# United airlines brutally removes passenger after overbooking flight **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2017, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171 "2017-04-10T14:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/201 "2017-04-10T21:05:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Because they removed him BY FORCE not just denied boarding. Read my quote again: “Last year, United forced 3,765 people off oversold flights and another 62,895 United passengers volunteered to give up their seats,” [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_UNITED\_PASSENGER\_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_PASSENGER_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32) 3,765 FORCED off oversold flights, not counting those NOT forced. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/202 "2017-04-10T21:05:29Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > As three separate words you get a total of over 11,000,000 hits, which is a spectacular amount…if you don’t know how to look things up, because if you look up the phrase “man sues airline” it drops just slightly to 7220 hits. > Which still doesn’t mean jack shit unless you can find a single case that involving a person being deplaned under the boarding rules. Can you? I showed they had the right to deny boarding. You are asking me to prove a negative- that they \*dont \*also have a unwritten right to deplane or give triple wedgies. They have the right to deny boarding. Where does it say they have the right to deplane? and I showed a cite saying: _“a heck of a lawsuit…That’s a compelling suit”_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/203 "2017-04-10T21:07:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Except there is a lawyer who is a expert in that field saying: "“That’s a \*compelling \*suit.” his field is representing air travellers, and he is saying anything he can to make one side look good and the other side look bad-_that’s_ the field he is an expert in. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/204 "2017-04-10T21:08:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Will you please leave those goalposts where they are? There isn’t anything in that about using boarding rules to deplane passengers, which is what you were talking about previously. Can you show me where they do have the contractual right to deplane? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/205 "2017-04-10T21:08:17Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Man sues cat has 3,240,000 results. Most of those appear to be people suing cat owners. If you’re badly injured by someone’s cat and they won’t compensate you, a lawsuit isn’t out of the question. ---
**Author:** ![Beren\_Erchamion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@Beren\_Erchamion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beren_Erchamion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/206 "2017-04-10T21:09:40Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Shouldn’t the market, not law-enforcement as a backstop, fix this kind of problem as well? I’m a communist; in my ideal world “private property” would not exist as a meaningful concept. But for the time being, we’re still living in a capitalist world. And we can make improvements to make it suck less until such time as we can abolish private property in the means of production, but we have to remember that capitalism functions by a certain internal logic, by a certain set of incentives, and we have to consider what the impacts of the changes we want to make will be in the world that is, rather than the world that we want. I mean, we can do things (such as abolish state support for private property) with the stroke of a pen right now if we really wanted to, but without a lot of preparatory work that still has to come so that society’s not so dependent on the concept of private property, doing so would be utterly disastrous. Inasmuch as you can’t have a “free market” without “private property,” and you can’t have “private property” without state enforcement of property rights…what is supposed to happen in your “market” solution if someone refuses to respect someone else’s property rights? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/207 "2017-04-10T21:09:48Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Read my quote again: > > “Last year, United forced 3,765 people off oversold flights and another 62,895 United passengers volunteered to give up their seats,” [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_UNITED\_PASSENGER\_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_PASSENGER_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32) > > 3,765 FORCED off oversold flights, not counting those NOT forced. And not one of them got compensation because deboarding is not the same as deplaning? I’m _shocked!_ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/208 "2017-04-10T21:10:29Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Read my quote again: > > “Last year, United forced 3,765 people off oversold flights and another 62,895 United passengers volunteered to give up their seats,” [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_UNITED\_PASSENGER\_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_PASSENGER_REMOVED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-10-16-50-32) > > 3,765 FORCED off oversold flights, not counting those NOT forced. Yeah, i dont think by “forced” they meant dragged down the aisle by police.:dubious: From that same site: “Bridges said United should not have boarded the flight if it was overbooked.” \*\*Should not have boarded. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Beren\_Erchamion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@Beren\_Erchamion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beren_Erchamion)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/209 "2017-04-10T21:10:50Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > it had a logistical problem yes > [@](#): > > of its own making you don’t know this even if it were the airline’s fault, it’s still possible that the solution they chose was in fact the best that could reasonably be done ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/210 "2017-04-10T21:12:13Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Most of those appear to be people suing cat owners. If you’re badly injured by someone’s cat and they won’t compensate you, a lawsuit isn’t out of the question. The point being that the number of google results do not make a legitimate point. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/211 "2017-04-10T21:12:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And not one of them got compensation because deboarding is not the same as deplaning? I’m _shocked!_ who said they didnt get compensation? Who said they were deplaned? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/212 "2017-04-10T21:12:50Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > What PR hit? > > Nobody will remember this after this evening. If United can sell enough tickets to overbook, they ain’t gonna lose a cent over this. > > It’s not like people are gonna stop flying. So far, the 20,000+ people on the United FB page would disagree with you. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/213 "2017-04-10T21:13:24Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > The point being that the number of google results do not make a legitimate point. OK, that’s a fair point. I did enjoy the images that search brings up. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/214 "2017-04-10T21:15:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Can you show me where they do have the contractual right to deplane? After all these years, after all the times people have been deplaned instead of deboarded…don’t you think one fucking lawyer would have tried this tactic to get compensation? What the hell do you think you know that they don’t? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/215 "2017-04-10T21:19:20Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > The point being that the number of google results do not make a legitimate point. Especially if the search is done wrong. The _phrase_ “man sues cat” gets only 852 results. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/216 "2017-04-10T21:20:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > After all these years, after all the times people have been deplaned instead of deboarded…don’t you think one fucking lawyer would have tried this tactic to get compensation? What the hell do you think you know that they don’t? They may well have. Can you show they have never been sued for that? How many times has a airline forcibly removed a passenger just to bump him? That noted aviation lawyer says you’re wrong. Where’s \*your \*cite? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/217 "2017-04-10T21:24:28Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > So far, the 20,000+ people on the United FB page would disagree with you. If you were to guess how many of those were actual flyers instead of anonymous me-tooers, then how many of _those_ flew that airline, then how many of _those_ would carry through on their threat instead of just doing whatever was cheapest and/or most convenient when the time came to book a flight, what would be your best guess? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/218 "2017-04-10T21:27:51Z")
One silver lining to this brouhaha: in future, passengers will respond with alacrity\* when airline personnel announce they’ve been selected to be bumped and must leave the plane. \*as in the case of those zeppelin passengers when sternly reminded by Indiana Jones about what happens when someone doesn’t have a ticket. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/219 "2017-04-10T21:28:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They may well have. Can you show they have never been sued for that? > > How many times has a airline forcibly removed a passenger just to bump him? > That noted aviation lawyer says you’re wrong. > > Where’s \*your \*cite? I just looked up “man sues airline deplaning boarding” and got no hits at all. Any hints on how you would look up such a thing? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171/220 "2017-04-10T21:30:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > That noted aviation lawyer says you’re wrong. About there being no cases where people were wrongly deplaned under deboarding rules? Where did he say that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-airlines-brutally-removes-passenger-after-overbooking-flight/784171.md?page=12)