I wrote earlier about a doctor who was dragged off a United Express flight (operated by Republic Airlines) last night when the airline needed to transport crew instead of four passengers. He needed to get to work at a hospital the next day. United, though, needed crew in place in Louisville.
Credit: @Tyler_Bridges
United didn’t just decide crew were more important than passengers, they needed those crewmembers in place in order to work a flight in the morning.
Here’s how United explains the progression:
- The gate announced the overbooking of one passenger and offered $400 a hotel night plus rebooking on the 3 p.m. Monday flight.
- Boarding commenced. Upon completion, they announced they needed 4 passengers to give up their seats and that the plane wouldn’t leave until the 4 crewmembers were accommodated on the flight.
- The bump offer was increased to $800 but there were no takers.
The crew needed to make it to Louisville that night, and they’d have to meet federal rules for minimum rest before operating a flight the next day.
United Express Embraer Regional Jet
So United involuntarily denied boarding to four passengers. The first couple got off without incident. The doctor, traveling with his wife, refused to leave. That’s when three officers boarded the plane and removed him. He was injured in the altercation as he was literally dragged off the aircraft.
So what happens when you’re involuntarily denied boarding? When you have a ticket and reservation for a flight but the airline doesn’t give you let you fly on a flight which otherwise operates, and they don’t get volunteers, under 14 CFR 250.5 they’re required to pay:
- Nothing if you are offered transportation to your first connecting city (or final destination in the event of a non-stop) scheduled for within an hour of your original booking.
- Double your fare up to $675 if you’re rescheduled to arrive within 1-2 hours of original time.
- Four times your fare up to $1350 if you aren’t given transportation scheduled to arrive at either your first connection or final destination within 2 hours of schedule.
Under the law the Department of Transportation will review these maximum amounts again this year.
However here’s what happened after the man was removed from the flight:
The man was able to get back on the plane after initially being taken off – his face was bloody and he seemed disoriented, Bridges said, and he ran to the back of the plane. Passengers asked to get off the plane as a medical crew came on to deal with the passenger, she said, and passengers were then told to go back to the gate so that officials could “tidy up” the plane before taking off.
The 1 hour 19 minute flight wound up delayed 2 hours.
Update: While this was a 70 seat aircraft, so the rules above applied, it’s worth noting that there are exceptions to the airline owing the compensation described above:
- If the airline substitutes a smaller plane than what was originally scheduled
- For 30-60 seat aircraft, if the bump is the result of weight or balance issues limiting the number of people that can fly.
I’ve been bumped from an aisle seat in first class after I’ve already boarded – twice. Both were for what are currently known as Transportation Security Officers, but nonetheless, just because I had a valid ticket, boarding pass, seat assignment, and was allowed to board, did not mean I was going to fly. I wasn’t told the reason for unboarding me either, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out.
It didn’t make me happy, but I expected the airlines involved to work with me on the solution and they both did. I don’t understand how throwing an immature fit improved the situation for anyone. Yes, I would have expected airport security to remove me if I did choose to make an unfortunate scene.
$800 in vouchers per person was a decent offer – surprised no one on that little flight took it. But it certainly would have made a nice starting point to begin the involuntary boarding compensation discussion, since the airlines HATE to pay cash – which is what involuntary boarding now involves.
@Bob – I think getting kicked off an airplane is different than denied boarding where you never got on in the first place.
The compensation should be vastly different between the two. Once you are in your seat, the airlines do not have the right to kick you off. No where in their terms do they state they can. All the terms I have read apply up to you actually getting onto the airplane.
UA was my family airline (we had many employees including myself) but I refuse to fly them because of the dregs of society they have been forced to hire. followed by an exodus of good and faithful employees who made the airline great, which it obviously is no longer Theft, terrorizing passengers, taking advantage of the weak who could not fight back – I have seen the worst of the worst and with the government protecting them, they have become Nazi’s and I could write a book on the way I have seen passengers, including myself, treated. I was so proud when I worked for United, as was my family. Now we are ashamed. This incident is just one of hundreds but happened to be publicized unlike the others.. When you fly, you had better be prepared to be treated like this and worse by any and all airlines..
