4 ms·

You are defining "boarding" narrowly as the act of getting onto a plane. I think it's clear that wasn't what's meant by the contract and it is only being inter

by vivekd 10y ago

You are defining "boarding" narrowly as the act of getting onto a plane. I think it's clear that wasn't what's meant by the contract and it is only being interpreted in this narrow way because people are angry with United. Reading boarding in the contract suggests that it it intended to refer to the whole process before the flight. The contract says "more passengers than available seats" not "more passengers than seats" if it were the latter your argument would be valid, in this case, seats may be unavailable for any number of reasons including there were other passengers or employees who took priority - not great customer service and I won't be flying United anytime soon - but from a standpoint of legal liability, it is well within the wording of the contract.

xenadu02 10y ago
You're wrong. "boarding" comes from the nautical world and has a specific meaning. This is one of the times where the colloquial meaning and legal meaning are identical. You "board" when you enter the vessel/aircraft. There is a reason they check your ticket at the gate: because that's the legally accepted procedure for verifying you are a paying passenger and transitioning from the "not-boarded" to "boarded" state. Different rules kick in (both by contract and by law) once they scan your ticket and let you climb aboard the craft. The Dr in this case had boarded the plane. If United wanted to bump passengers to make room for crew (ignoring whether that was permissible under the "overbooked" definition), they needed to do it before they let the passengers on the plane. Furthermore that was an entirely knowable event. The moment they started letting people on the plane they already knew the crew members were running late. They could have had the gate agents ask for volunteers before anyone got on. They screwed up twice. There is no defense of United to be had here. Everyone can stop apologizing for them now.

by vivekd 10y ago

xenadu02 10y ago

You're wrong. "boarding" comes from the nautical world and has a specific meaning. This is one of the times where the colloquial meaning and legal meaning are identical. You "board" when you enter the vessel/aircraft. There is a reason they check your ticket at the gate: because that's the legally accepted procedure for verifying you are a paying passenger and transitioning from the "not-boarded" to "boarded" state. Different rules kick in (both by contract and by law) once they scan your ticket and let you climb aboard the craft. The Dr in this case had boarded the plane. If United wanted to bump passengers to make room for crew (ignoring whether that was permissible under the "overbooked" definition), they needed to do it before they let the passengers on the plane. Furthermore that was an entirely knowable event. The moment they started letting people on the plane they already knew the crew members were running late. They could have had the gate agents ask for volunteers before anyone got on. They screwed up twice. There is no defense of United to be had here. Everyone can stop apologizing for them now.