From Rule 25: "When there is an Oversold UA flight that originates in the U.S.A. or Canada" This flight was not oversold. The passengers had been gate-checke

From Rule 25: "When there is an Oversold UA flight that originates in the U.S.A. or Canada" This flight was not oversold. The passengers had been gate-checked and embarked[0], ready for departure. There was no shortage of revenue seats. However the airline realised that it needed to position a crew to another destination and to save a few dollars opted to remove four fare-paying passengers from the flight to make space for their non-rev crew. Regardless of that, it does show that when one party ( United ) subcontracts to another ( Republic Airways ) in order to save money, the blowback of adverse PR is onto the main brand and rightly so. [0] technically they weren't yet "boarded" because the doors were open, which interestingly also means that the aircraft wasn't "in flight" and therefore the airline can't appeal to concerns of flight safety.