It is unfortunate some of you are going off and being racist here. Please stop being racist and inappropriate.
Most commentators seems to not understand the issue here. You keep going down rabbit holes and taking the issue and conversation elsewhere. Please. Focus.
The #1 issue is the IT scheduling department screwed up for whatever reason and these four people needed to be somewhere. That is the issue. Period. Nothing else. It is the IT dept that should have figured out options to solve that issue. There are many things they could have done, not going down that rabbit hole.
The #2 issue is the passenger did nothing wrong. And don’t start on me, I have read every comment on your views on that. Passenger bought ticket with money, got boarding pass, was scanned at gate and boarded flight like everyone else. Passenger did nothing wrong. There was no denied boarding. There was no involuntary denied boarding. Period. Passenger did nothing wrong.
Everything else y’all have talked about is the aftermath of a bad situation but you have lost the focus on issues #1 and #2.
Neither the article nor any comment addresses what are your rights once you are seated? Thank you @Gary for posting “Contract of Carriage” “The priority of all other confirmed passengers may be determined based on a passenger’s fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment” but the article does not detail any of that as to why he was selected.
As @Prabuddha said “Once you are on the plane the only reason you can be taken off is that you are misbehaving , sick or a risk to others, not for Airline scheduling reasons” correct, I agree
As @createpm said “crew must have a minimum rest time between flights” and “It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces” that is UAs problem, not the passengers problem. That is what they get paid to do. Fire them if they can’t do their job.
As @Rick said “take a hit on their margin like most other service enterprises” and suck it up and figure it out, this is not the passengers problem.
As @jfhscott said “What seems clear is that UA had a passenger battered to avoid its own commercial disruption”, this is not the passengers problem.
As @Robert said “And how did UA or the regional carrier not realize they needed crew positioned only after the plane had boarded? Surely there were other flights on possibly other airlines that could have worked.”, this is not the passengers problem.
As @Paul R Gormley said “I am taken by surprise that United can use law enforcement powers to back up THEIR corporate need to have seats”, this was an UA IT issue not a law enforcement issue. I agree with you Paul.
As @Steve said “This is not an oversold flight situation, nor is it denied boarding. The need for a seat came not from too many tickets sold, but needs for internal staff. The denied boarding rules for bumping due to oversale should not apply here.” correct
As for @TonyL, and @callingyouout “this might be a case of cultural behavior” please stop being racist and inappropriate.
The airlines should be forced to increase their offer until they find enough takers and the offers should be for CASH not vouchers. That will make the sobs more careful in taking overbooking risks.
This was not a denied boarding. It was a refusal of transport. After a passenger have been allowed to board the airline can remove them for a limited number of reasons, including a government order such as placing a TSA marshall on the plane. Accommodating their own staff is not one of those reasons.
They should have increased the compensation offer until they found a taker. Better to pay $2000 or whatever than to receive $1,000,000 in bad publicity.
Tony L. regardless of the gentleman’s background this story is appalling, but you’ve added a whole new level of ugly by assuming the man’s reaction was because of an East Indian caste system. We know NOTHING about this man, yet you conjecture all kinds of UGLY to make him the problem. The fact is he had all the same rights as everyone else on the plane. I can conjecture too: that maybe he is not a doctor but has some personal reason to dread flying on another flight: a medical issue, a mental health issue, a fear of flying except in specific conditions i.e. needing a caregiver, like autism. Or perhaps when he said he has patients to see the next day he is TELLING THE TRUTH! The fact is this man made a business agreement. He paid for specific service: a seat on that plane at that time, on that day. We all understand that certain emergencies can alter this situation, but a service industry neglected to offer him any privacy to even discuss the situation! My son-in-law is a pilot on another airline. With their company this situation would have been dealt with prior to anyone boarding. If a pilot is dead heading as it is called when he returns to his home location, he cannot take the spot of a paying customer however there is also seat in the cabin for this purpose, which is a moot point in this situation. I wonder, Tony L., if this had been an attractive, clearly American passenger, being dragged off the plane what your comment would be. Racist.
