Comments on: Another perspective on the Unitied Airlines incident

By: hank

hank — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 03:46:47 +0000

You see, its like a little kid’s street lemonade stand. If the price is too high, another kid will open his stand across the street and charge less, and put the overpriced kid out of business.

You’re right. “Extra” profit NEVER goes to reducing costs. It goes to increasing profits.

And lowering taxes will not go into increasing investment in new jobs. It goes to increasing profits.

The only thing that will lower prices is decreasing profit. It doesn’t always work, but its always guaranteed to get their attention.

By: RL

RL — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 01:42:00 +0000

If someone buys a non-refundable ticket, and has to cancel their trip at the last moment, the airplane flies with one empty seat, and uses a little less fuel and still gets paid for that seat.

BUT, if they hedge their bets by overbooking then they can charge twice for the same seat…

Now a rabid capitalist shill would say “BUT if you force the airline to stop this practice then the cost of a ticket will go up for everyone!”

But do you REALLY think that extra profit is going towards reducing the cost of airfare? REALLY?

http://fortune.com/2017/04/13/united-airlines-oscar-munoz-bonus/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>If so, then you are a special kind of stupid….

http://fortune.com/2017/04/13/united-airlines-oscar-munoz-bonus/

United CEO Oscar Munoz’s bonus might be a little light this year thanks to the airline’s most recent controversy.
About $500,000 of Munoz’s bonus is tied to customer satisfaction surveys, Bloomberg reports. United collects approximately 8,000 surveys from customers about the carrier’s service each day. Given the outrage surrounding Munoz’s response to a recent video that shows passenger Dr. David Dao being dragged off a plane — some customers were literally cutting up their loyalty cards — these surveys going forward don’t look promising.
Elsewhere, customers have left poor reviews for the airline on both their iOS app and Yelp. On social media, users called for a boycott.
United also took a hit on the stock market this week, though the initial drop at the height of the outrage has since recovered.Munoz has a 2016 target compensation of over $14 million even without the $500,000 bonus, Bloomberg reported. The actual amount will be released later this month.

By: hank

hank — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 01:09:36 +0000

I hate to be repetitious repetitious, but sometimes these free market mavens need to be reminded that the Law of Supply and Demand needs to be enforced when violated by producers as well as consumers, otherwise its not a Law at all.

If none of the passengers are willing to take the airline’s offer, then it can buy a ticket on one of their competitor’s flights. Or they can charter a plane.

The only reason they get away with this shit is because planes are packed, its a seller’s market, and like all merchants, they will charge whatever the market will bear and will abuse their customers if they get even the slightest chance.

By the time this little mellerdramma is over, United will have spent more money than if they had sent all their employees First Class on United Emirates. It really breaks my heart.

By: RL

RL — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 22:38:48 +0000

This is a problem the airline created by intentionally over-booking and insisting their own people had priority over paying customers.

If you caught a cab, and halfway through the ride the cabbie roughs you up and throws you out of the cab because his sister needed a ride would you excuse that?

If its unacceptable for a person to do it, then its unacceptable for a corporation to do it- after all, we have been assured that corporations are people too…

By: BuckGalaxy

BuckGalaxy — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 22:11:25 +0000

How high do you raise the value of the reward for changing flights? If what is determined to be a reasonable offer is deemed unreasonable by the passenger still then we are back to square one.

By: hank

hank — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 03:10:18 +0000

Surely, you must be joking, Dr Feynman?

I guess the bad publicity, the falling stock prices and the coming litigation will put the issue in terms even they can understand.

By: RL

RL — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 02:15:07 +0000

The way to resolve it correctly would have been to raise the value of the reward you get for taking another flight… if that costs the airline money, then maybe they can stop the intentional overbooking… they created the problem, the onus is on them to fix it.

By: hank

hank — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:54:19 +0000

Once again, these corporals of industry step on

…their dick. Big time.

Where do these guys go to learn the tricks of their trade? The Wharton School of Finance?

By: mcfly

mcfly — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:48:33 +0000

…being randomly selected for removal will be better than winning the lottery. Well played, United.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:23:09 +0000

I think it’s also important to remember that Dao didn’t become unruly until after he was selected–at random–to be removed from the plane. Prior to that, he didn’t exhibit any of the characteristics that Rowe specifies as criteria for ejection from an aircraft. Many of his fellow passengers vocally protested his removal, so one might surmise that they didn’t find him loud or creepy or suspicious or stinky.

Imo, if a crew decides to de-plane a passenger for safety concerns, they obviously have authority to do so. But when it comes to removing passengers who were selected for removal *at random*, then the airline had better recommend extreme caution. I bet if United had a big old reset button they’d do this one differently, to hell with Rowe’s cry of “damn the torpedos.”