assigned seat number if they will not even honor it once you have boarded?

Did I mention I hate flying?

MsPerky

That was just awful - the crew was more important than the passengers! A real black eye for United. Not sure it will make any difference, though.

boltonblue

United has gone from airline of first choice category to carrier of last resort.
it's down there with spirit and frontier now.
My employer doesn't let us book with them anymore.

Scooterboy

Why couldn't United take the $800 they offered their paying customers and buy the crew a ticket on....say....Southwest?

Kyras

I refuse to fly if I can't get there on Southwest.

Lainey

Seriously, that would make so much sense!!!!

I was watching a segment on the news this AM. Purchasing a ticket also includes a contract which states you can get bumped. It's a pi$$ poor way of doing business over all. Who wants to get bumped and miss a day of vacation or other important event? Granted some might take the $ and not mind changing their plans, but I'm pretty sure that would not be us.

For quite some time, all of our destinations have been reached by automobile. There are places I would not mind seeing which would require a plane, but when I hear of incidents like this, I'd rather we just keep driving.

Chuck S

Certainly a PR disaster but will not affect their business. Airlines remain somewhat monopolistic with only a few or one airline serving certain cities.

I'm reasonably certain -- enough to bet a beer, anyway -- this was not a United Airlines flight as most short flights are by other carriers with United flight numbers. Trans States, Republic, and Skywest all DBA as "United Express" between Midway and Louisville. All the major carriers do this to keep crew costs down. Entry level salaries for aircrew at these regionals are darn near minimum wage and pilots only accept the positions to build logged flight hours which are essential in these jobs.

-- Chuck

zdave87

WestSideBilly had a very interesting post about this on FaceBook yesterday. UA was within their rights, however, I think they totally mishandled the entire situation. UA had many other options to get their employees to Louisville, KY if they could not bump passengers.

cdubea

Getting bumped before you board is one thing. This is a whole 'nuther thing.

Cannot imagine how anyone thought this would end anyway but poorly. I'm really surprised that local LEO's got involved in this.

I fly United almost exclusively. Didn't realize how bad they had gotten.

boltonblue

At one point to day UAL has lost over a billion dollars of market value.
Now think for a moment if they had an auction on the flight.
Instruct the passengers to accept the offer to press teh button for the flight attendant.
Start the bidding and slowly go up $25 dollars at a time.
How high do you think that they would have gotten before they had repurchased all four tickets?
$1,000, $1250, $1,500, $2,500 $5,000 ???
my bet would be on $1,500, so for $6k they would be out and everyone would be happy.