Fook United Airlines

[CS1983]

"Allow"? What, you want to reinstitute regulation? I know a lot of Democrats do and frankly the major airlines probably wouldn't mind -- they were making money hand-over-fist before deregulation and didn't have to worry about competing with low-fare airlines. Want that $300-400 cheap trip to Chicago or Atlanta or Orlando? Good luck with that. Airfares in the 1970s were generally more expensive than today and that's not counting the difference caused by comparing 1970s dollars to 2010s dollars. Airlines are making money today but no one is counting that against the years of bleeding they suffered as they learned to adapt to the modern market.

The REAL simple solution was for Dr. Dao to comply with the request then demand an alternate flight on a competing airline that got him home that night. One of his proponents claimed on the talk shows that there were seats on another airline (although they had suggested putting the crew on that flight, it makes more sense for the airline to keep their crew in their system and pay to fulfill their contract of carriage even if it required use of another airline.

Comply and Demand, the new interaction between businesses and their customers. LOL.

Once a person complies, they have no bargaining leverage with which to demand.

[Gman]

So maybe instead of more expensive tickets, as a result of this incident what we'll see instead is simply more cancelled flights.

When they stop delivering consistent services, people stop purchasing their services. Company goes out of business. It's the nature of business.

[sniper7]

I honestly wish tickets were more expensive, quality of product goes up, crowding of aircraft and seats goes down. You get what you pay for in everything in life.

[bellavite1]

This only applies to being "bumped". There are no protections for flights being cancelled. My own opinion is that their is no difference between being involuntarily bumped and cancelled (due to non weather events), but the laws don't make that distinction. My flight was cancelled because the flight crew scheduled for that flight was over their accumulated flight hours. I was told to come back the next day and that they didn't care that I had to purchase extra meals and lodging for the night (as I said they wouldn't even let me stay in the terminal). If you as a company decide to play the odds as far as overbooking, over scheduling etc to benefit you then I have no sympathy for you in the event that it bites you in the ass.

Happened to me a few years ago on my way to Italy.
I missed my father 's funeral because of it.
Fuck them.

[Martinjmpr]

When they stop delivering consistent services, people stop purchasing their services. Company goes out of business. It's the nature of business.

Except that the other airlines are watching and since they all have the same incentive to reduce costs, any action taken by one airline to reduce costs is likely to be copied by other airlines, which means you'll be choosing between two flavors of a shit sandwich.

For most casual travelers, cost is the overriding factor that determines which airline they fly on. Long after we've moved onto the next Outrage Of The Week, people will be booking their tickets and saying "well, this flight is $15 less" and that's the one they'll book.

[Madeinhb]

Except that the other airlines are watching and since they all have the same incentive to reduce costs, any action taken by one airline to reduce costs is likely to be copied by other airlines, which means you'll be choosing between two flavors of a shit sandwich.

For most casual travelers, cost is the overriding factor that determines which airline they fly on. Long after we've moved onto the next Outrage Of The Week, people will be booking their tickets and saying "well, this flight is $15 less" and that's the one they'll book.

Exactly. Version and AT&T does this. One makes a change, they other instantly matches that change.

[Fmedges]

The lack of choice thanks to repeated mergers means in most regions there are only a few choices when it comes to air travel. In my opinion this means that no matter how much you pay the companies will never be too concerned with customer service. Your choice is of course to get over it or not fly. While I understand that if I buy a first class ticket that I will in theory get better service than the lowest ticked passenger I can't blame people for opting for the low price option. We already pay the TSA tax, baggage fees, upgraded anything fees, ticket change fees etc. In a world where median wage increases don't go up nearly a tenth as the costs of everything else, again I can hardly blame people for purchasing cheap air fares.

[Madeinhb]

The lack of choice thanks to repeated mergers means in most regions there are only a few choices when it comes to air travel. In my opinion this means that no matter how much you pay the companies will never be too concerned with customer service. Your choice is of course to get over it or not fly. While I understand that if I buy a first class ticket that I will in theory get better service than the lowest ticked passenger I can't blame people for opting for the low price option. We already pay the TSA tax, baggage fees, upgraded anything fees, ticket change fees etc. In a world where median wage increases don't go up nearly a tenth as the costs of everything else, again I can hardly blame people for purchasing cheap air fares.

My rule of thumb is that I don't fly to anywhere that is less than 600 miles away from. I drive. It takes the same amount of time to drive to these locations as if I were to fly.

[babarsac]

I'll be flying quite a bit this year both for work and personal reasons. The only time I'm not flying United is when I go overseas. I've never had an issue on United but then again I always upgrade to Economy Plus.

[MED]

I've been on one commercial round trip flight since 9/11, and that was 10 years ago. I flew a lot in the 90s; and If I got to where I was going safely, I was happy. I guess I don't know too much about the conditions that exist today, but I'm not too sympathetic of this passenger who violated the terms of his purchase and then disrupted the flight leading to his unfortunate removal from the aircraft.