*-)- welcome aboard *-)-
just me. my current interests and stories for the interwebs.
But just in case they failed to pick up on her [current President Joanna Geraghty] obvious signals, here’s the message in its most simple and straightforward form: “JetBlue Is For Sale!”
Guess you don’t have.
It turns out that the contract has a specific rule regarding “Refusal of Transport” (Rule 21), which lays out the conditions under which a passenger can be removed and refused transport on the aircraft. This includes situations where passengers act in a “disorderly, offensive, abusive, or violent” manner, refuse to comply with the smoking policy, are barefoot or “not properly clothed,” as well as many other situations.
There is absolutely no provision for deplaning a seated passenger because the flight is oversold.
An added complication here is that the flight wasn’t even oversold. The contract defines an oversold flight as “a flight where there are more Passengers holding valid confirmed Tickets that check-in for the flight within the prescribed check-in time than there are available seats.”
In this case, the airline attempted to remove seated passengers to make room for airline staff requiring transport to another airport, not because it had sold more tickets than there were seats available.
It's not looking good for United and the operator of the flight, but if he wins, blue skies for Dr. David Dao. (Pun intended)
My opinion: He was mistreated by all counts. Period. At the same time, listening to authority is what I would have done only because I wouldn't have know my rights in the difference of boarding and oversold.
Additionally, in April the Federal Aviation Administration called out United for what it labeled “systemic” problems in the system the airline uses to qualify and schedule its pilots.
As a result, these new revelations of Chinese hacking only reinforce and magnify the “screwed-up United” storyline. It’s not at all clear what the hackers have done, or can do with the more than a year’s worth of data they quite likely pirated from United. Nor is it known if – or which – other airlines also have been targeted by the Chinese.
But the fact that United only found out from U.S. government investigators in April that the Chinese had been playing around inside their supposedly sophisticated and well-guarded systems for more than a year adds to the perception that United’s management is failing to manage the basics.
It's not looking great at one of the U.S. major airlines. I hope all my friends at United are doing well and have some type of backup. Other than the massive retirees, the advice of attrition and expansion is looking better at Blue. :) In lieu of all these high end hacker attacks, our systems and firewalls should be gearing up for a cyberwar.