Not the best way to handle overbooking
- Thread starter IdRatherBeSkiing
- Start date
Regardless of what the existing policy is right now (for any airline), when someone purchases a ticket they should be guaranteed a seat on the plane they purchased that ticket for.
Period.
Period.
Unfortunately you are only guaranteed the price of admission, (and even that may be suspect). In other words you are guaranteed to get to where you want, or where you started from, and not be stranded someplace in between, or your money back. But even that is qualified. Airlines going broke while you are on vacation aside, there are times, though it doesn't happen as often as it used to, if the weather is questionable at your destination you are given a choice of going, taking the chance of being stranded at an alternate airport, or staying behind and waiting 'till chances are better. A $hitty policy most airlines are moving away from.
Other than obeying the rules of their code share alliances, airlines are sort of self policing in the customer service department, something not all are terribly adept at. They will have to start doing better because the last thing they need or want is mindless bureaucrats who know absolutely nothing about the industry imposing legislation on them.
That being said, there are some exceptional airlines out there too, but the poor ones do shorten the yardstick some.
Nope. In fact Air Canada not only does it, they engage in a form of racketeering while they do it. You buy your ticket in a show of good faith by both sides and then they "suggest" you buy seat insurance to make sure you can actually get on the flight you just paid for.
Just like the mafia who won't outright rob you for protection money but "can't be held responsible if something happens" if you don't pay it, Air Canada "won't be responsible" if you are unable to board your flight because you didn't pay them extra and above for your seat.
You can fly Allegiant and get just a seat frame until a tech comes along and brings cushions if you complain.
Like I said before, WestJet is the only airline I know of that doesn't do it, that may have changed in the past year or so, but I haven't heard. There may be others too, I don't know.
I don't care what you say, an orange crate does constitute a seat and two lengths of rope and a safety pin do constitute a seatbelt :-D
Crucified man had prior run-in with authorities
By Alexandra Petri April 12
In accordance with this new house style I am writing up an incident whose anniversary some people are celebrating this week.
The gentleman arrested Thursday and tried before Pontius Pilate had a troubled background.
Born (possibly out of wedlock?) in a stable, this jobless thirty-something of Middle Eastern origin had had previous run-ins with local authorities for disturbing the peace, and had become increasingly associated with the members of a fringe religious group. He spent the majority of his time in the company of sex workers and criminals.
He had had prior run-ins with local authorities — most notably, an incident of vandalism in a community center when he wrecked the tables of several licensed money-lenders and bird-sellers. He had used violent language, too, claiming that he could destroy a gathering place and rebuild it.
At the time of his arrest, he had not held a fixed residence for years. Instead, he led an itinerant lifestyle, staying at the homes of friends and advocating the redistribution of wealth.
He had come to the attention of the authorities more than once for his unauthorized distribution of food, disruptive public behavior, and participation in farcical aquatic ceremonies.
Some say that his brutal punishment at the hands of the state was out of proportion to and unrelated to any of these incidents in his record.
But after all, he was no angel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/04/12/crucified-man-had-prior-run-in-with-authorities/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.77869ee8be38
Sounds just like petros.
By Alexandra Petri April 12
In accordance with this new house style I am writing up an incident whose anniversary some people are celebrating this week.
The gentleman arrested Thursday and tried before Pontius Pilate had a troubled background.
Born (possibly out of wedlock?) in a stable, this jobless thirty-something of Middle Eastern origin had had previous run-ins with local authorities for disturbing the peace, and had become increasingly associated with the members of a fringe religious group. He spent the majority of his time in the company of sex workers and criminals.
He had had prior run-ins with local authorities — most notably, an incident of vandalism in a community center when he wrecked the tables of several licensed money-lenders and bird-sellers. He had used violent language, too, claiming that he could destroy a gathering place and rebuild it.
At the time of his arrest, he had not held a fixed residence for years. Instead, he led an itinerant lifestyle, staying at the homes of friends and advocating the redistribution of wealth.
He had come to the attention of the authorities more than once for his unauthorized distribution of food, disruptive public behavior, and participation in farcical aquatic ceremonies.
Some say that his brutal punishment at the hands of the state was out of proportion to and unrelated to any of these incidents in his record.
But after all, he was no angel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/04/12/crucified-man-had-prior-run-in-with-authorities/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.77869ee8be38
Sounds just like petros.
The crew or captain. It doesn't make any difference. He was told to leave. He was breaking federal law by refusing.
Because people make reservations and then miss their flights, often because connecting flights are late, or they got held up in a security screening line, or just change their minds because a kid gets sick or there's something else that stops them at the last minute. The alternative to overbooking is either the airplane flies with empty seats, which means less profit, which means they have to raise prices, or the airline charges you for that seat whether you made the flight or not.
Bottom line is if the airplane doesn't belong to you then you have no right to be in it if the representatives of the owners say they want you gone. You don't get to refuse to leave. This man child acted like a whiny two year old and got dragged out like a whiny two year old.
Yeah, when corporations screw you it's because that is a feature of capitalism. Air travel is a maturing business with little room for customer growth. But capitalism demands constant growth, not continued profits but increasing profits. And when you can't expand your market you squeeze costs and rip off your customers.
Amazingly people who would never complain about capitalism lose their minds when airlines do this. Sometimes they get very near to the truth and complain about corporate greed.
They both are! The rule is if John Wayne used it in a cowboy movie, it's a good gun.
If John Wayne used it in a war movie, it's a mean scary deadly killer assault rifle.
Does that mean that any gun made after John Wayne died can't be labelled an assault rifle? The John Wayne loophole?
Actually, it does. The privileges of the captain are a matter of international law. The crew, not so.
Also, it wasn't the crew who made the decision. It was a ground supervisor.
You know a lot of two-year-olds who routinely get dragged out unconscious and bleeding? Wow, you have quite the social circle there!
That's not how overbooking works. If you don't show up for your flight, the airline doesn't lose money and flies empty. The airline keeps your money and flies with an empty seat. They've realized they can make double their money by filling that seat. If everyone shows up, the airline offers to pay passengers a fraction of the cost of the ticket to get off the plane. So they make double the cost of your seat minus the few hundred they had to pay you to vacate it. Then you get another flight, but that flight is overbooked too.
In this case, not enough people were willing to take the money United Airlines offered, so they had to call in the state to enforce their profits.
To be fair, corporations are supposed to be greedy. That's their purpose, to make money. In some countries, like Germany (I don't know about Canada), corporations are permitted to do certain things for social good, but not hyar in Murka! If a corporate officer or board does something good that costs the corporation money, they can be personally liable to the shareholders for the $$ loss.
Actually, the definition of "assault rifle" or "assault weapon" (by which I mean the actual definition, not the shrieking armwaver definition) includes "selectable semiautomatic and automatic fire." Which means it has been illegal to manufacture or import them in the U.S., except for the military or law enforcement, since 1986, and private ownership is highly regulated (and damned expensive). Since 1986, one homicide has been committed with a legally-owned Class III weapon, i.e., an assault rifle.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
International law? So what you're saying is that this guy should be hauled before the International Criminal Court with all the other international belligerents: Slobodan Milosevic and Augusto Pinochet.
Yep. Then we could send the Navy SEALs to free him, which we've promised we'd do if any American was ever brought before the ICC.
Tomahawks on The Hague! Captain, you are hereby authorized to go full-on stupid! Make America Great Again!