re: United CEO doubles down, calls passenger "belligerent", claims United followed rules

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Your first link, from what I can tell, never addresses United's actual policy, the one that the passenger entered into the contract with, fwiw.

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"Airline contracts of carriage do state that your seat isn't guaranteed, and there is language in them to cover refusing to fly someone at their discretion," says Hobica.

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Basically: When airlines have exhausted all other options, they have to start picking which customers they'll bump, and explain their reasoning in writing. Usually it's based on the fare paid (whoever paid the least gets bumped first), but other factors can be weighed. Airlines do still have to get the unfortunate bumpees to the destination on the next available flight and pay them compensation pegged to the length of the delay.

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Evidently not.

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Lawyers are wrong sometimes....but never random message board posters.

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hey weren't going to drive to Louisville if there was a chance they could fly.

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i would have. but I would rather drive 6 hours than put up with airline shite for 3.

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United's screw up was letting passengers board the plane before they "denied boarding." Everything went downhill from there.

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I have been on multiple flights where they were still sorting out how to get a couple people on the flight even with everyone seated. The key difference in these flights is that the offer kept on going up until people voluntarily took it. United for whatever reason just stopped raising the offer and forced random people to leave.

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Lawyers are wrong sometimes....but never random message board posters.

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All hail the OT.

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They did follow policy, must flies need to fly, so a paid passenger was pulled.

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How do you deny boarding to a passenger who is already boarded?

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But why did 3 other passengers leave without incident and 1 was treated as he was?

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He asserted his right to a seat, and United called the police and claimed he was unruly for doing so.

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Had I been the pilot I would have had everyone turn off electronic devices before calling security.

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Having electronic devices on while the plane is sitting at the gate is not against the law, policies, or rules. Why would you escalate what is already bad behavior?

You may as well have told all women under 50 to pull the girls out for the duration of the flight.

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My point was that everything that happened to him was a result of his shitty behavior.

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My point is that even if he was unreasonable, the power in this situation rests with one party, the corporation. I don't want to say that corporations are evil or some of that other nonsense. United has time, efficiency and money on their side. What does this man have? I can understand why he acted the way he did. What I don't understand is the corporation making a mistake and then doubling down on that mistake to absolve themselves of responsibility. That implies that responsibility should go one way, toward the individual, who has very little power other than to comply, and not on the institution that has all the power in this situation.

I also hate the deferential nature of our society now, as there isn't a questioning of the laws and systems put in place that are supposedly for our benefit. I'm glad this happened because at least we can have a conversation about it.

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How do you deny boarding to a passenger who is already boarded?

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Exactly.

LINK

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However, LoRusso questions if United Airlines was within its legal right to ask flight 3411 passengers for their seats because standby crew should not have priority over paying customers.

“Were we really dealing with selling more tickets than we had seats? It doesn’t seem like that’s the case, at which point the overbooking protocol seems to be unwarranted,” LoRusso said.

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