Either way, we can say “lawsuit” – but if it turns out the guy really *is* a doctor, you can probably say BIG lawsuit. Having watched the airline industry become the brutal business it has become, all the while screaming about “passenger safety” and “9/11” … and noting that neither were an issue here, it will be fun watching the payout. Airlines have overstepped their legal authority in a big way here, and those who should have exercised oversight stayed silent for far too long. Let’s see how this plays out. Hopefully some very fat cats will learn the lesson of the pocketbook. I’ll believe it when I see it.
THIS ISNT EVEN UNITED! It’s republic!!!!! Some regional airline flying a route for united wtf
@Dr. Sabat —> Yes, exactly! You have illustrated exactly why some people should in fact be exempt from being involuntarily bumped. Thank you.
@Ual2017 —> Technically, you are absolutely right, and no one gives a $#|+ … the plane is painted in United livery, and that’s all the passengers and public see; the tickets say “United” on them, and that’s all the passengers see; the ticket counter, the luggage tags, the boarding gate — even the signage out on the sidewalk — ALL said “United” and that’s all anyone sees, all anyone will remember . . .
It was United’s CEO, Oscar Muñoz, who made a public statement today (let’s set aside how idiotic his statement was for the moment), not Bryan Bedford. (Though I’d love to have heard the telephone call between them today!)
Well, they’re going to have to cough up more than $800 when the lawsuit the doctor brings against United starts.
If it was important enough to get the deadheading crew to their layover, long enough for legal rest for the flight the next day, and they didn’t get the volunteers, they should have chartered a small plane to get them there. Yes, a high cost for the airline, but that’s not the passengers’ problem. They are in a service industry, and especially in this day and age of social media exploding, the whole world will find out. Seems like the ramifications would be more expensive.
Wait a minute.
You said “United didn’t just decide crew were more important than passengers, they needed those crewmembers in place in order to work a flight in the morning.”
But that IS deciding crew are more important than passengers!
Many comments are related to the passenger’s behavior, people saying they would have followed the police orders, not make a scene and sued later. They are forgetting that sometime we need someone like this passenger to highlight the airline or corporate misbehavior. Now it has national attention, otherwise it would have just been swept under the rug.
First of, the comments about putting TSA marshals in your seat are incorrect. No agent would disclose that kind of information to anyone. Also, this guy is in for a big payout!
I just would like to point out that the correct wording under 14 CFR 250.5 is that the carrier is not required to pay any compensation if it offers alternate transportation that is planned to arrive at the airport of the passenger’s first STOPOVER (not “connecting city”), or if none, the passenger’s final destination within one hour of the original booking.
The term “stopover” is specifically defined under 14 CFR 250.1 as “a deliberate interruption of a journey by the passenger, scheduled to exceed 4 hours, at a point between the place of departure and the final destination”, so it has a huge difference from “connecting city”.
Delta just cancelled 3000 flights. .again. And people will quickly forget and not think twice about it.
United had one flight at risk of cancellation or delay… in Louisville KY. And now that is probably worse than 3000 cancelled flights. United would have been poised to send out letters/advertisements about how many months/years in a row they have not had a major back office failure resulting in cancelled flights instead of explaining the overbooking and forcible removal rules.
I was removed from a flight to England after being buckled in my seat for same reason.I was offered nothing.I had to sit in the airport all night alone.My mother had just died and I was going home to arrange the funeral.They refused to give me a hotel because they didnt know when the next flight could be.Sat all night by myself in my grief.Not even offered so much as a coffee.The staff knew why I was going home and had zero compassion.Was strip searched in England the next day as my bags were now deemed “suspicious” as arrived without me .Shouldnt the airline know what staff they need and plan for that
This is typical irresponsible behavior against any perceived injustice, of non-whites from Third World cultures, particularly those who think of themselves as above everyone else. They usually get away with it. He could gave asked his wife to stay over f he really had to be at the hospital for something no one else could do…say, neurosurgery. But rounding? Any other MD on hospital staff can fill in. And frequently do. I doubt he’s really a dr. This guy should have been forcibly removed by a team of police, not one officer, if he had created a threat or danger. If really an MD, I would never ever go to this guy or his third world buddies, just because of these types of behaviors. Having said that, though, the airline was wrong to displace paying passengers for a nonemergent reason. I stopped flying years ago due to the appalling circumstances paying passengers are subjected to.
