United Airlines booted 3,765 passengers off flights last year just because it sold more tickets than there were seats on the plane, but none of those got as much attention as the man who was dragged off a plane in Chicago over the weekend.

Video posted on Facebook showed the shock on the faces of other passengers. And it created a public-relations nightmare for the airline on Monday as news of the video spread.

Airlines are allowed to oversell flights, and they frequently do, because they assume that some passengers won’t show up. U.S. airlines bumped 40,000 passengers last year, not counting those who volunteered to give up their seats.

But there are some federal rules that apply.

When they know a flight is oversold, airlines will ask for volunteers to give up their seat, usually for a travel voucher or other reward, and a seat on a later flight. According to the government, 434,000 passengers voluntarily gave up seats on the country’s largest 12 airlines last year, including nearly 63,000 on United. The champion of overbooking was Delta Air Lines — about 130,000 passengers on Delta agreed to give up their seats last year.

When voluntary offers don’t work, the airlines can deny boarding — or “bump” passengers against their will. That appears to be what happened before Sunday night’s United flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky. When it comes to forcing passengers off a flight, Southwest is the undisputed leader among the larger airlines — it bumped nearly 15,000 passengers last year, according to government figures.

Federal rules spell out how much the airline must pay each passenger who is forced off a flight. Airlines must give bumped passengers a written statement that explains their compensation rights.

Compensation varies by how long the passenger will be delayed. If the airline can rebook the passenger and get him to his destination within an hour of his originally scheduled arrival time, no compensation is required.

If the passenger will arrive between one and two hours later than planned — or between one and four hours for an international flight — the airline must pay the passenger twice the amount of the one-way fare to his destination, up to $675.

If the passenger will be delayed more than two hours — or four hours for international flights — the airline must pay him four times the one-way fare, up to $1,350.

Airlines will usually bump people flying on the cheapest tickets because the required compensation will be lower. Carriers have other rules, too. United Airlines says that when deciding who gets bumped, it considers how long it will take for passengers to reach their destination on a later flight, it won’t break up a family group, and won’t bump minors who are traveling alone.

Airlines are most likely to oversell flights during busy travel periods such as spring break and the summer-vacation season, but bumping can happen any time there is bad weather that causes some flights to be canceled.

IF YOU WANT TO BE BUMPED

Some savvy travelers see oversold flights as an opportunity — for them. They’ll give up their seats if the airline makes a sweet enough offer. Some check their flight’s seating chart ahead of time to see if it’s sold out. If you aim to be bumped, sit near the gate agent’s desk so you can pounce before other passengers take that offer of travel vouchers, gift cards, and sometimes cash. If offered a spot on a later flight, make sure it’s a confirmed seat. And don’t check a bag.

David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter</s>All hell broke loose aboard an overbooked United Airlines flight when a passenger reportedly refused to give up his seat.

Video of the distressing incident surfaced on social media Sunday night that showed security personnel forcibly remove the middle-aged man.

Amid being lifted from his seat, the screaming passenger appeared to bang his face off an elbow rest, leaving him bloodied and dazed.

Officials then dragged the man down the aisle and off the plane as distressed passengers watched in horror.

“Oh my God!” one passenger screamed. “No! My God, what are you doing? This is wrong. Look at what you did to him.”

United later confirmed to WHAS 11 in Louisville that the flight was overbooked and that the airline had asked for volunteers to give up their seats. When nobody volunteered, the airline asked a handful of passengers to forfeit their seats – including the man seen in the video.

But the passenger reportedly refused to budge after claiming he was a doctor who needed to get home to his patients.

“A couple air port security men forcefully pulled the doctor out of his chair and to the floor of the aisle,” tweeted Jayse Anspach, a fellow passenger.

“In so doing, the doctor's face was slammed against an arm rest, causing serious bleeding from his mouth.

“It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll."

Ten minutes later, the man reportedly darted back onto the plane and continued pleading with staff to let him go home.

The airline later confirmed in a statement that a passenger aboard Flight 3411 – which was delayed by two hours – refused to leave the aircraft, at which time security was called.

“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked,” United said in a statement. "After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologise for the overbook situation.”

This is just the latest United incident to draw ire from passengers.

United also came under fire last month when it denied a pair of teenage girls seats on a flight due to their attire.

