This time it was a bride and groom headed to their wedding. The plane was half empty:
http://www.khou.com/news/local/bride...ston/431644313
There is something very wrong with how they do things.
jtk
[OP]
Contributor
This time it was a bride and groom headed to their wedding. The plane was half empty:
http://www.khou.com/news/local/bride...ston/431644313
There is something very wrong with how they do things.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
...and always 2 sides to the story.
Contributor
Accidentally deleted my original post......
I'm thinking there must be more to this story than we heard yet. Not even United is <insert your own adjective> enough to pull this twice in 2 weeks. Are they?
Contributor
I agree that there's more to this story than what the couple said. Not even United would kick someone off a flight if the situation was as they described. Flight attendants are reasonable people and kicking someone off a flight has to be a last resort.
I doubt if this story would have made the news except that United had that incident with Dr. Dao.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 04-17-2017 at 2:24 PM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Moderator
There actually is a lot more to this story...including repeated attempts to sit in premium seating without paying for the upgrade.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Member
20 years ago I flew from Brownsville to Houston, and then had to take a bus to another airport to get my American flight home.
Walking by the United counter I noticed they had a flight out of the first airport that would get me home 2 hours earlier.
i asked if I could get on it. The agent said my ticket wasn't worth anything to them; but there was room on the flights so it wouldn't cost them anything, so what the heck.
They gave me a free ticket for no reason other than being nice.
I have flown United whenever reasonable since then, as they have not done anything to change my opinion of them.
Just saying, it goes both ways.
[OP]
Contributor
I haven't seen much different than the original story. Some have a spokesperson saying "repeated attempts."Originally Posted by Jim Becker
If there is a good source on something significantly different, please post a link.
This is curious as the man says the Air Marshal arrived within two minutes. How many times could they have made "repeated attempts to sit in premium seating" in those two minutes?
Maybe it would have been better for the airline if the flight attendant was able to collect for an upgrade. That would have been more money for the airline and happy customers. Instead they have given themselves another black eye.
United and other airlines need to instill more attitude in their staff like what Wade Lippman describes.
In the finish of the story it seems there were a lot of empty seats on the flight they took the flight attendant told people they were free to sit where ever they would like.
Seems there some variance in United's policy.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
I was flying on some airline - don't remember which it was - and asked if I could move to another seat. The flight attendant told me that the seat was a premium seat and she would have to charge me for sitting there. I decided not to move but it sure sounded like she was able to collect for the change.
They can collect for drinks so I don't see why they couldn't collect for a seat.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
They can (on United, at least). I've seen people pay (with the drink cart credit card reader) for Economy Plus seats.
That said, United should have been willing to tolerate just about anything (short of being dangerous or illegal) before kicking someone off a plane, this week! The bad publicity from this (right or wrong) is certainly more than the $40 seat upgrade fee they'd have made....
Moderator
I don't know anything about this story but I'm sure there are more that a few people out there trying to take advantage of UAL's situation lately.
Contributor
For certain! One incident like the one in Chicago could be attributed to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances. To do something stupid like this appears to be a after all the recent bad publicity indicates something deeper.
Contributor
It might. They clearly have a company culture problem. But as someone else stated, it's possible these folks were exploiting all the bad press. I haven't seen any more on this one and if there was a "real" story, I think the media would be hounding it. But time will tell.
[OP]
Contributor
This one ended fairly well with the odd ending of they were told they could move to any seat they wanted on the flight they took the next day.I haven't seen any more on this one and if there was a "real" story, I think the media would be hounding it. But time will tell.
So, it is like the old media line, "if it bleeds it leads." No one bled, so the story went dead.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
Once you're in the air, they should offer the unused "premium" seats for free, or for a very low price (maybe start with $5 and see if you get any takers). Tell the passengers that the premium sets are "on sale". The airline would get a few dollars and people who got the seats would have a positive feeling about the airline.
I'll bet if they let the attendants use their initiative they'd get some good ideas.
Mike
[Or offer them first to people in the middle seats. That would really make the customers thankful. The person who was in the middle seat would love it and the people in the aisle and window would have some space between them.]
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 04-19-2017 at 1:35 PM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Member
i only fly first class and i don't want people paying $5 to sit next to me when i payed full price.
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