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View Full Version : United Does it Again



Jim Koepke
04-17-2017, 1:13 PM
This time it was a bride and groom headed to their wedding. The plane was half empty:

http://www.khou.com/news/local/bride-and-groom-booted-off-united-flight-in-houston/431644313

There is something very wrong with how they do things.

jtk

Malcolm McLeod
04-17-2017, 1:55 PM
...and always 2 sides to the story.

Frederick Skelly
04-17-2017, 1:59 PM
Accidentally deleted my original post......

I'm thinking there must be more to this story than we heard yet. Not even United is <insert your own adjective> enough to pull this twice in 2 weeks. Are they?

Mike Henderson
04-17-2017, 2:00 PM
I agree that there's more to this story than what the couple said. Not even United would kick someone off a flight if the situation was as they described. Flight attendants are reasonable people and kicking someone off a flight has to be a last resort.

I doubt if this story would have made the news except that United had that incident with Dr. Dao.

Mike

Jim Becker
04-17-2017, 2:37 PM
There actually is a lot more to this story...including repeated attempts to sit in premium seating without paying for the upgrade.

Wade Lippman
04-17-2017, 3:29 PM
20 years ago I flew from Brownsville to Houston, and then had to take a bus to another airport to get my American flight home.
Walking by the United counter I noticed they had a flight out of the first airport that would get me home 2 hours earlier.
i asked if I could get on it. The agent said my ticket wasn't worth anything to them; but there was room on the flights so it wouldn't cost them anything, so what the heck.
They gave me a free ticket for no reason other than being nice.

I have flown United whenever reasonable since then, as they have not done anything to change my opinion of them.

Just saying, it goes both ways.

Jim Koepke
04-17-2017, 4:07 PM
There actually is a lot more to this story...including repeated attempts to sit in premium seating without paying for the upgrade.

I haven't seen much different than the original story. Some have a spokesperson saying "repeated attempts."

If there is a good source on something significantly different, please post a link.

This is curious as the man says the Air Marshal arrived within two minutes. How many times could they have made "repeated attempts to sit in premium seating" in those two minutes?

Maybe it would have been better for the airline if the flight attendant was able to collect for an upgrade. That would have been more money for the airline and happy customers. Instead they have given themselves another black eye.

United and other airlines need to instill more attitude in their staff like what Wade Lippman describes.

In the finish of the story it seems there were a lot of empty seats on the flight they took the flight attendant told people they were free to sit where ever they would like.

Seems there some variance in United's policy.

jtk

Mike Henderson
04-17-2017, 5:04 PM
I was flying on some airline - don't remember which it was - and asked if I could move to another seat. The flight attendant told me that the seat was a premium seat and she would have to charge me for sitting there. I decided not to move but it sure sounded like she was able to collect for the change.

They can collect for drinks so I don't see why they couldn't collect for a seat.

Mike

Dan Friedrichs
04-17-2017, 8:05 PM
They can (on United, at least). I've seen people pay (with the drink cart credit card reader) for Economy Plus seats.

That said, United should have been willing to tolerate just about anything (short of being dangerous or illegal) before kicking someone off a plane, this week! The bad publicity from this (right or wrong) is certainly more than the $40 seat upgrade fee they'd have made....

Chris Padilla
04-18-2017, 3:00 PM
I don't know anything about this story but I'm sure there are more that a few people out there trying to take advantage of UAL's situation lately.

Curt Harms
04-19-2017, 7:31 AM
They can (on United, at least). I've seen people pay (with the drink cart credit card reader) for Economy Plus seats.

That said, United should have been willing to tolerate just about anything (short of being dangerous or illegal) before kicking someone off a plane, this week! The bad publicity from this (right or wrong) is certainly more than the $40 seat upgrade fee they'd have made....

For certain! One incident like the one in Chicago could be attributed to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances. To do something stupid like this appears to be a after all the recent bad publicity indicates something deeper.

Frederick Skelly
04-19-2017, 7:53 AM
For certain! One incident like the one in Chicago could be attributed to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances. To do something stupid like this appears to be a after all the recent bad publicity indicates something deeper.

It might. They clearly have a company culture problem. But as someone else stated, it's possible these folks were exploiting all the bad press. I haven't seen any more on this one and if there was a "real" story, I think the media would be hounding it. But time will tell.

Jim Koepke
04-19-2017, 12:29 PM
I haven't seen any more on this one and if there was a "real" story, I think the media would be hounding it. But time will tell.