The airline later clarified that the girls’ attire -- they were wearing leggings -- violated the company’s travel pass dress code.</s>United Airlines booted 3,765 passengers off flights last year just because it sold more tickets than there were seats on the plane, but none of those got as much attention as the man who was dragged off a plane in Chicago over the weekend.

Video posted on Facebook showed the shock on the faces of other passengers. And it created a public-relations nightmare for the airline on Monday as news of the video spread.

Airlines are allowed to oversell flights, and they frequently do, because they assume that some passengers won’t show up. U.S. airlines bumped 40,000 passengers last year, not counting those who volunteered to give up their seats.

But there are some federal rules that apply.

When they know a flight is oversold, airlines will ask for volunteers to give up their seat, usually for a travel voucher or other reward, and a seat on a later flight. According to the government, 434,000 passengers voluntarily gave up seats on the country’s largest 12 airlines last year, including nearly 63,000 on United. The champion of overbooking was Delta Air Lines — about 130,000 passengers on Delta agreed to give up their seats last year.

When voluntary offers don’t work, the airlines can deny boarding — or “bump” passengers against their will. That appears to be what happened before Sunday night’s United flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky. When it comes to forcing passengers off a flight, Southwest is the undisputed leader among the larger airlines — it bumped nearly 15,000 passengers last year, according to government figures.

Federal rules spell out how much the airline must pay each passenger who is forced off a flight. Airlines must give bumped passengers a written statement that explains their compensation rights.

Compensation varies by how long the passenger will be delayed. If the airline can rebook the passenger and get him to his destination within an hour of his originally scheduled arrival time, no compensation is required.

If the passenger will arrive between one and two hours later than planned — or between one and four hours for an international flight — the airline must pay the passenger twice the amount of the one-way fare to his destination, up to $675.

If the passenger will be delayed more than two hours — or four hours for international flights — the airline must pay him four times the one-way fare, up to $1,350.

Airlines will usually bump people flying on the cheapest tickets because the required compensation will be lower. Carriers have other rules, too. United Airlines says that when deciding who gets bumped, it considers how long it will take for passengers to reach their destination on a later flight, it won’t break up a family group, and won’t bump minors who are traveling alone.

Airlines are most likely to oversell flights during busy travel periods such as spring break and the summer-vacation season, but bumping can happen any time there is bad weather that causes some flights to be canceled.

IF YOU WANT TO BE BUMPED

Some savvy travelers see oversold flights as an opportunity — for them. They’ll give up their seats if the airline makes a sweet enough offer. Some check their flight’s seating chart ahead of time to see if it’s sold out. If you aim to be bumped, sit near the gate agent’s desk so you can pounce before other passengers take that offer of travel vouchers, gift cards, and sometimes cash. If offered a spot on a later flight, make sure it’s a confirmed seat. And don’t check a bag.</s>United Airlines called the police after a seated passenger declined to leave a flight to Louisville, Ky. Officers violently pulled him from his window seat and then down the aisle as passengers yelled at them to stop. A recording of the incident posted on social media sent people into an apoplectic rage over the carrier’s heavy-handed response.

The swift social media condemnation was because the man wasn’t being ejected for misbehavior or a security threat. It was because United overbooked the flight, its staff chose him, and he didn’t want to get bumped.

Video posted to Facebook and Twitter showed the man being dragged out of his seat and down the aisle of Flight 3411 Sunday night. He was reportedly a doctor who said he had to be in Louisville Monday for work and would not relinquish his seat, according to a Twitter account by a passenger who said he was on the flight.

“After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate,” United said Sunday night. “We apologize for the overbook situation.” The flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport arrived at 10:01 p.m., almost two hours late “due to operational difficulties,” according to United’s website.

On Monday, United Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz apologized for “having to re-accommodate these customers.” In an emailed statement, he said the airline is conducting a review and seeks to resolve the matter with the man who was dragged off the airplane.

The incident demonstrates how airline bumping can veer into confrontation. Carriers around the world routinely oversell their flights because it’s a rational response to a mundane situation that occurs daily: People don’t always appear for a flight they’ve purchased. Overselling is a way to cover that situation, while maximizing the airline’s revenue.

United should have increased the compensation offered to passengers to entice volunteers, CFRA Research analyst Jim Corridore wrote in a client note Monday. “We think this situation was handled in a deplorable fashion, but note that United has the right to refuse boarding to any passenger for any reason,” he said, adding that “demand for UAL flights are unlikely to be affected by this poor customer service incident.”

