If you haven't been following lately, that question seems to be trending across most local news stations last night and this morning.
What happened to spark the debate?
There was an incident on Sunday evening where United Airlines overbooked one of it's flights.
United asked if there would be any volunteers that would be willing to give up their seat to accommodate for the overbooked situation. For the inconvenience United was willing to offer them $400 as compensation as well as getting them on another flight as soon as possible.
After that there were still 4 passengers too many for the flight.
United then bumped the incentive to $800 for anyone willing to give up their seat. No one budged. They then offered $1000 in compensation for anyone willing to give up their seat.
Still 4 passengers too many remained.
What happened next?
United then went on to do a randomized drawing where 4 passengers were selected completely at random (according to United).
Of the 4 passengers that were selected, 3 of them cooperated with the request when told they had been selected for removal.
1 man did not.
He was a Chinese doctor, claiming that he would not get off the plane because...
"he was a doctor and had to see patients in the morning."
The man was asked several more times if he would exit the plane so that it could take off but the man still refused, even turning down the $1000 incentive the airline was offering.
Finally, the police had to be called in and forcibly remove the man. It did not go well as the man resisted the entire time and eventually had to be dragged out. Footage of the event can be seen here:
As you can see the man was very forcibly removed which included him getting a bloody mouth/lip.
It got worse...
What makes things worse is the man seems to be claiming that he was selected because he was Chinese, bringing a race element into the mix.
It was also reported that once the man was dragged off the plane, he somehow made his way back on the plane, running towards the back of the plane screaming that he needed to be on that flight.
Police again came on and dragged him off the plane.
Also making things worse is the fact that it is now being reported that the reason for the 4 passengers needing to be removed was so that 4 employees of United could make it to their destination on time.
The entire event has become a spectacle with United Airlines polices and procedures squarely in the cross-hairs.
United claims that it handled the overbooking by strictly following procedures.
The police are investigating as to whether excessive force was used by the officers that took the man off the plane. The police officer involved was placed on leave pending the investigation.
Is United to blame for overbooking?
Apparently overbooking of airlines is something that is done quite often. However, involuntarily removing passengers is quite rare:
According to the Transportation Department, in 2016 United involuntarily denied boarding to 3,765 of it's more than 86 million passengers due to overbooked flights. An additional 62,895 passengers voluntarily gave up their seats due to overbooking.
What do you guys think, who was in the wrong in this situation? The man, the airline, or the police? Or some combination of all 3.
Is the practice of overbooking something that has to change or do our expectations need to change when it comes to flying?
If we buy a ticket, there is no guarantee that we will get on THAT flight. We are guaranteed a flight by the airline, but not necessarily THAT flight.
Is that how things should be, what say you?
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/10/business/united-flight-passenger-dragged.html
Video Source:
https://www.youtube.com
