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Post by rugbyref on Apr 11, 2017 9:16:40 GMT
Unbelievable pictures on the news; what a PR disaster for them! Who would dare to book with them now?!?!
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Post by graham on Apr 12, 2017 9:15:21 GMT
The story appears to have unravelled a bit this morning. Still no excuse for what the authorities did to the passenger involved of course but seems he has a "bit" of a history. Certainly the noises he was making during the episode were peculiar to say the least, then when he was interviewed by the press later, he seemed almost incoherent. United stock fell by 3.7% yesterday, which by all accounts wiped $830m off their value.
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Post by airsicksteve on Apr 12, 2017 10:12:45 GMT
He's making a big thing of it in this morning's media.
No doubt compensation will set in at the earliest opportunity..............
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Post by graham on Apr 13, 2017 6:38:24 GMT
He said "I'm a doctor" but as far as I can see, he was struck off or whatever the US version of that is. He was passing drugs to patients for "sexual favours" apparently
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Post by Jeff on Apr 13, 2017 7:44:20 GMT
Although this was total overkill by whoever the security people were its worth remembering that once your on an aircraft the Captain is in sole charge, so if he says that someone has to get off, they have to get off! There have been reports in the media that the seat was needed for a crew member, the press seem to be playing on this and assuming it was a crew member for pleasure flying that needed the seat, in fact the crew member was doing what they call "deadheading" this is where the airline move crew around to operate on other flights in the network, this is a regular thing in the airline industry.
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2017 9:14:48 GMT
hi morning Jeff,
its known about deadheading, but surly they knew about these 4 earlier than when the passengers had boarded the plane, and was almost ready to depart. From my experience its sorted in the departure lounge when ever one has booked in, anyway 4 passengers x $800 + hotel would be a lot more than taking the 4 by car, its only 300mls... a very bad experience for the airline and industry, especially in the sue richest country in the world, lawyers must have been lining up to take this case on.
regards,
dave...
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Post by Jeff on Apr 13, 2017 10:05:50 GMT
hi morning Jeff, its known about deadheading, but surly they knew about these 4 earlier than when the passengers had boarded the plane, and was almost ready to depart. From my experience its sorted in the departure lounge when ever one has booked in, anyway 4 passengers x $800 + hotel would be a lot more than taking the 4 by car, its only 300mls... a very bad experience for the airline and industry, especially in the sue richest country in the world, lawyers must have been lining up to take this case on. regards, dave... Hi Dave, Could be that someone on the flight to be operated by the deadheading crew went sick last minute, or a crew member went out of hours, no idea what the flight was to be operated was but it could of been long haul, it could of had 400 plus pax on board, it could be a time critical dept due to the destination (long haul) airport being shut if the aircraft was delayed in departing. So now if United hadn't of got the crew members to the destination thats 400 plus people United have got to put into a hotel overnight and pay late flight compensation to, theres another 400 plus pax at the other end who will now be delayed because the aircraft hadn't arrived the night before, more compensation to be paid out by United !! so thats over 800 people now that United will have to compensate.... this of course is a scenario of what could of happened !! |
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2017 11:27:12 GMT
hi Jeff,
I can understand your scenario about a long haul flight, but 4 deadheaders, this meaning 4 crew out of flight time, bad planning,? or crew ill which you can't help but having a better plan b... and all this between departure and push back time? we will have to wait for more details to emerge. Still a very bad public relation situation.
regards,
dave...
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Post by Jeff on Apr 13, 2017 11:45:51 GMT
Hi dave, im sure theres more to come from this story. Crew do go
out of hours quite regularly, its not an uncommon occurance, with a long haul flight a two hour tech delay on the ground for what ever reason Eats into crew time, crew hours start at their checkin and pre flight meetings not when they get on an aircraft, so they could have already been working 4 hours before they see an aircraft then add the 10 flight to that and you technically have crew going out of hours before they land again
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2017 12:19:32 GMT
hi Jeff,
crew scheduling should have been on top of this, ok a crew runs out of flight time but not without some prior warning...but we will have to wait and see.
regards,
dave...
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Post by billsamuels on Apr 13, 2017 18:22:05 GMT
Hi Guys,
I think the issue is that whether they were deadheading or not, the whole scenario should never have got out-of-hand and escalated to this sort of level. I've been involved in lots of denied boarding situations but off-loads, like this, are very extreme. Normally if an overbooked situation exists the ground crew would normally focus on one, or more, customers and then approach them quietly and sound them out; additional mileage for their frequent flyer programme, cash, overnight accommodation and meals and an upgrade on the next available flight - usually one or more of these would get the required number of volunteers.
One can only assume that having boarded all the passengers, UAL must have had a last minute issue hit the fan which necessitated the seat(s) as a matter of urgency - as Jeff said, it must have been a very serious set of issues to force this type of action at the last minute...
Having said all that, the people managing the flight pre-departure are at fault for not getting the volunteer sorted out, even if all of the above inducements are declined you then pull out the cheque book - $1000 cash always worked as a last resort... At that point Several volunteers were normally hospitalised in the rush!!! As for the CEO first backing his staff's action, then retracting, is unforgivable... There's the right way, and the wrong way.... He chose the former and needs to carry the can!!!!
Anyway, by this time next year we'll all have forgotten this hideous incident...
Bill
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2017 19:01:51 GMT
hi Bill,
but will United, last I saw they'd lost $850m off their shares up to now, as the lawyer said "the airline was at fault, the Dr. had suffered physicaly, mentally, emotionally, sounds as if they are really going after United. Also mentioned Chicago as they run the airport and employed the security staff involved...
regards,
dave...
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Post by billsamuels on Apr 13, 2017 19:30:38 GMT
Hi Dave,
Of course United will have to cough up, the damages this customer alone will lodge could run into hundred's of millions of $'s.... Then you'll have the rest of the customers who witnessed the whole event, emotional, distress, stress and nightmares and paranoia (I can't get on an aircraft) will all come out and be sited as material damages... And they will probably win!!!
Once the CEO is canned, you'll hear of a mega-package as his leaving package but he'll receive full pension rights, stock privileges, and First Class firm travel privileges for life...
So all round United Airlines will suffer financially - if they end up $1bn in the red, they will look back as coming off lightly... But they will survive and the memories of all of us will dim over time, they always do...
But the poor bloke with the broken nose, black eye and scratches and other scrapes will never forget that incident and, in my opinion, deserves every $ he will undoutably get...
Bloody silly thing to happen and should never got to the stage it did... Lots of re-training to be done - which will also cost millions of $$$'s.
Cheers mate.
Bill
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Post by dave on Apr 14, 2017 9:46:41 GMT
hi Bill,
yea today its all down to profit, gone are the days of service and the customers always right, I used to work on the railway from back in the 60's and on our big regional station there was a little "cabin", big pot belly stove glowing red, with about 10 drivers and firemen sitting eating, smoking, reading the paper, so if anyone rung in sick there was a replacement and so no train was cancelled. In the sheds were spare coaches so if any on a train broke down they could be replaced, and so no cancellation, but then the money saving ideas men arrived, shut down the cabin- not paying them to eat and drink tea, can't afford rolling stock standing, so now cancellations are more the norm.
Just a old guy having a moan... regards,
dave...
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