The incident comes two weeks after United drew social media scorn for enforcing its dress code for those who fly as nonrevenue passengers. A girl flying from Denver was told to change her leggings before boarding. In response, the airline then took efforts to tell “our regular customers” that “leggings are welcome.”

In its contract of carriage, United Continental Holdings Inc. says it chooses those to be bumped based on a fare class, an itinerary, status in its frequent flyer program, “and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.”

That means those who paid more for a ticket and those who fly the airline frequently are less likely to be selected as an involuntary bump, criteria that are not unique to the Chicago-based carrier.

Volunteers are paid for their seat and booked on another flight. But if there are not enough volunteers, an airline resorts to the involuntary method . And when it goes wrong, it can get very ugly. That’s one reason at least two U.S. airlines-JetBlue Airways Corp. and Virgin America-don’t do it.

Last year, the 12 largest U.S. airlines bumped slightly more than 40,600 of 659.7 million passengers, for a rate of 0.62 per 10,000 passengers, down from 0.73 per 10,000 in 2015, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

In 99 percent of cases, the benefits vastly outweigh the risks to the airline. The ultimate goal is to fill every seat on every flight, preferably in the order of who paid the most. Travelers flying on the lowest fares are those who also tend to volunteer their seats for compensation, while customers who pay the most-usually business travelers-can’t be tempted out of their seats.

Overbooking pays off, too: Airlines almost always make more from the extra fares than they give back to volunteers in future-travel vouchers. When an airline can’t find enough volunteers-“involuntary denied boarding,” as regulators call it-the cost can run as high as $1,300 cash per passenger under revised rules adopted in 2011.

Yet because airlines have amassed years of detailed data on passenger no-shows-down to days, times, seasons, and specific routes-they only rarely need to write customers fat checks. The data also help them to know how to tweak their oversales for each flight, part of the complex algorithms that power revenue-management systems, the backbone of fare pricing. As a result, bumping has decreased over the past decade and is likely to dip further over time.

Another factor weighs on the involuntary bumping issue: seat supply. Airlines that have rapidly dumped 50-seat jets in recent years aren’t adopting large mainline jets in response but turning to regional jets with 70-100 seats. The Embraer SA regional jet used on the April 9 flight to Louisville has 70 seats and is flown by Republic Airways Holdings Inc.

The supply constraints have been great for boosting ticket yields but can prove detrimental when it comes to oversales. That’s one of the lessons United may be seeing in the aftermath of the dragged-passenger episode.</s>After hearing about a violent assault on an Asian doctor, many are calling for a boycott of United Airlines, which seems to be involved in ongoing controversies. United Airlines faces public scorn yet again after forcibly removing a passenger from a flight that was about to leave a Chicago airport on Sunday, reports the Inquisitr. Random passengers were asked to leave the overbooked flight to make room for extra crew members who were needed at the flight’s destination in Louisville, Kentucky. When one man refused to leave, stating that he was a doctor who needed to attend to patients at a hospital in the morning, security personnel threw the man against an armrest and proceeded to drag him out of the plane.

The Inquisitr reports that the brutal assault was caught on camera by Audra Bridges, a passenger sitting just a few seats away. Everyone was shocked and frightened by the violent way that United staff handled this doctor, who was bleeding and appeared to be knocked unconscious as a result of the ordeal. Thanks to Bridges’ decision to post the footage to social media, individuals across the country and around the world were able to react, with many deciding that they would boycott United Airlines.

Although those calling for a boycott on Twitter are expressing concern over the way the overbooking policy was handled, they are the most shocked about the way the doctor was treated. Gizmodo reports that United Airlines apologized for overbooking the flight but did not apologize for assaulting the doctor.

According to USA Today, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz tweeted what many feel is a lackluster apology.

USA Today reports that the doctor said he was calling his lawyer after a manager threatened that they would call security if he did not willingly leave the plane. Despite his refusal to leave and his insistence upon the necessity of being on that flight, the manager called three security officials, who each came one by one to speak to the doctor and try to convince him to leave. After refusing for the third time, the last security officer decided to remove the doctor by force. United Airlines has thus far not made any comments as to the appropriateness of this official’s behavior or of any disciplinary action.

