United Air forcibly removes passenger on overbooked flight

[femurphy77]

There's a couple of great train wrecks on INGO right now; just can't keep from slowing down and looking. . . . . . .

 

[Fargo]

There's a couple of great train wrecks on INGO right now; just can't keep from slowing down and looking. . . . . . .

Many are likely caused by people distracted by your avatar.

 

[pilotof727s]

Passenger confronts off-duty pilot in airport terminal | Daily Mail Online and now we have this going on.

 

[chipbennett]

The threads I miss when I'm away from INGO for a few days...

United sucks. I'm glad I fly Delta.

 

[T.Lex]

Passenger confronts off-duty pilot in airport terminal | Daily Mail Online and now we have this going on.

While certainly an example of airport asshattery, I'm not sure this really relates to the OP.

 

[pilotof727s]

While certainly an example of airport asshattery, I'm not sure this really relates to the OP.

The media has blown this United passenger issue so out of proportion that people feel empowered to assault anyone they like out of revenge.

 

[T.Lex]

The media has blown this United passenger issue so out of proportion that people feel empowered to assault anyone they like out of revenge.

I think that's giving the media more ability to influence people than it deserves.

Looks to me more like passenger dude was a frustrated douchebag, regardless whatever the MSM is churning out.

 

[CountryBoy19]

There's a couple of great train wrecks on INGO right now; just can't keep from slowing down and looking. . . . . . .

I guess it's all ok as long as it's not a plane-wreck!!

 

[CountryBoy19]

The media has blown this United passenger issue so out of proportion that people feel empowered to assault anyone they like out of revenge.

I'm pretty sure a large number of people felt that way BEFORE this incident. I doubt it, and the media attention it has garnered, has affected that in any significant way.

 

[JettaKnight]

The threads I miss when I'm away from INGO for a few days...

United sucks. I'm glad I fly Delta.

Delta sucks. I'm glad I fly Southwest.

 

[jamil]

The threads I miss when I'm away from INGO for a few days...

United sucks. I'm glad I fly Delta.

Statistically, Delta isn't all that wonderful, but I have to say that I've never had a problem. It was Delta that upgraded me to first class a couple of times, just because. That kinda made me a fan. However, now that I almost never fly on someone else's dime, I go for the best bang for the buck, which is generally Southwest.

Delta sucks. I'm glad I fly Southwest.

On paper, maybe Delta sucks. But I'd fly with them if they ever sorted better than Southwest on price. But they never do.

 

[chipbennett]

Delta sucks. I'm glad I fly Southwest.

Statistically, Delta isn't all that wonderful, but I have to say that I've never had a problem. It was Delta that upgraded me to first class a couple of times, just because. That kinda made me a fan. However, now that I almost never fly on someone else's dime, I go for the best bang for the buck, which is generally Southwest.

On paper, maybe Delta sucks. But I'd fly with them if they ever sorted better than Southwest on price. But they never do.

Delta takes pretty good care of their frequent flyers, and they make amends well when things go sideways. And, being able to pick my seat - and to get preferential seats - is a valuable benefit for me. If I didn't fly every week, I'm sure I'd be perfectly happy with Southwest. I always flew Southwest for casual travel, before I got back in to work travel.

 

[jamil]

Delta takes pretty good care of their frequent flyers, and they make amends well when things go sideways. And, being able to pick my seat - and to get preferential seats - is a valuable benefit for me. If I didn't fly every week, I'm sure I'd be perfectly happy with Southwest. I always flew Southwest for casual travel, before I got back in to work travel.

With Southwest, you can always get a higher priority for seating. Start spamming the boarding pass submit button just a bit before 24 hours prior to flight and you'll usually make the 'A' group. Or, if you're late, you can always pay a bit more to get moved into the 'A' group if it's that important.

I had one bad experience which goes against Southwest's ethos in my book. It was a flight from Portland back home. In connecting in Denver, there was a plane at our gate that wasn't supposed to be there. We waited for nearly 45 minutes for them to straighten it out, and by the time we got off the plane, the next flight was boarding. And the new gate we were redirected to was even 10 gates further from the connecting flight. I don't run. I waddle. So when I huffed and puffed my way to the connecting flight, I saw that they had held it for me.

But so much for me being in the 'A' boarding group. I was the last person on that plane and there was one seat left between two fat dudes near the back of the plane. I could see people were trying to hold back their laughter. I mean, if I were sitting comfortably between an attractive blonde and redhead, I'd have laughed at me too. But not having their **** together sure gigged their ethos in my book. But I'm cheap, so...

