Things that go bump in the night

United’s new hand carry policy – Hand carrying paying passengers off the plane.

Normally we give a “Feed them to the Lions” verdict after we have carefully weighed up the evidence of a situation brought to our attention but in this case, we are declaring it upfront with United and their involuntary bumping policy or as they call it, “involuntary boarding denial”.

‘Involuntary boarding’, my imperial arse.

This Sunday evening a Doctor was dragged off a Louisville plane after not enough passengers had volunteered to accept their offer of a few hundred dollars, hotel and guaranteed flight the next day. (3 pm ! – what use is that if you work). The Doctor was selected to be involuntary boarded by United and after he refused, security was called in to remove him. Someone took a video of the bloodied Doctor and it has gone around the interwebs. The Doctor apparently needed to be in Louisville to attend patients.

United are saying the flight was was oversold.  The devil in the detail is that the seats were needed for their employees to make a “downline connection” as they call it which really means, flight crew for the day after.  Oversold my arse.

Continuing to make the story worse was CEO Oscar Munoz’s statements about “an upsetting incident”. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers“ he said.

What the hades United? You value your own internal staffing over paying customers? United, this is outrageous. The gentleman was already on board. You should never have allowed the boarding if that was the case.

As for the Doctor being “computer” selected. My Arse. Like in Ancient Rome times, it is done through proscription.

If you booked through a 3rd party site instead of through the airline, you are down on the proscriptions. If you bought a cheaper fair, you are on the proscriptions. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you are Frequent Flier Senatorial or Equestrian class, you are probably ok. Even if you are plebian, gaving connecting flights may also help you.

With all that being said, you may want to reflect on United’s true loyalty here. Themselves. Let’s hope your business becomes suitably “re-accommodated” after this.

Link to one of the videos: https://www.facebook.com/audra.dickerson/videos/10104378182069960/