According to Gizmodo, this is not the first time that United Airlines has mistreated and disrespected passengers. Only a few weeks ago, United prohibited three young female passengers from boarding the plane due to their choice to wear leggings. United Airlines also faced public censure after removing an autistic child from a flight, even as fellow passengers reported that the girl was not being disruptive. Just two weeks after this, United came under fire yet again for refusing to give a Muslim woman an unopened can of Diet Coke, citing safety reasons. Tahera Ahmed felt especially insulted after the flight attendant gave an unopened can of beer to the man sitting next to her after being denied the same request herself

A lesser-known scandal is United Airline’s decision to reopen a route between Columbia, South Carolina, and Newark, New Jersey, in exchange for the Port Authority’s permission to build a hangar. This incident led to United’s then-CEO Jeff Smisek to resign, along with two other executives.

United Airlines’ storied history of mistreating its passengers and engaging in unethical behavior has come to a head in yesterday’s brutal assault of the doctor who was just trying to get to his patients as soon as he possibly could. It is unclear how large this boycott will grow, how long it will last, or whether it will have any effect on United Airlines or the doctor who was abused.</s>FILE PHOTO - Two ground crew members walk past a United Airlines airplane as it sits at a gate at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, June 18, 2011. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A doctor trying to return home to his patients was dragged by his hands from an overbooked United Airlines flight, according to social media, embroiling the carrier in its second public relations nightmare in less than a month.

The airline was one of the top-trending topics on Twitter as users took to the website to express their anger over the forceful removal of the passenger from United Flight 3411, which was en route from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday.

Video of the incident posted to Twitter account @Tyler_Bridges shows three security officers huddling over the seated passenger, who appears to be an older Asian man, before dragging him on the floor.

The airline said it asked for volunteers to leave because additional flight crew needed to get to Louisville.

"This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United," Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz said in a statement. "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers."

Munoz said United was "moving with a sense of urgency" to work with the authorities and conduct its own review of the incident.

In Bridges' video, a woman asks: "Can't they rent a car for the pilots and have them drive?" Two uniformed men then reach into the doctor's seat and yank him from his chair.

The passenger screams as he is dragged on his back by his hands, glasses askew and shirt pulled up above his navel.

Another video shows him, still disheveled from the altercation, returning to the cabin, running to the back of the plane and repeating: "I have to go home."

Fellow passenger Jayse D. Anspach, who goes by @JayseDavid on Twitter, wrote: "No one volunteered (to leave), so @United decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife."

While airport security staff were ejecting him, Anspach wrote, his face was slammed against an arm rest, causing his mouth to bleed.

"It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet," Anspach wrote, "and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll."

Late last month, two teenage girls dressed in leggings were denied boarding on a United flight from Denver to Minneapolis because of their form-fitting pants.

Because the girls were using free passes for employees or family members, they were subject to a dress code.</s>Less than a month after enduring harsh criticism for denying boarding to two teenage girls over “inappropriate” clothing, United Airlines is again on the defensive over an incident involving a passenger dragged off an overbooked plane.

The Chicago-based carrier said it was following procedure Sunday night when the airline realized that it had overbooked an 80-seat jet flying from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., and could not get enough passengers to voluntarily give up their seats.

The incident, caught on video by several passengers, shows a man whom the airline picked to boot from the flight, screaming as airport police drag him out of his seat and down the aisle while some other fliers call out in protest.

A United Airlines spokesman said the man was delaying the flight by refusing to give up his seat. The flight was delayed by about two hours, according to online records.

“We are focused on our customers, on getting them to their destination on time,” said United spokesman Charles Hobart.

In a statement, United chief executive Oscar Munoz said the airline is reviewing the conduct of his employees.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United,” he said. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.”

But public relations experts say United could have handled the incident more tactfully, perhaps by choosing another passenger to remove or by offering greater compensation to free up a seat. United Airlines declined to disclose how much money they offered passengers to voluntarily give up their seats.

“This is what we call in crisis management ‘creating your own crisis,’” said Eric Rose, a crisis management expert with Los Angeles-based Englander, Knabe & Allen. “They created their own crisis and handled it miserably.”

This incident comes a few weeks after United Airlines refused to allow two teenage girls onto a flight for wearing stretchy, form-fitting pants because they violated the airline’s dress code for employees and their family and friends.

That decision sparked swift outrage on social media, with critics calling the airline sexist and vowing to stop flying the carrier. It drew in celebrities, including comedian Sarah Silverman and actors Patricia Arquette and William Shatner, who chastised the airline’s handling of the “leggings incident.”

Last month, PRWeek, a trade publication for the public relations industry, awarded Munoz its coveted “Communicator of the Year” award for his “ability to connect and share with employees his vision for the airline, and get them to rally behind it.”