 

[JettaKnight]

Work travel...


In general, I hate flying.

 

[BugI02]

There's a couple of great train wrecks on INGO right now; just can't keep from slowing down and looking. . . . . . .

Shad? Shad N. Freud, is that you?

 

[BugI02]

One thing influences me against Southwest for work travel; they are not part of the common carrier agreement. If I hold a ticket on American, Delta or United and their situation totally goes south; they can send me to a flight operated by another member of the agreement and thus get me on the way to my destination expeditiously. If I choose to rebook/reroute myself, my ticket on any one of the three will be accepted at the others counter as full payment for a comparable seat (if available) and a new ticket on the other carrier issued. If my airplane to LGA takes a dump, they can send me down the terminal to OA's flight to LGA (if they have seats available) and I'm rapidly on my way without fuss (caveat: sometimes your luggage can't keep up - one more reason to be carry-on only wherever possible). Through networks of foreign flag carriers, this even holds for international travel

With Southwest, since they do not participate in that agreement, if a problem sidelines the aircraft planned for your flight you're waiting for another southwest aircraft or the original one to be fixed. At busy airports with lots of Southwest flights this works pretty well, at airports with single digit flight numbers, not so well. They definitely put their hearts into it, but if you have to wait for a flight to DAL or PHX to arrive there a couple hours in the future, be deplaned and then ferried to whatever part of BFA you're stranded in it can make for a long day. I have arrived home at 0530 the morning after my flight was scheduled to arrive at 2005

 

[chipbennett]

With Southwest, you can always get a higher priority for seating. Start spamming the boarding pass submit button just a bit before 24 hours prior to flight and you'll usually make the 'A' group. Or, if you're late, you can always pay a bit more to get moved into the 'A' group if it's that important.

Ain't nobody got time fo' that!

I select my seat when I book the flight. I click a button on my mobile app to check in 24 hours before the flight. (Bonus: three days before the flight, I get bumped up to Comfort+ 100% of the time, which means that I get dedicated overhead space, and a bit more leg room. Maybe 20% of the time, I'll get a first-class upgrade. Fortunately, I don't fly enough to get THAT every time. Not because I don't enjoy the upgrade, but because of the sheer number of segments it represents.)

I had one bad experience which goes against Southwest's ethos in my book. It was a flight from Portland back home. In connecting in Denver, there was a plane at our gate that wasn't supposed to be there. We waited for nearly 45 minutes for them to straighten it out, and by the time we got off the plane, the next flight was boarding. And the new gate we were redirected to was even 10 gates further from the connecting flight. I don't run. I waddle. So when I huffed and puffed my way to the connecting flight, I saw that they had held it for me.

But so much for me being in the 'A' boarding group. I was the last person on that plane and there was one seat left between two fat dudes near the back of the plane. I could see people were trying to hold back their laughter. I mean, if I were sitting comfortably between an attractive blonde and redhead, I'd have laughed at me too. But not having their **** together sure gigged their ethos in my book. But I'm cheap, so...

One of the advantages of the little regional jets I usually fly (and the advantages are indeed few) is that the gate agent is pretty aggressive about gate-checking the ginormous carry-on luggage (most are too thick to fit in the overhead bin of the CRJs). I have a carry-on that fits in the overhead bin of literally every plane in Delta's fleet, so I never have to gate-check. Even if I'm late, there is *always* overhead bin space available.

But, I feel you about being sat between/next to other huge people. On a recent flight, the dude next to me (big guy, too) was sleeping in frog position all the way from Pittsburgh down to Atlanta: arm and leg basically draped over me. Good times.

 

[chipbennett]

Work travel...


In general, I hate flying.

Work travel will certainly lead to that conclusion. It isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[jamil]

Work travel will certainly lead to that conclusion. It isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I did that for a little over a year. I racked up some decent skymiles. I'll agree that Delta takes pretty good care of their frequent fliers. But yeah. It gets old. It gets older slower when they upgrade you to first class though.

 

[chipbennett]

I did that for a little over a year. I racked up some decent skymiles. I'll agree that Delta takes pretty good care of their frequent fliers. But yeah. It gets old. It gets older slower when they upgrade you to first class though.

Let's just say: I fly through Atlanta as infrequently as possible, because any flight out of ATL will have about 20 diamond medallions, thereby eliminating any chance of such an upgrade. (I spent half of last year driving to projects, and ended the year just shy of platinum medallion. This year, I'll hit gold medallion.. oh... early next month. Fingers crossed, though, I'll get to do a good bit of work from home coming up here soon.)