A Seat on A Plane costs $1 billion

This week I was going to write my review of the Vision Of The Seas as promised 2 weeks ago but that’s going to have to wait.

As a travel consultant, frequent flyer and all round good human being I was absolutely outraged and appalled by the actions of United Airlines this week as they used brutal force to remove a Dr from a flight from Chicago to Kentucky.

I’m sure like me you will be just as outraged by the conduct of United Airlines but it certainly poses questions as to what went on.

United initially suggested they were technically within their rights to forcibly remove the man for refusing to leave the aircraft and the step is part of the airlines carriage guidelines.

Who gave those instructions?

What is your legal rights on board an air craft?

United have of course apologized for the conduct of the individuals involved and placed them on immediate leave pending an investigation, but it begs the question why are flights allowed to over sell in the first place?

When a ship is full we stop selling. My goodness when the bus is full the driver wont let you on but in aviation greed still somehow prevails over human rights for one individual in this circumstance anyway.

United Airlines said they needed 4 seats for crew members who were needed in Kentucky the following day. The Dr’s argument was that he too was needed in Kentucky to look after his patients.

Do you agree it’s an administrative error from the airline that they had not scheduled their own staff better in the first place?

Airline followed procedure in that they asked 4 people to volunteer to leave the aircraft offering them a hotel, food, money and a flight the following afternoon. Questions will however be raised as to weather they should have A. Asked another passenger to vacate the aircraft. B. Upped their level of compensation from the reported $800. C. Oversold the flight in the first place. D) Arranged better advanced scheduling of their own staff. E) Used force to remove a passenger. F) Asked The Captain for his opinion on this matter?

These questions above are just a start and I feel strongly from this day forth we should all know what our legal rights are when we board an aircraft.

The whole thing has been a PR disaster for United who lost $1,000,000,000 off it’s share price before later recovering to just 1% down on the previous days activity.

If only certain people in the aviation industry could have the fortitude to see the implications of their actions. In hind-site they could have paid $50,000 for those customers to be removed from the aircraft each and in turn would have created a wealth of publicity in being the airline that changed my life. As a result of negligence they have gone the other way and made people seriously think about their flight choices.

Of The 613 Million people who flew on major US Carriers in 2015, 46,000 were involuntarily denied boarding, according to data from the department of transportation. That is less than 0.008% but I ask you this…

Is 46,000 people too many oversold seats?

Is it time we all knew our rights?

What are your thoughts on this very sensitive matter?