United passenger threatened with handcuffs to make room for 'higher-priority' traveler

[dixiegrrrrl]

Last week....

"They said they’d put me in cuffs if they had to.”

It’s hard to find examples of worse decision-making and customer treatment than United Airlines having a passenger dragged from an overbooked plane. But United’s shabby treatment of Geoff Fearns, including a threat to place him in handcuffs, comes close.

Fearns, 59, is president of TriPacific Capital Advisors, an Irvine investment firm that handles more than half a billion dollars in real estate holdings on behalf of public pension funds. He had to fly to Hawaii last week for a business conference.

Fearns needed to return early so he paid about $1,000 for a full-fare, first-class ticket to Los Angeles. He boarded the aircraft at Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, took his seat and enjoyed a complimentary glass of orange juice while awaiting takeoff.

Then, as Fearns tells it, a United employee rushed onto the aircraft and informed him that he had to get off the plane.

http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-united-low-priority-passenger-20170412-story.html

[LisaM]

1. And the flight crew had no ability to do anything....

this is increasingly the norm. If you call customer services (examples that come to mind for me are AT&T Wireless and Expedia), they do not have the authority to do anything. This is happening all over the service sector, and I think it's a terrible trend.

[exboyfil]

2. In the future get someone to record the encounter

I am advocating everyone in a forced bump situation at the gate also record their encounters.

[barbtries]

3. i'm steering clear of United

every chance i get.
i fly quite a bit. my favorite airline is Southwest. Hate Delta. AA, yeah they screwed us over a couple Christmases ago when they canceled our flight to DC at the last minute, undoubtedly because they didn't fill enough seats. we had to drive. oh i was so pissed. and the hours it spent getting a refund were maddening.

i think it may have been United who actually tried to make me think they were doing me a favor providing ("you don't have to pay for this&quot a bus ticket from Minneapolis to Chicago so i could make my connection - after i had PAID for a flight they were not going to let me have (no plane or somesuch). i looked at her and just said, "Really?"

i'm not sure if it was United or not. Could have been Delta. Delta sucks, and is the only airline at certain places i fly to, like Lincoln NE and Butte MT. So i'm pretty much stuck with 'em a lot of the time.

this is really off the charts though. such bullshit. unreal

[progressoid]

4. asked if hell ever fly United again. Fearns could only laugh. Are you kidding?

No shit.

[MineralMan]

5. And yet, he flew on that flight.

I have little sympathy, I'm afraid. It doesn't compare, really.

[DFW]

25. If it was a time-sensitive work-related necessity, I can understand

It has happened to me often enough that I had to tear out of one country like a bat outta hell to take care of something urgent in another. It happens. I have even had to stand for 2 hours on a train from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt because I HAD to get there ASAP, and it was the first form of public transportation going.

[mahannah]

6. The UA plane was not overbooked.

[Sunlei]

7. He flew in same plane in 'cheapest seats', refunded difference in price & got $500 for future flight

He should have held out for more $ They'll pay $1,000 or more.

[Renew Deal]

8. People are even getting thrown out of first class?

[stevenleser]

10. Yup, in other words you and I and other normal folks have no chance. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Yeah. trump's fault, tho.

He cheapened the aura of first class, big money.

[athena]

21. No one is safe.

It will take the wealthy a little while longer to realize it, though.

[zentrum]

9. This is the future for all of us.

Airlines are consolidating giving us less choice. Airlines will treat us any way they want.

Smaller airports are being slated to close as per new 45 budget. Less available flights.

Regulations are being lifted as per our new cabinet and corporate Supreme Court, (which will only get worse as Kennedy and Ginsberg retire.)

Welcome to the day to day experiences under an oligarchy.

[Ken Burch]

12. Things like this are why we need some kind of democratic management of industry.

There has to be SOME way of forcing these institutions out of the "we'll do what serves our interests in the short term and if it screws the human race than screw THEM" mindset.

[Lonestarblue]

13. Airlines need real competition.

Several years ago, I took the high-speed train from Paris to the south of France, and it was a pleasure. I got on the train at the airport and settled into a comfortable seat to watch the scenery flash by. The trip took only a couple of relaxing hours. Imagine if we had such trains in this country--less city congestion, less highway congestion, fewer car accidents and thus lives saved, and competition for the airlines. I know such a system will never be built because the oil companies want us to rely on gasoline and oil forever and we do not have elected officials who are willing to think beyond their next election and how much money they can raise in the meantime. But it is a lovely dream.

[Demsrule86]

14. Right the employees who are going somewhere deserve to fly first class...after

all...or whats the point? So screw the customer right United?

[Stryst]

15. Busses are no better.

My partner and I hit a DEA checkpoint heading from Colorado to Florida, just as we were crossing into Alabama. Guns, body armor, dogs... it actually reminded me a lot of some of my military experiences.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. A checkpoint that stopped a bus????

Did they search the bus and ask people for IDs????

[Stryst]

20. Yes.

And they pulled our luggage off the bus, and ran drug dogs past it.

[Renew Deal]

22. I've seen this near the Mexican border in AZ

Kind of surprised to hear it happening in GA

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Border Patrol claims they have the right to bully people as far 100 miles from an actual border

And I remember hearing a few years ago TSA was moving to search buses, but that had been stopped.

[Liberty Belle]

16. This guy was rich and white. Maybe now something will change.

If this could happen to an investment fund manager and real estate guy going first-class, it could happen to anyone.

[AgadorSparticus]

17. This is just....mindnumbing. This company has lost $600million from its stocks.

I hope they lose more. WHO practices business like this, anyways?!?!?!!! Geeez.....and the CEO is freaking clueless as shit!!! Treating people lile this sounds like it is the culture there at United. Serves them right..... boycott United!!!

[DK504]

18. They didn't throw him off. So I guess the white rich guy thing works.

"But you have to admire the sheer chutzpah of United putting the arm on a full-fare, first-class traveler. "

Admire I don't know about that, but have to be stunned by teh Stupid. Teh Stupid is strong with these a-holes.

[geek tragedy]

24. Even worse, they stuck him in coach between

an arguing married couple who were so toxic at the moment they refused to sit next to each other.

[rpannier]

23. I have not flown UA since 2004

The trip where they accidentally sent the co pilot home and had no one was the end for me

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. I figure if an airline cannot get passenger stuff right

they probably are not paying attention to wing maintenance either
so my last flight was in Jan. 1999.
and the return flight was hell...we sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours before take off,
in SF airport, no one would tell us why.
Of course the connecting flight in Memphis was long gone. I actually rented a car for the rest of the trip.
Once TSA arrived, any doubt about flying was cemented in my mind.