Post: #151

Aromaticmike is pretty feisty...
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...for a Gamma.

Post: #152

(04-11-2017 04:31 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

(04-11-2017 04:03 AM)achromaticmike Wrote:  You don't have to be rich to fly enough to get free economy plus. It's like three overseas round-trips a year.

In this thread I also learned that poor people the 99% can afford three overseas round trips per year.

The tickets are under $1000 except during peak tourist times like summer. I've got ORD-FRA round trip for under $600. You don't have to be the 1% for that.

Post: #153

(04-11-2017 07:51 AM)achromaticmike Wrote:  

(04-11-2017 04:31 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

(04-11-2017 04:03 AM)achromaticmike Wrote:  You don't have to be rich to fly enough to get free economy plus. It's like three overseas round-trips a year.

In this thread I also learned that poor people the 99% can afford three overseas round trips per year.

The tickets are under $1000 except during peak tourist times like summer. I've got ORD-FRA round trip for under $600. You don't have to be the 1% for that.

Those are after tax dollars and don't forget the cost of lodging and food and other expenses and then factor in that most people don't live in a hub city like you do mr brilliant. Even if you could do a trip for 2k all in. That is 6k before accounting for the fact those are after tax dollars. Unless you are purely doing mileage runs.

You think to the average American that 8-9k is no real money at all?

I'm still impressed that you have been a deep sleeper troll for 4 years and this is the thread you wanted to roll the dice on.

The big talker stuff is always so funny. Unless you are global service you are nothing to united. But you are its biggest fan. Also united status requires not only mileage but dollars spent. Silver is 25k miles or 30 segments plus 3k in tickets spent so in your example of ord - fra for 600, 3 tickets wouldn't have done it at 1,800. You just trolling for fun today? I bet you'll link your IG account with you holding a bunch of hundreds and setting them on fire. Big baller.

Post: #154

^

And of course, you need the time to travel. Most people don't get much vacation, and with more and more people being hourly contractors taking a bunch of vacation = lost pay. How many people these days are salaried employees with 5+ weeks of vacation?

My parents made plenty of money and had decent vacation, and they retired in their early 50s, but they only had the time to do a single two week vacation a year while they were working. The rest of their vacation time was for family events and the occasional mental health day.

Post: #155

I don't know how much truth there is to this, but supposedly Twitter is deleting or ghosting negative tweets about the United incident:

https://thenextweb.com/twitter/2017/04/1...nes-tweets

The story content is about 50% tweets so I'm not going to take the time to embed all that here.

Post: #156

Scott Adams had be rolling this morning talking about United.

He said he couldn't even make a cartoon of this because it was so ridiculous. I think he smoked a bowl before the periscope. Still funny.

https://www.pscp.tv/ScottAdamsSays/1yoKMewMbknKQ

Post: #157

(04-10-2017 01:40 PM)weambulance Wrote:  If they'd said "Hey, we'll pay for a limo with wet bar to Louisville (which would've cost < $2000) if you and your wife get off" I guarantee people would've been fighting to take that deal.

...which leads to the obvious question, why didn't they just put the employees in the limo in the first place and get everybody moved on with their lives?

It's almost like people who paid good money and were not only given a ticket, but boarded and seated have a reasonable expectation that United is going to fly them somewhere, and United needs to plan around fulfilling it because that's what they do for a living. This happens at the gate all the time, but I've never seen them delay a flight to play Hunger Games with passengers who are already strapped in. That's piss-poor.

"Wait, shit, we forgot. We need those seats back."

Not defending the guy's conduct in any way: if you're told to deplane, deplane. They're in charge. Sometimes, everyone is playing stupid games at the same time.

Post: #158

United's new advertisement campaign...

Post: #159

(04-11-2017 07:51 AM)achromaticmike Wrote:  

(04-11-2017 04:31 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

(04-11-2017 04:03 AM)achromaticmike Wrote:  You don't have to be rich to fly enough to get free economy plus. It's like three overseas round-trips a year.

In this thread I also learned that poor people the 99% can afford three overseas round trips per year.