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.</s>United Airlines found itself in the middle of a social media storm today, after the US carrier forcefully removed a passenger from a flight due to overbooking. The airline said it had asked for volunteers to give up their seats on a flight bound for Louisville, Kentucky, from Chicago yesterday. Police were called after one passenger refused to leave the plane.

Smartphone video posted online showed three Chicago Department of Aviation police officers struggling with a seated middle-aged man. The man starts to scream as he is dragged off while other passengers look on — some recording the event with their phones.

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One passenger can be heard yelling, “Oh my God, look at what you did to him!” The incident ignited social media outrage, with “United” a trending term on Twitter, Facebook and Google.

It was another example of bad press and negative social media coverage for the airline, after an incident in late March when two teenage girls were denied boarding a flight in Denver because they wore leggings.

The airline defended its action, saying the girls were flying on passes that require them to abide by a dress code in return for free or discounted travel. Tyler Bridges, who posted video of yesterday’s incident on Twitter, wrote: “not a good way to treat a Doctor trying to get to work because they overbooked”.

He described passenger reaction on the plane as “disturbed”.

“Kids were crying,” he said. Bridges also wrote that the man appeared bloodied by his encounter with law enforcement and posted video showing him later running back on the plane, repeatedly saying, “I have to go home.”

The man appeared to be pacing and disoriented. United Airlines did not immediately return AFP’s request for comment. The company told US media that it had asked for volunteers to leave the overbooked plane.

“One customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate,” United spokesman Charlie Hobart was quoted by the Chicago Tribune newspaper as saying. “We apologise for the overbook situation.”

US airlines are allowed to involuntarily bump passengers off overbooked flights, with compensation, if enough volunteers cannot be found, according to the US Department of Transportation.</s>Video shows three security officials dragging a screaming passenger from a United Airlines flight at a Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reports a United representative confirmed Sunday night that a person was removed from Flight 3411 to Louisville, Kentucky, saying it was “overbooked.”

Passenger Audra D. Bridges posted the video on Facebook. It shows the guards grabbing then dragging the passenger down the aisle. Screaming is heard and other passengers say “Oh my God” and “Look at what you did to him.”

The Courier-Journal reports passengers were told at the gate the flight was overbooked. No one volunteered to take another plane and passengers were allowed to board. Once the plane was full, United employees told passengers they would not leave until four people gave up their seats. They were offered $800 and a hotel stay, but no one budged.

United said airline representatives chose four passengers at random when no volunteers agreed to leave the overbooked flight. They requested law enforcement assistance when one of them refused to leave.</s>All hell broke loose aboard an overbooked United Airlines flight when a passenger reportedly refused to give up his seat.

Video of the distressing incident surfaced on social media Sunday night that showed security personnel forcibly remove the middle-aged man.

Amid being lifted from his seat, the screaming passenger appeared to bang his face off an elbow rest, leaving him bloodied and dazed.

Officials then dragged the man down the aisle and off the plane as distressed passengers watched in horror.

“Oh my God!” one passenger screamed. “No! My God, what are you doing? This is wrong. Look at what you did to him.”

United later confirmed to WHAS 11 in Louisville that the flight was overbooked and that the airline had asked for volunteers to give up their seats. When nobody volunteered, the airline asked a handful of passengers to forfeit their seats – including the man seen in the video.

But the passenger reportedly refused to budge after claiming he was a doctor who needed to get home to his patients.

“A couple air port security men forcefully pulled the doctor out of his chair and to the floor of the aisle,” tweeted Jayse Anspach, a fellow passenger.

“In so doing, the doctor's face was slammed against an arm rest, causing serious bleeding from his mouth.

“It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll."

Ten minutes later, the man reportedly darted back onto the plane and continued pleading with staff to let him go home.

The airline later confirmed in a statement that a passenger aboard Flight 3411 – which was delayed by two hours – refused to leave the aircraft, at which time security was called.

“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked,” United said in a statement. "After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologise for the overbook situation.”

This is just the latest United incident to draw ire from passengers.

United also came under fire last month when it denied a pair of teenage girls seats on a flight due to their attire.

The airline later clarified that the girls’ attire -- they were wearing leggings -- violated the company’s travel pass dress code.
A United Airlines passenger is dragged off a flight at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The airline company is under fire because of the mistreatment of the passenger.