After watching this video I’m glad that when I fly, I fly with Australian Carriers and New Zealand Carriers.
Eg. Qantas, Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand just don’t do this thing of kicking off passengers off there flights. Especially in the manner that United Airlines did. It’s been shown on Australian Television all over the country. Even here people are shocked at what they did, this will question peoples choice on flying with United Airlines from Australia to the USA, I know I certainly will. It will be either Qantas, Virgin Australia or Air New Zealand.
4 x 800 = 3200. It was only worth thirty-two hundred bucks to United to get their crew to Louisville in time to make the next day’s flight. Kick up the bounty a few more bucks and they could have had plenty of open seats.
To the filthy fat racist rednecks: You are an embarrassment to the white race. You fit nowhere into modern society except to rail against it, spread ignorance and stuff bags of Cheetos down you 500 pound throats. Please flush yourself back into the sewage system where you reside, along with your leader President Pumpkinhead in his fat suit.
United Airlines deserves to go out of business… this is the most outrageous thing I have ever seen on an airplane, it’s diagusting, uncivilized, pathetic and the passenger throwing the “fit,” bears ZERO responsibility, the airline bears 90% responsibility and the poorly trained “fake cops” deserve 10% of the blame… I, for one, will NEVER fly on United again…
No. What really happened was a gross assault on the person of, and human dignity of, a patron on behalf of a large corporation in the hospitality industry. There may be reasons, but there is really no excuse for this kind of treatment. The cold and unsympathetic statement by the CEO speaks to a corporate wide culture which has cooled to the experience of paying guests. When a person puts his safety and a significant amount of time into a corporation’s hands, they are the object of trust. That trust has been disregarded, no, met with cold disdain.
Lowering prices will not save patrons from the fear of indignities suffered by such unaware staff.
At this point, any attempt at rectifying the situation will only appear mercenary. United will most likely be unable to bounce back.
On an additional note, if this were really a thought leader in travel, it would be out in front of the situation… explaining how corporate attitude is to blame for this PR disaster, and how looking at the industry as transportation rather than hospitality has caused the backlash. Instead of making excuses for the assault (which is really the only word that can be used with any honesty) Gary Leff could have talked about how the corporate culture has created a decline in the way patrons are treated with dignity. He could have actually used his role in the industry and become a though leader in travel. Instead, he has entrenched himself into the excuses the industry uses to further numb workers to the discomfort and indignity of paying clients.
No United employees were involved in any of this. There are contract employees at the gates and regional airlines operating the routes. So the crime is outsourcing and excessive use of force by the Chicago police, but that’s conveniently ignored.
They knock the guy out and then drag him off the plane? Maybe call for medical help? Clearly the law enforcement works solely for the benefit of the airline. Great country you live in over there. You can have it. Disgraceful.
You obviously haven’t seen Qantas is action then! I have seen them fighting with passengers in London when they are oversold and police intervening to try and keep the calm! It happens to all airlines when there are no volunteers, it gets ugly because people don’t want to be refused travel when they have booked it!!
About Gary Leff: Corporate Shill.
three lines of questions:
1. some reports indicate that the male passenger AND his wife were both asked to voluntarily de-plane. Was he traveling with his wife, and did she willingly leave the plane without him? Was she also man-handled?
2. what is the criteria for ‘randomly’ selecting a passenger to voluntarily de-plane? Is an advantage given to savvy frequent fliers and those who purchase high cost seats so that the infrequent, Joe and Jane Smith, is at a disadvantage and more than likely targeted to de-plane.
3. it sounds like this was the last United flight out of Chicago to Louisville. Why are crew, who need to be working a flight the following day after a prescribed number of hours of rest, allowed to fly out on the last available flight? If this is routine, I imagine that travelers are consistently bumped and inconvenienced if the passenger is on the last flight of the day. Why isn’t the crew told to take an earlier flight at their inconvenience?
There is still no mention of HOW these four passengers were selected. Random is not good enough. How did they narrow it down to these passengers, their seats? Did they go by a priority system? Did they pick names from a hat? If they simply looked around and stopped at this doctor, then that is an even bigger problem.
