Re. United airlines latest news, what is the difference between overbooked plane and customers on standby?

Standby passenger does not have a seat.

Overbooked means the Airlines has 100 seats on the plane and has SOLD 108 tickets.

Case most recently with United Airlines is they sold ticket equal to seats BUT had 4 members of a crew that needed to get to an airport to be crew on a plane.

So, which news outlets were using the right term?

You tell me @flo !

I don’t think either term is entirely accurate in this case @flo. My understanding is there was a crew of four people United Airlines needed to get on the plane. So they weren’t booked on the flight. United Airlines for some reason had overlooked that they needed those seats or were not aware they would need to get that crew to the other city. Perhaps an emergency situation had arisen. So the plane was fully-booked and then United Airlines needed four of the seats for their (or a partner airline’s) staff.

Thanks @Earthbound_Misfit So interesting. What is the right term for it? The fact that neither is the right term is a very crucial piece of information. Is the wrong side being maligned as a result?

….There should’ve been no dragging etc. anyway by the way. That’s not what I’m implying.

I don’t think whatever term you use for the situation mitigates the airline’s gross misconduct in beating a man who had paid for and wanted to stay in his legitimate seat.

To me, if I know I’m not definitely on the plane, I’m on standby.

No, the wrong side is not being maligned. The problem wasn’t the overbooking or people being on standby. The problem is United Airlines wanted those four seats and when that man did not voluntarily give up his seat and protested he needed to reach his destination, they forcibly dragged him off. United Airlines, or security staff brought on board by them, assaulted the man.

He had paid for the seat he was sitting in. United Airlines should have worked harder to PERSUADE another passenger to give up their seat.

@Earthbound_Misfit But they probably wanted to “leave the gate on schedule.”
They are having an overall problem with customer service of ticketed and “comped” passengers and meeting their “measurements” of efficiency for moving airplanes

Of course @Tropical_Willie. Silly me. Needing to ensure the plane leaves on time, of course, justifies dragging an errant passenger off the plane. Haters will be haters. Poor United Airlines. Next we’ll all be bitching their planes are delayed.

So the flight was delayed 2 more hours because they had to clean up the blood.

@Earthbound_Misfit They are not watching how this is impacting their stock prices, the person on the gate has a different set of goals . . . ! When that happens it is because the company vision is not from the bottom to the top and is only at a SINGLE level like the “Gate personnel” have a different vision and goal from the corporation.
The gate personnel called the police not the CEO!

They called the police because either the airline’s policy directs them to do so or because they have not had sufficient training. Hasn’t the CEO since in a leaked email referred to the passenger as [edited] ‘disruptive and belligerent’? On one hand, the CEO is saying ‘oh my bad! We really shouldn’t have done that’ and saying something entirely different to staff.

It doesn’t really matter who called the police. The police were called and the man was dragged off the plane. UA are responsible for the actions of their staff.

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/328204-united-airlines-ceo-told-employees-in-email-that-staff-followed-protocol

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4400076/United-Airlines-CEO-pens-email-defending-staff.html

http://usanewspost.com/united-airlines-ceos-email-employees-leaked-content-shocking-viral-video/

And the CEO is paid big dollars because the buck stops with him and he appears to be an ass.

@Tropical_Willie The CEO took three goes to make an apology and that was after the stock tanked. It is a PR disaster partly because of his follow-up handling. He at first said it happened because the passenger was belligerant; now he is saying this will never happen again. Sincere contrition much?

They, “United Airlines” threatened on Wednesday to have passenger “handcuffed” in Hawaii at the Lihue airport, for a priority passenger to take his seat.

When in doubt “tank the stock” !

@Tropical_Willie That was last week, but it was even worse, it was a full fare first class passenger who got moved to accommodate a last minute “more important” passenger.

I don’t think the crew is on standby. I’m pretty sure (but not sure) it’s federal regulation to get them on the plane, so they take priority over the paying customer. It’s like they have a ticket too.

I don’t know where to check about the regulation, maybe a jelly does. If the other plane doesn’t fly it causes all sorts of problems. Cancelled flights mess up all sorts of connections, it’s like a big snowball effect.

@JLeslie It is not a Federal Regulation. It is a business decision on how they staff their flights with crews. And this decisions are not made after everyone is seated an preparing for take off.

@zenvelo It was in the news Wednesday, talked to my wife and she said what you did it was last week.
I’ve known a couple of VIP passengers one was an Ex-boss; his new job after leaving us was Vice President of a large aircraft supplier. They had a long term manufacturing problem and he had to hand carry the very expensive (small and under 15 kilos) part in his carry-on (before 9/11 and X-ray machines). This went on for months and months 14,000 mile round trip and some months he flew 3 times. He had a half a million miles in just over a year.

If anyone is interested:

I found this link about overbooking and passengers rights and federal regulations.

I also found this that says it is federal regulation to move the crew where it needs to go, but after trying to find that on a government website I think @zenvelo is probably right and it’s an airline regulation/choice.

@JLeslie Re. your link, what are the url’s key words or what is the url? If too long the tiny url?

^^Consumer guide to air travel .gov

The other was a pilot’s wife talking about the rules and regs.

Are my links not working?

I think the pilot’s wife is incorrect.

@JLeslie I remember a few months ago someone posting somewhere in Fluther, that the link wasn’t working for him/her. I think the person said “I’m using a tablet” or something like that.

@JLeslie Just read both links and the article by the pilot’s wife was very interesting. Thanks for posting it.