Dead Heading Crews

The United fiasco of last week not only shouldn't have, it didn't even need to. It runs out that American had a flight that left for the same destination one hour later. The media of course, didn't check whether there was room on that flight. But even if there weren't, they could have charted a lear or even drove the crew, only a four hour drive.

What really torques my jaws though is the sloppy coverage both the print and television media handled the crises. They consistently mixed the terms "over booking," with the reality, which was dead heading a crew. Over booking, in the contract covering a ticket, allows an airline the right to bump ticketed passengers BEFORE THEY BOARD. Once seated, they cannot.

The press constantly referred to over booking, which was not the issue. I blame very poor journalistic practices for the confusion. Poor fact finding, erroneous reporting was apparently caused by trying to beat the other outlets, even if their information was wrong, and it was.

Even dredging up the victim's legal problems was wrong. That had no beating on the cause and effect of the activities. I predict a large lawsuit settlement followed by some congressional oversight rule changes. If the airlines cannot be customer friendly, then government intervention will require it.

The skies are no longer friendly. How sad. One good thing that may occur is that after the dragging incident, over booking may never be a problem for United again.Perhaps we need to re-regulate them, as their freedom didn't get the desired effect.On a lighter note, I thought you would enjoy this related clip Ray Stevens recorded a few years ago.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdtCzLQxrL0