5 ms·

It's not "deplane" if you're not on the plane yet. Also, it's come out that United's so-called "random" method was a sort based on frequent flier status and th

It's not "deplane" if you're not on the plane yet. Also, it's come out that United's so-called "random" method was a sort based on frequent flier status and then (potentially) price paid for ticket. If that's really the case, they targeted their least valuable one-time customers first.. aka people who "next time" was months or years down the road. As someone with status, I get their reasoning but let's be honest and not call it "random."

mc32 10y ago
I am, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression most people who travel know that late bookings as well as cheap tickets are the first to get bumped if need be (besides the poor stadbys)
- jpollock 10y ago
  As long as the contract is the same, the price I pay for the ticket should have no bearing on what happens in an overbooking situation.
  - mc32 10y ago
    I think companies tend to value their more profitable customers over their least profitable ones. If they could only book cheapskates like me, there would be no profitable airlines in the world. Not that I would mind the equivalence. On the other hand imagine the furore we'd see when a full-price customer got bumped.
ajdlinux 10y ago
Boarding priority rules that discriminate on status are explicitly permitted by US regulations. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.3
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- caseysoftware 10y ago
  I have no problem with that but then let's stop calling this random.
cmurf 10y ago
Sadly, I think both airline and media who repeated the random selection narrative, don't know what the word means, rather than being dishonest about it. Random is what a computer does, i.e. some metric they do not understand and cannot predict is to them random. They only understand it in terms of some really imperfect examples or metaphors that totally cheat them out of what randomness really is. So now if you want to talk about crypto with them, it's instantly so problematic you'd just have to back the train way up. It's like the Feynman magnets video. Pointless without the necessary basic understanding.

mc32 10y ago

I am, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression most people who travel know that late bookings as well as cheap tickets are the first to get bumped if need be (besides the poor stadbys)

jpollock 10y ago
As long as the contract is the same, the price I pay for the ticket should have no bearing on what happens in an overbooking situation.
- mc32 10y ago
  I think companies tend to value their more profitable customers over their least profitable ones. If they could only book cheapskates like me, there would be no profitable airlines in the world. Not that I would mind the equivalence. On the other hand imagine the furore we'd see when a full-price customer got bumped.

ajdlinux 10y ago

Boarding priority rules that discriminate on status are explicitly permitted by US regulations. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.3

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
caseysoftware 10y ago
I have no problem with that but then let's stop calling this random.

cmurf 10y ago

Sadly, I think both airline and media who repeated the random selection narrative, don't know what the word means, rather than being dishonest about it. Random is what a computer does, i.e. some metric they do not understand and cannot predict is to them random. They only understand it in terms of some really imperfect examples or metaphors that totally cheat them out of what randomness really is. So now if you want to talk about crypto with them, it's instantly so problematic you'd just have to back the train way up. It's like the Feynman magnets video. Pointless without the necessary basic understanding.