Picture of man kicking customer on floor of plane:
Caption on top: "Always encourage the Client to Constantly improve" and on Bottom: "Once the passenger has been subdued, a few good stomps to the skull will remind him to volunteer quicker in the future..."

Correct me, if I'm wrong, but if an airline official says I must vacate my seat (for whatever reason)...I must vacate it. The last thing I would do is require them to drag me, kicking and screaming, from the plane.

I'm not entirely sure this passenger really did the right thing. Wouldn't it have made more sense to submit a formal complaint? Airlines, generally, try to pacify inconvenienced passengers, but maybe they've changed in the half dozen years since I last flew.

Joe, "The customer is always right" was lost years ago, now it is "cut costs" and "increase profits" with no regard to how that gets done. The people in "management" to day are not the brightest graduates, that's why they are in management... If you want to see how to really dump on your customers, go look up Star Trek Axanar and CBS. CBS killed off a large chunk of dedicated fans with that debacle, and never did get to prove who owns Klingon...

Delta dumped my wife and granddaughter in Atlanta overnight, with no hotel and no comp, because they overbooked. She will never fly them again, I just don't fly at all, cattle car entertainment is not my taste...

I guess it's time for the old Vulcan Nerve pinch to become standard training...

Well, the cop who dragged him off the plane has been "suspended". So, you tell a cop to go get someone off a plane, tight, constricted environment, and he refuses, you now have someone actively fighting you in same restricted space. Someone will get hurt. The cop just did what he was told, yet he will end up blamed for their stupidity.

I flew in the early 60's on a Southern Airways DC3 from New Orleans to Gulfport MS, it was a real memory I still have, fire coming out the engines at night and asking the stewardess if the plane was going to crash....

LOL, I can just see that too.....

I was a Continental Frequent flyer after having to fly from Portland to Gulfport MS every 2 weeks for a while. I got scooped up in the last of the Continental days, with their CEO telling everyone how great it will all be...

That was good...and is only the tip of the iceberg. I saw a meme today that said "Southwest Airlines: We beat the competition, not our customers" It will only get worse...

Maybe the guy was really dedicated to his patients and the thought of not caring for them was too much....I don't know.. I mean, you could let yourself be forced off with no dragging and then post to social media, the 2 girls not let on for legging got a lot of press that way, and no force was used.

The You Tube commercial is hilarious. I remember the day when an airline would find a flight for you on another airline if you missed a connection or they couldn't honor your ticket - at no additional cost to you. I too remember the day when men wore suits. I too remember a flight where the snack was stone crab meat. And I remember when one didn't have to pay extra for leg room. But United isn't alone. My wife just lived through Delta Hell experiencing the effects of the new CEO. Their screw ups cost her thousands of dollars of lost income. I imagine a class action lawsuit will follow.

Agreed, but I have seen over the last few years, a trend at smaller seats, totally uncomfortable, people hauling their living-rooms onboard and trying to jam them into the overhead, and the act of loading and unloading so compromised by just that issue, as to make it so painful as to not do it at any costs. The overbooking thing is usually based on "smart intelligence" (what a contradiction!) that says statistically, how many people will not show up, or what seats will be vacant, which they use to get a full plane, as empty seats do not make any money. That killed the standby travel method a few years back. I have seen people waiting in areas for hours hoping to get on, only to be disappointed when they say "we are full today".

My joke for the day:

You just know that next time they overbook that, due to the release of this video, the flight crew can offer people $20 and they'll be VERY eager to take the offer...

It's unclear if that flight was really overbooked or the excuse United cited when it decided to send four employees to Louisville. Did United actually 'ask' for volunteers before it randomly chose four passengers? In business the paying customer comes first; the adage; 'The customer (thinks he or she) is always right' seems to have been lost on United's management. From the video without sound one would think the person being removed was a terrorist! Any scenario played out does not bode well for the airline. Perhaps the only skilled surgeon able to save the life of a patient who then dies, a broker with a priority business deal which costs investors millions of dollars, a person with an appointment as in 'Love Affair' or 'An Affair to Remember'? Other people have commitments and make arrangements for travel etc. based on expecting to be at a certain place at a certain time. It is clear that United not only provides poor customer service but does not deploy its resources wisely or efficienty, i.e. poor management decisions and poorer public relations.

My uncle was a mechanic for United for 30 years. When they were in dire straits (cue "Money for Nothing") just prior to their first bankruptcy re-structuring, my dad and uncle were talking about the impending strike and restructuring. My dad tried pointing out to his brother that the union's intransigency on the matter was only going to end up with the bankruptcy court nullifying wage agreements and pension funding. My uncle held firm and sided with the union. And the union lost big in the restructuring - just like everyone knew they would.

Mechanical issues affect everyone on the plane, however - they don't single out passengers and punish them for unwillingness to give up their seat.

And I, too, have been in situations where the flight has been overbooked and someone opted to take the payout. But that was voluntary choice and an agreed upon adjustment to the contract. This was a unilateral adjustment to the contract terms backed up by physical force. Physical force is usually reserved for government - not private contract disputes.

amazing to me that united is the largest airline in the country even though it is recognized as the worst airline in the country. I was once flying from Alaska back home with a first class ticket and when I was on almost the last leg they refuse to recognize my ticket and wanted me in coach. I said remove my baggage iif I am not on the plane in first class. no telling how many people missed their connecting flights. when I wrote to the president their customer relations guy sent me a voucher for 150 bucks, I sent it back stating I would never fly united again. they would have called the police if I had tried to hold my ground and I chose not to go that direction. the problem with united is that they are a union shop and when they took over continental who is not ALL of the continental people hated it.

The horrible customer service aspect aside - I can't help wonder why a passenger would resist like this with 3 or 4 law enforcement personnel showing up to remove you. They are clearly not there to negotiate. Even with possible communication/language issues the passenger seems pretty disconnected from reality.

Of course, this is why it makes the news - there is nothing about the other 3 passengers forced off from the same flight.

The video of the passenger returning to the flight (how/why did that happen?!) also shows odd behavior and appearance.
None of this any excuse for the business practice, of course. One issue with this practice is when you bring government officials on board to enforce part of your "service" you are losing a lot of control.

Obviously it's not absolute. If the engines don't start, you don't have to take off anyway because you are committed to service that person. I think the "having been seated" is a red-herring, although I haven't actually been able to find a definition of "denied boarding". It is a frequent occurrence to ask if a passenger will voluntarily give up their seat -- I've been on planes where that happened, and someone took them up on it.

I think that in the wake of the PR damage, they may reevaluate the cost-benefits and go higher. At some point, someone is getting off the plane voluntarily.

All the airlines are missing today is people sitting on the roof and crates of live chickens in the cabin.

This 45 second video will leave you laughing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4muxx...

How To Ruin Your Business 101
Treat customers like crap. Praise employees who do that.
How To Ruin Your Business 102
Have police drag away customers who complain about being treated like crap.
How To Ruin Your Business 103
Legally renege on paid-for customer expectations.
This more advanced course reveals that saying the law on your side does not solve the PR problem of screwing over
paying customers and having police brutalize them when they do not comply with the said screwing over.

That was horrible! I can't imagine how I would have felt being on the plane and witnessing this. OMG!