This one ended fairly well with the odd ending of they were told they could move to any seat they wanted on the flight they took the next day.

So, it is like the old media line, "if it bleeds it leads." No one bled, so the story went dead.

jtk

Mike Henderson
04-19-2017, 1:32 PM
Once you're in the air, they should offer the unused "premium" seats for free, or for a very low price (maybe start with $5 and see if you get any takers). Tell the passengers that the premium sets are "on sale". The airline would get a few dollars and people who got the seats would have a positive feeling about the airline.

I'll bet if they let the attendants use their initiative they'd get some good ideas.

Mike

[Or offer them first to people in the middle seats. That would really make the customers thankful. The person who was in the middle seat would love it and the people in the aisle and window would have some space between them.]

David T gray
04-19-2017, 2:13 PM
Once you're in the air, they should offer the unused "premium" seats for free, or for a very low price (maybe start with $5 and see if you get any takers). Tell the passengers that the premium sets are "on sale". The airline would get a few dollars and people who got the seats would have a positive feeling about the airline.

I'll bet if they let the attendants use their initiative they'd get some good ideas.

Mike

[Or offer them first to people in the middle seats. That would really make the customers thankful. The person who was in the middle seat would love it and the people in the aisle and window would have some space between them.]

i only fly first class and i don't want people paying $5 to sit next to me when i payed full price.

Chris Padilla
04-19-2017, 2:34 PM
i only fly first class and i don't want people paying $5 to sit next to me when i payed full price.


So what is a reasonable price to pay to sit next to you?

David T gray
04-19-2017, 2:45 PM
So what is a reasonable price to pay to sit next to you? the same amount.

Chris Padilla
04-19-2017, 2:55 PM
the same amount. LOL! Well, that seems reasonable but I've often heard that you'll never find anyone on a plane who paid the same amount for their seats. Anyway.....

Mike Henderson
04-19-2017, 3:23 PM
i only fly first class and i don't want people paying $5 to sit next to me when i paid full price.
"Premium seats" are not first class. They're economy seats with a bit more room. They're never going to allow you to move up to first class the way I suggested they allow people to move up to Premium seats.

Mike

Sam Murdoch
04-19-2017, 4:28 PM
i only fly first class and i don't want people paying $5 to sit next to me when i payed full price.

Oh - they might have woodworking dust on them :rolleyes:. Why do you care if some person who can't typically afford - what you obviously can - gets a lucky break and a chance for an "experience" - perhaps of a life time. Really - how does that compromise your life? :confused:

Prashun Patel
04-19-2017, 5:18 PM
My experience has been similar to Wade's.

Given that the nominal price of an airline ticket from NY to LA hasn't changed for me in 30 years, while the cost of just about everything else has, I suspect the airlines struggle mightily to stay profitable. Amidst this pressure, I bet they've turned pricing models and auctions and discount pricing over in their board rooms more times than any of us are doing here. Have you seen how complicated the "Economy Plus" pricing is? It's optimized for every single seat. I suspect they have a darn good reason not to offer any freebies or steep discounts unless they really need to.

I just returned from a United flight from Costa Rica (Liberia airport in fact). Before take off, we were informed that the plane had mechanical problems and that the flight was cancelled and rescheduled for the following morning. They herded us onto a bus and to a hotel - all inclusive - and back to the flight the next day. It was all very civilized and as painless as one can reasonably hope for. The agents and staff did a phenomenal job trying to keep people calm, and hoisting their bags onto the tops of busses in 100 degree heat.

We got modest vouchers for our inconvenience and an apology. I - like everyone else on the plane - view myself as the victim. However, when I think about the job United had to do in a very short time, at considerable loss to their own profitability - I have to sympathize that they are also victims in this situation.

Dan Friedrichs
04-19-2017, 7:28 PM
Once you're in the air, they should offer the unused "premium" seats for free, or for a very low price (maybe start with $5 and see if you get any takers).

I bet they've done a market analysis and discovered that if they offered such a thing, people would catch on and stop paying for the upgrade when they buy their ticket (taking the chance that they'll save money by doing it on the plane), and this results in less net revenue.

And part of the attraction of spending the money to buy an identical seat with 1" more legroom is that it's more likely you won't have neighbors.

I've seen many people try to "sneak" into the empty Econo Plus seats on United flights, and they always get shooed back to where they belong. SWMBO once came and sat next to me in the front cabin of a British Air flight, and the steward came over right away - I thought we were in trouble, but he was just checking if she wanted some tea :)