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[News] "You and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be taken away from you."





Westdene Seagull

aka Cap'n Carl Firecrotch
NSC Patreon
Oct 27, 2003
20,938
The arse end of Hangleton
Read the report earlier and was astounded a paying, booked customer can be spoken to and threatened like that. Time to outlaw overbooking or put in legislation that forces the airlines to pay compensation of say 250 times the price of the ticket if a customer is removed - they'll soon stop overbooking then.
 


*Gullsworth*

My Hair is like his hair
Jan 20, 2006
9,351
West...West.......WEST SUSSEX
That is awful. Credit to that man for not losing it completely, I don't think I could stay so calm.
 




El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
39,689
Pattknull med Haksprut
I thought it was the club's new policy if anyone gave a Villa ticket to a mate.
 
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PeterOut

Well-known member
Aug 16, 2016
1,231
Shocking and indefensible attitudes and actions by airline staff.

What surprises me is just how thin the airline margins are, which leads them to almost routinely overbook a flight - https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/11/overbooking/

Given the above, it is maybe surprising that this kind of scene does not happen more regularly :shrug:
 


Gritt23

New member
Jul 7, 2003
14,902
Meopham, Kent.
Interesting what the real story is and it's not as simple as that

That was my first thought when I heard the United story of a few weeks back, but it turned out that was the full stories and airlines are just utterly shocking when it comes to how they handle an overbooked flight.
 




Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39814586

His two-year-old was sitting in a child safety seat, which crew members then claimed was banned under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations and said the child would have to sit in an adult's lap.
That is at odds with Delta's published advice, which says that for children under two years "we recommend you purchase a seat on the aircraft and use an approved child safety seat". The company's advice says an infant under two may be held in a parent's lap if they choose.
The FAA's website also "strongly urges" parents to put young children in a safety device in their own seat.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
The technicality seems to be that one of the tickets was in the name of the family's 18-y-o son who was not with them. They'd bought him another ticket on an earlier flight in order that they could use his seat for one of their toddlers, so that they didn't have to have the toddler on their lap for the duration of what was a night flight. Any parent who has flown with young kids will know how much fun that isn't.

Delta seemed to want to use the ticket for a standby passenger but the Dad was essentially saying "But we've paid for that seat. Why should you give it to someone else?"

If Delta were using the position that the named passenger was a no show and they were entitled to use the seat for someone else, they went about it in a shocking way. That's the story here.

Kudos to the Dad for not losing his shit.
 


nickbrighton

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2016
1,906
i am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and has been going on for years by all airlines, we were once overbooked on a BA flight to Spain, but at least they had the decency to refund the ticket, fly us out on the next flight(about an hour later to an airport about 30 miles from original) and provided us with a taxi to take us to the place we were staying at the other end.They also gave us meal vouchers and some compensation, basicall the refund and compensation paid for the holiday ,so we were quite happy
All this publicity though is now showing them all in a very bad light, and maybe what is required to stop them overbooking flights.
 
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hans kraay fan club

The voice of reason.
Helpful Moderator
Mar 16, 2005
61,088
Chandlers Ford
i am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and has been going on for years by all airlines, we were once overbooked on a BA flight to Spain, but at least they had the decency to refund the ticket, fly us out on the next flight(about an hour later to an airport about 30 miles from original) and provided us with a taxi to take us to the place we were staying at the other end.They also gave us meal vouchers and some compensation, basicall the refund and compensation paid for the holiday ,so we were quite happy
All this publicity though is now showing them all in a very bad light, and maybe what is required to stop them overbooking flights.

This is the bit I don't understand - pay sensible compensation (which will cost way, way less than the value of the adverse publicity, the likes of United have cost themselves) and they'll get takers every time.

I arrived at Heathrow once with my boss for a BA flight to Zurich, to find it was 'full'. They paid us £250 each, plus food vouchers, and we flew on the next plane (all of 2 hours later). Absolute RESULT.
 


Official Old Man

Uckfield Seagull
Aug 27, 2011
8,485
Brighton
The technicality seems to be that one of the tickets was in the name of the family's 18-y-o son who was not with them. They'd bought him another ticket on an earlier flight in order that they could use his seat for one of their toddlers, so that they didn't have to have the toddler on their lap for the duration of what was a night flight. Any parent who has flown with young kids will no how much fun that isn't.

Delta seemed to want to use the ticket for a standby passenger but the Dad was essentially saying "But we've paid for that seat. Why should you give it to someone else?"

If Delta were using the position that the named passenger was a no show and they were entitled to use the seat for someone else, they went about it in a shocking way. That's the story here.

Kudos to the Dad for not losing his shit.

THIS.
Had that been me I'd have lost it by minute 2. In a way the airline were correct in that the wrong person was in the seat, but how did they get through security?
I was at Charlotte airport getting a connecting flight that was well overbooked by about 30 seats (plane faulty so smaller plane put on). The passengers rushed up to grab the refunds. But the passengers were professionals and waited for the amount to go up trying to outwait each other.
 








maltaseagull

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2009
12,938
Zabbar- Malta
Shocking and indefensible attitudes and actions by airline staff.

What surprises me is just how thin the airline margins are, which leads them to almost routinely overbook a flight - https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/11/overbooking/


Given the above, it is maybe surprising that this kind of scene does not happen more regularly :shrug:


Does this happen with all airlines?
It seems odd that, with all the security issues, they let people actually board the plane before deciding they are overbooked?
 


Albion in the north

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2012
1,506
Ooop North
I can see the airlines point but as others have said, how did he get through security and ticket check? And the threats to take his kids away etc were so out of order. Delta certainly need lessons in customer service.
 


Foolg

.
Apr 23, 2007
5,024
This is the bit I don't understand - pay sensible compensation (which will cost way, way less than the value of the adverse publicity, the likes of United have cost themselves) and they'll get takers every time.

I arrived at Heathrow once with my boss for a BA flight to Zurich, to find it was 'full'. They paid us £250 each, plus food vouchers, and we flew on the next plane (all of 2 hours later). Absolute RESULT.

Exactly.

I flew with United to the states in February to Boston. At the departure lounge they announced the flight was overbooked, and offered people £600 to get another flight (likely to be later that day).

I was overseeing a group so couldn't change flights, but both myself and 4 other staff members agreed we would've been very tempted had we not had the responsibility of 50 kids.
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,363
West west west Sussex
"You and your wife will be in jail and your kids will be taken away from you."

You can't make that kind of promise, then not follow through with it.
The poor bloke got his hopes up.
 



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