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[Sir Tigger KC]

I flew to Bangkok and back recently with Emirates for a decent price and they were very good, especially on the A380's. 

I appreciate that on the 380 it's a relative notion, but did you slum it? Have heard some mixed reviews of service in Economy on the Lgw-Dxb/Dxb-Lgw flights... apparently crewing is a disproportionate 65/35 split in favour of the posh seats

Cattle class all the way there and all the way back Al! 

Should the opportunity ever arise, I would fly west to Australasia.....

Unless you were planning on spending time in places like New York, L.A., Tokyo etc why on earth would you add hours to an already long journey!   

And going to Africa or Asia, via Dubai is not a sensible route... if you're going scenic, then do it right; or go direct

Flying out on the 9th December the Emirates flight was nearly half the price of the cheapest direct flight to Bangkok and to be honest a couple of hours strolling around Dubai airport and drinking an outrageously priced beer wasn't that bad. 

[Lazydocker]

The fella that was dragged off the United Airlines flight suffered a broken nose and lost teeth! 

Maybe there's more to this story than we're being told by the media, but I hope he gets a handsome reward from his lawsuit! 

Much more... He's mentally unstable, is reported to have retired, (unconfirmed) reports of him being struck off for drugs offences and, most importantly, made a point of making a scene and demanding security were called. He got himself into an awkward position when he ignored the orders of the Captain. At that point security were called.

Is it right? No, not really. But he put himself into that situation and encouraged the AIRPORT security to use force.

[Doctor Gollum]

I did say it was a relative notion... their 380s are configured for around 70-75% capacity of the seats they could have

Splitting the journey is exactly what I would do, probably LA. For South Africa, by the time you leave Dubai you're pretty much at Nairobi and if you've time to spare, Amsterdam/Frankfurt/Jo'burg is still a viable route to CapeTown. By Asia, I mean Singapore/HK/Japan rather than Thailand... but even Thailand/Goa/Maldives/Mauritius can all easily be reached direct

The ticket prices are set by the airlines, thereby creating and controlling demand.

[Doctor Gollum]

Here he would have been tasered and dragged down the steps... surprised they resisted the urge to shoot him...

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I think he was a clever boy. He and his family will never need to work again. 
My son was flying United Airlines the same day this happened. First UA flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Newark was 30 minutes late taking off and 25 minutes late in landing at Newark. Which left 15 minutes to catch his flight to Heathrow.
When the plane arrived at the gate to allow the passengers off, another UA plane had already been sent there so they had to taxi around looking for another gate, which took them to the other side of the airport.
Then had to stand on the tarmac for quite some time to wait for  a bus to come and take them back where they should have been.
Of course the flight to Heathrow was long gone by then, but there was another one an hour later, which wasn't fully booked.
They refused to even discuss trying to get him on the flight. He got the impression it would have involved a few people getting their arses into gear and maybe even breaking a sweat, and that apparently, wasn't an option.
He was told he was rebooked on a flight at 8am - 12 hours later and was offered no accommodation, food, drink, or anything else.
He had to hand around the terminal for 12 hours through the night and spend £50 on a hoody because it was freezing and spend £12 on one small glass of wine, and a similar silly amount on some basic food.
He says if the future choice is to fly UA or swim to the U.S. he will buy some new speedos and take his chances.
It seems they are the U.S. equivalent of Ryanair.

[Sir Tigger KC]

I did say it was a relative notion... their 380s are configured for around 70-75% capacity of the seats they could have

Splitting the journey is exactly what I would do, probably LA. For South Africa, by the time you leave Dubai you're pretty much at Nairobi and if you've time to spare, Amsterdam/Frankfurt/Jo'burg is still a viable route to CapeTown. By Asia, I mean Singapore/HK/Japan rather than Thailand... but even Thailand/Goa/Maldives/Mauritius can all easily be reached direct

The ticket prices are set by the airlines, thereby creating and controlling demand.

I never said that you can't fly to these destinations directly, just that it's cheaper to fly in 2 legs.  I paid £430 return to Bangkok and the cheapest direct flight in the beginning of December was about £800.     The flight time with Emirates wasn't that much longer either about an hour or two, so it was a no brainer really.  The total journey was about 16 hours, whereas a direct flight is 11-12 hours. 

