I can remember when air travel was an elegant luxury. Men wore a suit and the and women were also nicely attired. There was only single class service and drinks were free. Oh, and the airplanes had propellers. Sigh, today the bus is more comfortable.

I heard someone say "At United Airlines we beat our competitors prices and pass the beatings on to you". This is a natural progression of events when you give people too much power.

Yeah, after watching the videos (especially of the one of him getting back on the plane) this is not someone I would trust with my dog's life...much less mine.

The fact remains that a passenger on a common carrier is required by law to follow the instructions of the crew members.

I think if they had gone over $1000 some would have piped up... cheap bastards ;)

On another discussion about this, someone mentioned that the Captain is basically the law on the plane. So if the captain says you have to leave, then apparently that supercedes your right as a paying customer. Now, I can see that for unruly or rude or violent customers. But a guy that just said No, He had to get home, i find that unaccepatble! They added that United could sue the guy for disobeying the Captain's orders??? United should have upped that ante for "volunteers" and they might have gotten 4 people to leave willingly! I think they only went up to $800... if they went to like $1000+ I bet they woul dhave gotten some volunteers.

The Idea that we live in an alternate realtiy is really starting to sink in.... What is wrong witht he world?? Make sure you read the fine print when purchasing your tickets...

I've only flown United once I think. But I will do my best to avoid using them in the future. (as I am currently looking for a decent priced flight to go see my parents!) I will definitely be avoiding them...

I, anymore, try to avoid taking my family on a jet liner. I don't want them to suffer the humiliation of all the x-ray machines, enhanced pat-downs, etc. They've done nothing wrong and aren't a threat. So, it pains me to have to explain stuff like that to my kids. I know that may sound strange and at this point I'm probably in a bubble of denial about the whole thing. This looks like another reason I hadn't thought of.

Anymore, they really search me when I fly. They see parts of me that only my wife gets to see. Ever wonder about that?...those videos that go viral of them feeling a little kid's crotch over and over? I see that and my mind automatically says, "What's really going on here? It's obvious after the xray and first touchy-feely that there's no weapon in the kid's skivvies. But the groping continues. It's not security. It's something else." Makes me sad for the kids...

There's a really simple market-oriented way to solve this problem: boycott United until they change their policies about overbooking. I guarantee that if passengers rebooked their flights with other airlines for the next two weeks United would be jumping up and down about how they had changed their policies.

But with all due respect to United, once a passenger is seated, I'm sorry but you have already committed to service that person. You can refuse to seat them in the first place, but that's it.

Yeah. In the videos you can hear somebody asking about providing other travel for the employees. Strange...

That probably didn't help. If he said he was a pediatrician they probably would have broken his neck.

Haha...I doubt it.

I agree sometimes being contractually right is irrelevant, nick. Tom is right about United being idiots on customer service. They have been ruining their own reputation for a long time. Just what I expect from a Chicago headquartered bunch of jerks. Time to use up the last of my Continental perks and thumb my nose at them until they learn about customer service again.

Makes me love my car even more;^)
This also helped me decide to cancel my United credit card today and save the $95 annual fee.
I'm so glad I do not have to fly for business often now. Air travel has been turned to torture by regulations and corporate stupidity.

I read some on this, and supposedly the law is on their side, in that you are licensing the use of the seat and plane, and they reserve the right to not provide the service. That said, it was incredibly bad customer service which is another thing you are paying for.They are taking heat for it:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/critics-mo...

They forced him out of his seat because they needed the room for some United employees. It is a 4-hour and 35-minute drive from Chicago to Louisville. They could have put their employees in a taxi or even another airline instead of forcing a paying passenger off the plane by force. The sad thing is that people are defending this, saying that he was on private property. Doesn't work that way. If someone pays for the right to be on that property, you can't simply renege on the agreement. What they should have done is kept on upping the ante until someone else volunteered. You know, let the market decide. I would have swapped for $1000, a first class hotel room and a first class ticket for the next flight. Pennies for an airline. Now they have a massive PR nightmare and it is going to cost them much more than the amount they should have paid to begin with. Idiots.

That is true, there is some unverified facts made in the article...I am sure we will hear more, after he figures out how to get over the shock of being all over the web screaming...patients may not like that...

I don't either, I have had connecting flights that precluded taking such deals, since it is so hard to get them rescheduled. So, I can understand their reluctance...

They offered a night's hotel room and $400 each for volunteers. No takers, they upped it to $800 each, still no takers. They then went to a lottery system. I don't know if the forcibly ejected people got the same deal.

He claimed he was a Doctor returning to Atlanta? to see patients. Unverified info.

That was before the age of "cutting costs". Apparently, now it is a lottery for who goes...

Well, that's the new paradigm. Screaming. Force. Looks like a busted nose, too. Good bless America!

Sounds like a few of the people are still shocked by this. This man might be fairly new to America, possibly not understanding the deal so eloquently pointed out here by others. Too bad for him, if so. Welcome to America.

I remember 40 years ago on a 'cattle car' flight on Continental Airlines From LA to Chicago we had reserved seats. When my wife and I got to our seats (the middle two of 6!) there were already people sitting in them -- with tickets for them. Another couple showed up with tickets for the same seats.

My wife started to get angry and I told her to relax, it was the airline's mistake and they would fix it. They did.

My wife and I got upgraded to first class. The other couple got some money and a night's hotel stay, and the people who got to the seats first got to sit in them! All in all, I think we won.

Well, yes, in fact they should have made that clear, and United should also have made that clear in their response, had it been standbys they picked from, then that does change the situation....

The article does point out that the contract of carriage talks about overbooking and what happens BEFORE you get on the plane, not after, so they may have a little issue here...

I doubt they can have 'small private jets' available at all the airports in case they have a full flight and no one gets off. I believe they offered a hotel night and $400, then upped it to $800 before resorting to random selection.

While it's certainly not great for customer service, you don't own your seat. If they ask you to get off the airplane you have to do it, getting into a physical battle to keep 'your' seat does not reflect well on your judgement.

They may have boarded all the stand bys and came up over by one. We do not know if the Doc was pre booked or was put on a stand by list. If he was stand by he would be one of the first to be asked to get off. Notice the people yelling about his removal do not themselves volunteer to take his place.