Also, is the passenger’s reason for flying on that flight totally ignored? If a passenger has an urgent matter waiting at his destination, does the airline just not care? If so, then the winning airline will be the one who does care and proves it.
It’s a horrible situation. This passenger was physically and mentally abused. And UA’s CEO clearly doesn’t care.
@Dianel – it wasn’t random — priority roughly based on fare and elite status
Again to me it seems that if there was an over booking problem or they needed to get employees to another location for whatever reason, this all should have been decided or figured out BEFORE someone is seated in THE SAEAT THEY PAID FOR then forcibly dragged off the plane, I don’t care if he is was a doctor or not, He made it onto the plane and into his seat, then THATS HIS SEAT the airline is just going to have to figure something out other than physically roughing up someone to get their way. The offer of money and a hotel is Great And I may have taken that option but He didn’t have to take that option since he was ALREADY ON THE PLANE!!!!!
As a flight attendant for 16 years i have to say that this was totally unacceptable. You do NOT force passengers off a flight for a crew. You re route the crew to hell and back or you re route another crew that is legal. You move CREW around!! You do not force passengers off a flight to accommodate a Dead Heading crew. Unbelievable and cheap!! This was simply the airline trying to save having to deal with paying overtime or the headache involved with rerouting crew members. They would rather create bad publicity and ill will with customers. Overbooking happens in the airlines but if nobody volunteers you do not have them forcibly removed. We only remove people that are flying for free……buddy passes or employees traveling for free on days off. If nobody volunteers then you find another way and let that plane go on. Honestly they could have found another way to get that crew to their flight or taken another crew and made them do that flight……trust me we do this ALL the time. This is why i am so sickened by this whole incident. Yes maybe the man should have been more compliant and not fought…but i honestly don’t blame him a bit. He paid for a seat and was in it and it makes it all the worse that this was just to accomadate crew members for a later flight. It is absolutely terrible decision making. I come to the defense of airlines most times in these reports as usually there is more to the story but this time there is no defense.
Check http://www.untied.com
The guy is a doctor, but had his license taken away for 10 years. He only recently got it back (2 years ago). He probably freaked out so badly because he was afraid of losing his job at one of the few places that would hire him with his record. So this was more than just missing work, this was a threat towards his livelihood.
@Gary — Statements from United said that passengers were randomly selected by computer. Another lie?
United’s contract of carriage does not cover the situation that happened. It includes clauses titled “Refusal to Transport” and “Compensation for Denied Boarding”. What United did to this passenger is violation of their contract. Denial of boarding did not apply to him as he was already allowed to board and on board. If “is” means is and never has been, I am not… “, …. president Clinton. Refusal to Transport conditions did not exist. So spokesmen who are saying that United was within its right are United shills. Ripe case for a court.
There’s more to this than meets the eye.
Dr Dao: guilty of writing prescriptions in exchange for sex and charged with 98 felony counts of illegally prescribing painkillers.
His medical license suspension was partially lifted less than 2 years ago. He’s allowed to practice internal medicine in an KY outpatient facility ONLY one day a week.
Maybe his history has something to do with the security team’s force against Dr. Dao
http://hollywoodlife.com/2017/04/11/united-airlines-doctor-guilty-drug-trafficking-sex/
As a four million FF mile customer with Delta and further 2 million with other carriers, I have seen probably all the worst and the very best of airlines, although this tops all.. Delta won my business because of excellence but sometimes airline overbook. Overbooking to maximize seats sold is one thing but overbooking and then adding free riders that bump fare paying passengers is another. Hopefully the passenger selection was not racist, probably not if it was truly a computer selection which I doubt. The beating-up of the passenger should be investigated as a hate crime but with Session’s in power that would go nowhere anyway.
The Doctor past history is irrelevant, the airport thugs probably knew nothing of this anyway and the leader of the free world today certainly endorsed this type of behavior during the past 18 month. If the Doctor lawyer’s are good he should be able to employ his own pilot and plane for private travel in the future or he may get lifetime free travel which he should request with Delta.
Everyone is right. What UA did was wrong; period. However I suspect very few people will actually cancel or nor book flights with UA because of this incident. Various people made a series of bad decisions which will cost UA money in compensation and possibly some people their jobs, but it will not be the sort of serious financial hit that people are suggesting. Things happen and in companies, those things cost money. End of story.
