I didn't follow the doctor-getting-dragged-off debacle closely but I have a question about the basic mechanics of what went down:
When I've been boarding on flights, they do the overbooking announcement at the gate and get volunteers to take later flights there, before people board. That makes a lot more sense because, in the event that no one volunteers, the airline can simply refuse to let certain people on.
They don't have to take the seat away from the passenger, they can just not to give it to them. Certainly, psychologically, people are a hell of a lot more attached to something once it's been given to them. I've toyed with the idea of taking a later flight before, but I'd be much less likely to do that once I was all settled into my seat.
How is it that the doctor was already seated when they "volunteered" him to not fly? That seems like the main fuck-up to me.
It is indeed the main fuck up - despite knowing they were 4 seats short (because of their internal requirements - it wasn't overbooking) and had no takers on their initial offer ($400), they let everyone board. You are not supposed to do that, especially if the number of seats is that significant.
It's suspicious that they didn't even make an attempt at getting to the maximum offer ($1300) before forcing matters. To me it looks like they were under pressure to avoid a big delay, so they rushed through boarding and just went "fuck this" when nobody picked up the $800 offer.
The important detail that everyone likes to ignore is that the flight was not overbooked. It was filled to capacity. Everybody who wanted to be on the flight was on the airplane. Then United decided to reaccommodate four seated passengers to make room for four employees who were needed elsewhere.
Their contract of carriage allows them to kick you off under certain conditions, but that's not one of them. "Overbooking" didn't come into play at all in this case.
How is it that the doctor was already seated when they "volunteered" him to not fly? That seems like the main fuck-up to me.
It is. Different parts of FAA rules and even United's contract of carriage apply once you're boarded. Overbooking doesn't even apply here - the doctor had a reserved confirmed seat.
When I've been boarding on flights, they do the overbooking announcement at the gate and get volunteers to take later flights there, before people board. That makes a lot more sense because, in the event that no one volunteers, the airline can simply refuse to let certain people on.
They don't have to take the seat away from the passenger, they can just not to give it to them. Certainly, psychologically, people are a hell of a lot more attached to something once it's been given to them. I've toyed with the idea of taking a later flight before, but I'd be much less likely to do that once I was all settled into my seat.
How is it that the doctor was already seated when they "volunteered" him to not fly? That seems like the main fuck-up to me.