Out of peak times, scheduled direct flights to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumper and Hong Kong are easily found between £400 -600.  Singapore is usually the most expensive major destination to fly to in SE Asia, but then everything about Singapore is expensive! 

[Doctor Gollum]

You're not wrong there...

[Lazydocker]

I think he was a clever boy. He and his family will never need to work again. 

I wouldn't be so sure. He's in the wrong to some extent also

Besides which, it isn't UA who assaulted him, it was Airport Security who used force to remove him because he disobeyed a request from the captain, therefore posing a threat to the aircraft. Was that force reasonable? From the video footage I have seen he actually smashes is face on an armrest after flailing about at the security personnel... It's a tricky one.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if UA offered some sort of "without prejudice" offer but going to court could easily backfire for him, especially with his history that has already been uncovered along side clear footage of him refusing polite requests and flailing about when security removed him by force (at his request!)

The whole situation was handled badly but people have to remember that the Captain has overall say and if he wants you off of his aircraft (for any reason) you have to comply and then deal with it after the fact. As DG said, here he would likely have been hit with a Tazer and it's a miracle that our trigger happy friends from across the pond didn't just shoot him!

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

All true, but the fact that the bad publicity wiped many millions off the value of UA shares the next day,and almost cost the CEO his job, means that they will in all likelihood pay him millions to go away and stay quiet. 

[Rods2]

The airlines overbook to maximise revenue and profits on the basis that on average a few people won't turn up, when they all do they have a problem. Likewise, I suspect it is generally cheaper to kick passengers off to get staff home and off allowances.

Firstly they asked for volunteers, which in a dictionary definition means a 'free choice without being coerced or pressured'. Secondly, everything has a price, especially in the US. I've been in a queue twice when a flight was overbooked. The first time when they asked for volunteers and got no takers, they started offering and bidding up cash incentives until they got their required volunteers. The second time I was upgraded from cattle to business class. There are sensible ways to handle such situations, unfortunately UA aren't good enough to use them. I think this by necessity will now change. Ryanair have found the limit to treating people like cattle, with many people voting with their money and feet to use alternatives, even if it costs a bit more.

The doctor was an ass but it takes all types and I would expect staff to have been trained to handle such situations. US police and security seem to be much less resistant from using maximum force to solve a problem.

[TheBoy]

The airlines overbook to maximise revenue and profits on the basis that on average a few people won't turn up

Like the mongrels who genuinely believe a plane wont leave without them, so don't need to get up in time.  Strangely enough, this seems to happen more at Luton, unless its because the customer service desks are so close to the checkin desks you notice it more.

Probably one for Dr G to confirm...

[TheBoy]

I count my stupid sister in that group, BTW.

[Marks DTM Calib]

It always amazes me that Singapore is mega expensive yet the Duty free is the cheapest.

[tunnie]

So I was always amazed at how United overbook, my Uncle used to work for United and I had some dirt cheap perks. Like £100 return to NYC... Business Class!

I used to see his internal booking tool, as I only got a seat if one was spare. (90%) of the time I got on. It would display the capacity, e.g. 90 business and 300 economy seats.

Quite often there would be 120/130 booked for business and nearly 400 often for cattle class, due to the amount that don't turn up 

[Kevin Wood]

The mistake the United made is allowing more people on the plane than they were prepared to carry.

Bumping someone off the flight, preferably by offering incentives when in the terminal, better still, before they've checked-in is one thing. Singling out people to be ejected from the aircraft once it's boarded and they are getting comfortable in their seats is quite another. Whilst the guy undoubtedly over-reacted and, I suspect, there's more to it than has been reported, I'd be pretty livid if that happened to me, and I would disembark under protest only if ordered to by the commander of the aircraft.

Quite apart from anything else, whilst having to ask for volunteers to be bumped from overbooked flights by dangling carrots in the departure lounge looks pretty shabby for an airline, deplaning them to make way for staff is surely P.R. suicide.

Flying is now an extremely unpleasant experience unless you can leave other people (and the engines) behind. I count myself as being fortunate that I can normally do that, even if I can't travel very far.