This was not an overbooking issue that arose before boarding. Rule 26 does not apply. Rule 21, refusal to transport, applies, and does not allow for ejection because of the need to transport personnel. United is at fault, although Security may also be liable. Not only the doctor can sue, but so can his inconvenienced (or worse) patients, and so can every traumatized passenger on that flight. http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/united-cites-wrong-rule-for-illegally-de-boarding-passenger/
Their stock lost $1.4 billion earlier today, although it has recovered somewhat. Bet they wish they’d offered more than $800 and stuck with volunteers now.
I wasn’t there any don’t know the exact details, but here are my two views. #1…… the Airlines have no business overbooking flights – it’s all about money and not wanting empty seats I guess, which to me is not the passengers fault and they should not have to deal with crap like this. They are “gambling” that some people will cancel or be no shows. which in my opinion isn’t right. If there are 50 seats, that is all the darn tickets they should sell. In this case, if there is ever a chance that crew need to board, then they really should only sell 45 seats, ‘just incase”. That’s what they should gamble on – not that someone may not show. The other thing is, they know up until they get ready to start boarding, who has checked in on the flight and you’d think they’d know then if it’s over booked, so why let everyone get on the plane. The announcement should be made for the passengers to volunteer way before boarding is to begin. If no one volunteers, then do the “random” drawing of who has to be bumped then. Again – before everyone gets on the plane. This makes so much more common sense to me than what happened. It’s not rocket science . United, in my opinion went about this overbooked flight the totally wrong way . I’m not referring to how the passenger was handled, I’m talking about what they should have done well in advance before ANYONE boarded the plane and this whole situation could have been avoided. I’m so glad I only fly Southwest. The best and only efficient airline in the industry today.
Omg. Omg. He is a doctor! A doctor! He should know better and lose that belly. Diabetes
I think the doctor is a total jerk. Yes, it was unfortunate that four people had to miss the flight. But the situation was that four people had to be removed. Period. Passengers were offered $800 and a motel room if they would volunteer to miss the flight. No one accepted. Each passenger had a reason important to them to stay on the flight. So four names were chosen at random by a computer. The 1st couple got off with grace. This doctor had to pitch a screaming fit because his reasons to stay on the flight were more important than everyone else’s. He clearly believes he is more important than anyone else. Then he gets back on and continues the fracas. He is self important and wanted the attention. Was setting himself up to be able to sue. He kept screaming he had patients the next day. He sees patients one day a week. The patients could have been rescheduled or sent to another doctor. I wish people would quit feeling sorry for this narsacist!
I used to fly United a lot back in the 80s and back then it was a really great airline, I saw it gradually decline, but the level of decline was unceasing, until now, it is the worst airline in the US if not on earth, the aircraft are often filthy especially the toilets, but also the cabin, the staff are snippy short tempered and often downright rude, problems like these do not originate at a staff level, they come right from top management, so then I can only surmise that this is probably the worst managed airline in the world at present.
We live in a civilized world. We can handle things in a professional way and even police are there to handle things in a professional way. This passenger is being treated as a prisoner. He was humiliated and physically assualted. He did not commit a crime. This incident is so disturbing and scary . Just imagine your husband or father or grandfather being dragged on the floor in a plane. People can throw a “FIT”. there’s a better way to handle this situation. l I don’t know what is wrong with the world. Are we losing our manners and boundaries because of new technologies and forgetting how to appropriate deal with the situation.
Jack, you are quite belligerently wrong. Four passengers did not have to be removed. United decided for commercial reasons that it wanted to remove four passengers who had valid tickets to fly. There was no overbooking issue here. One of those passengers took exception and was subjected to a violent assault. That is the truth of what happened here. United had no right to demand that the passenger leave the flight nor did the man who attacked him [the real “total jerk” here] have any right to do so. Hopefully, the attacker will both lose his job and face criminal proceedings. United’s share price has already fallen so that company is now valued at hundreds of millions of dollars less than it was before this incident. Maybe the CEO of United should accept responsibility for this fiscal loss and resign.