They have pilots needing to make other flights that could delay hundreds of other people.. Sometimes mechanics are randomly needed. Happens a good bit. They can't drive bc of unions and there were no other airline flights til the next day. So they were stuck. As everyone said the bidding simply has to continue. They sell double booked seats all the time bc of no shows. It's a shit business model made legal by corporate America. But hey it's in your contract that they can legally fuck you. So that's that.
I still would have taken the loot. Delta is usually what I fly because I think my company uses them as a preferred provider but they are cheap as hell. I've never heard of being offered a grand, the last time i flew was out of Philly coming back to Louisiana and they started announcing they may have overbooked to my layover in Atlanta. They were only offering a couple hundred bucks. It ended up not being overbooked but had they offered 1000 bucks, I would have gladly taken it.
I agree and have said several times now, everyone has a price. I guarantee that at $2k, they'd have had 8 seats. It would have been a small price to pay to avoid what they now face. I think once Dao became THAT kind of a problem, it's time to re-group, re-assess, and find another option.
Sure, he can be angry. But he didn't cooperate with the police and he did become belligerent and somewhat unruly. That's a problem too. I've read the sentiment on here many times that if you just do what the po po tells you, there won't be a problem. And after he was dragged off, he ran back on the aircraft. He's unstable at a minimum. Like several other passengers did at that point, I probably would have gotten off the plane. I don't like to fly with people who act bizarrely. I fly out of Atlanta regularly and on a rare occasion, usually weather related, I hear desk agents make offers but I've never heard one higher than $400 and a room.
Atlanta is a pain in the dick. Every time I fly through there it's usually where I get connecting flight my layover is like 30 minutes, i feel like I'm hauling ass every time.
His lawyer has to be licking his chops. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ual-passenger-idUSKBN17F1WT
