Quote Originally Posted by Aloha_Shooter View Post
I suspect the reason United didn't offer even more to get someone to leave voluntarily is that they are worried about setting a new high bar for the future across all overbooked flights ("are you kidding? $250? I'm not giving up my seat until they offer me $2000.") but it still would have been better to quietly try to get another volunteer with higher compensation than get the PR blackeye they're suffering today.
My understanding is they had reached the approved compensation cap that could be offered. The facility staff couldn't raise it anymore. Makes sense that the gate staff is limited so they don't get out of hand with crazy high compensation packages. Hindsight suggests a higher level manager be contacted to exceed the local cap, but of course at the time who knew the guy wouldn't comply, and once the cops were called to escort him, it was out of the airline's hands.