There has been a lot of talk about how evil United (even though it was a police officer) was when they dragged that old man off flight 3411. Although what they did was inexcusable, you can't just look at them in this situation.
Please keep in mind that in 2015 my girlfriend and I volunteered to take the next flight out of Denver to Vegas. It was the last flight out of Denver to Vegas, so we had to fly out the next morning. Here is what we received for volunteering:
1. $500 vouchers. One each, total of $1,000 in flight vouchers.
2. Meal tickets for dinner and breakfast.
3. A night at the Renaissance in Denver.
We almost opted out of the hotel. It took about an hour roundtrip in the shuttle to get to the hotel and back to the airport, and the flight the next morning was only about 7 hours away, plus having to go back through security (which I LOATHE). I've stayed at Renaissances before, so I knew that it was a nice hotel, so we took the hotel. So, $1,000 in flights, about $30 in airport food, and $100 hotel room for about a 7 hour delay.
Let's break down those passengers from United 3411:
1. These passengers were flying on United. They weren't flying on a private jet. The vast majority of passengers were flying coach. This tells me most of the people on the plane most likely aren't the most important people in the world. Every single one of those people didn't
have to be somewhere. It is
very unbelievable to me that there wasn't one person on that plane that was willing to miss one day's work for $800.
I did a quick search on United.com and found these roundtrip fares from Louisville, KY to Honolulu, HI during August 2017 (vacation season, flights are cheaper in the fall/winter). $917 - $800 = $117. A roundtrip flight to Honolulu for $117. To me, that's not a bad price, and would be worth getting to wherever I was going 15 hours later. Plus, I would've had a free night in Chicago!
Before you lose your mind on me for not saying "$800 in a travel voucher," that $800 voucher is just like using $800 on any United flight. You have up to one year to use them, and you can book outside of that year. That's $800 that only an idiot would decide willfully to not use.
2. What shocks me is that once this old man started screaming and being forced off the plane,
no one did anything! No one tried to stop the police. No one volunteered. They all sat comfortably in their seats and just filmed it. Not one person thought, "Hey, maybe I should try to stop this in some way." Instead, only a handful of them pulled out their cell phones and just recorded the incident. Granted, that is
something at least, but them letting an old man get treated this way is quite off putting.
At least there was some good news to come out of this situation. Delta is reportedly willing to give up to $2,000 for a passenger being inconvenienced! I wonder how long the delay would have to be to have that happen!
One thing I would have loved if I was a flight attendant would be
the option to drive to the airport I'm suppose to go to. United was looking for 4 volunteers so 4 crew members could get on and was willing to give $800 each ($3200 in vouchers). Why not just have the crew rent a car and drive down to Louisville? Car, gas, insurance I would guess would be about $400-$600 for that four hour drive.
Keep in mind that if you do use travel vouchers, they do not cover baggage fees!
