It was a disturbing scene for many people on United Airlines Flight 3411 as a ticket-holding passenger was dragged off the plane after refusing to leave the overbooked flight.
"No, this is wrong. Oh, my god. Look what you did to him," a female passenger yelled as security pulled the man by his wrists through the plane's aisle Sunday.
"This is sort of the craziest thing I've ever seen," said Rick Seaney, co-founder and CEO of FareCompare.com.
Seaney has been analyzing flights for consumers for a decade.
"Essentially, this should never have happened. It's a cascade of events though. First of all, an airline should never let somebody board an aircraft that's going to be yanked off the plane," Seaney said.
He said instead of the airline paying a volunteer passenger a couple hundred more dollars to leave, now United Airlines could be paying millions.
"From a PR situation, this is millions if not tens of millions of dollars in bad PR. I'm positive there are plenty of lawyers across the country that would love to take this case on," Seaney said. "Really, all they had to do was offer another $400-500 and someone would have probably volunteered."
United Airlines' Response
United Airlines posted this statement on its website Monday from United CEO Oscar Munoz.
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"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation."
Your Passenger Rights
Seaney said that if an airline tells you that you've been "randomly chosen" to re-book your flight because there aren't enough seats, it might not be that random. Seaney explained there's an algorithm, and several factors could play a part.
"If your ticket is expensive, you're not going to get bumped. If you checked in at the 24-hour mark, you're not going to get bumped. If you're part of the loyalty program, you're not going to get bumped. Elite status—guaranteed you're not going to get bumped."
He also explained that if you're forced to re-book there are certain amounts of money that you could be entitled to receive. Seaney explained the U.S. Department of Transportation's rules that a passenger should be compensated in the following way if their flight is overbooked:
- If the new flight makes you more than two hours late, you can get four-times your ticket price to a maximum of $1,350.
- If the flight change makes you 1-2 hours late, you're entitled to two-times your ticket price for a maximum of $675.
- If the change makes you less than an hour late, you are not entitled to any compensation.