The tickets are under $1000 except during peak tourist times like summer. I've got ORD-FRA round trip for under $600. You don't have to be the 1% for that.

Your statements are illogical.

Yes, you can get good deals on intercontinental airfare. However, to get frequent flier perks, you have to fly frequently with one airline or at least with an airline consortium.

Good luck getting three good deals a year, at precisely the time your employer authorizes you to take vacation with the precisely the right airlines to get frequent flier status.

Additionally, the $600 for airfare does not account for your hotel stay, other transportation, food, activities and travel medical insurance.

One week of vacation, including hotel stay and all other expenses, it would be perfectly normal to run of $900 is expenses, for a total of $1500 per trip including airfare. Obviously if you have kids traveling with you, the costs are going to be higher.

No, $4500 a year for a mere 3 weeklong vacations abroad is not budget friendly for your average household with a combined income of $60K a year. And that's assuming that three of those vacations would really only cost $4500. $10K is more realistic, unless they are really pinching pennies and travelling on a shoes string, at which point, you reach an understanding why most middle class people would limit themselves to just one international vacation a year: travel isn't fun when you're too worried about money to enjoy yourself.

Post: #160

This doctor sounds like a real thug.

Quote:Dr Dao is a father of five and a grandfather, who specializes in internal medicine. Four of his five children are doctors.

His wife Teresa, 69, is a pediatrican who trained at Ho Chi Minh University in Saigon and also practices in Elizabethtown, Kentucky - about 40 miles south of Louisville.

And remember this allegation by one passenger?

Quote:One passenger also told the Washington Post the man claimed as he was being dragged off the plane he was chosen because of his ethnicity.
'He said, more or less, 'I'm being selected because I’m Chinese",' the passenger told the Post.

That would be very odd for a Vietnamese-American to say he was being profiled because he's Chinese.

Post: #161

Yes, $4500 is not realistic for 3 international week-long vacations. Maybe per person. But most families/ couples don't just send one, they'd like to go together.

A family of 3 might be able to take 3 short Mexico trips at a budget friendly resort for $4500 if they fly out of Texas. But I don't think that is the international vacation we are talking about.

Post: #162

Last year I bought business class tickets to Bogota on American. The plane was late departing from Vegas and the crew had their bags in my overhead compartment (yes the fucking crew) and they made me gate check my carryon (all I had). I was annoyed but when we landed I had a tight connection and I asked the stewardess to tell someone I needed my bag right away. She actually did tell some fat black lady that platinum member and J class customer Fisto needed his carryon and I saw her saw "uh huh" then walk her fat ass up the ramp. I didn't get my suitcase until the whole plane had gotten off. Of course I missed my flight in Miami. I spoke to a lady at the airport and the best I was able to do by running strong game was get a shitty hotel at the airport , meals at a shitty restaurant and a 100 dollar voucher. This is after I explained I'd already paid for a hotel in Bogota and had a surprise etc etc (I was able to change my reservation but because of Platinum status with Starwood). These airlines so not give a shit about you. I now have executive platinum with American and I often feel I'm nothing more than a nuisances to them when I call the dedicated line (both times I called to book a reservation they quoted me prices that were wildly different than the price on American's website)

I won't be pursuing status with them again and will probably match with another carrier like Alaska or Delta or both if possible.

Post: #163

(04-11-2017 10:02 AM)Fisto Wrote:  These airlines so not give a shit about you. I now have executive platinum with American and I often feel I'm nothing more than a nuisances to them when I call the dedicated line (both times I called to book a reservation they quoted me prices that were wildly different than the price on American's website)

I won't be pursuing status with them again and will probably match with another carrier like Alaska or Delta or both if possible.

A couple years ago, United left me on hold for five hours.

I mean it. I called for instructions after a cancellation and had to leave the speakerphone on for five hours while I showered, made breakfast, put in a half day at work. I still remember the horrible hold muzak.

Afterwards, I emailed several upper level executives and just said, very cordially, the delay on the flight isn't your fault but the lack of communication and delay getting support was, and I wish you would have some overflow capacity when you know your website is down and there are a ton of customers who need assistance.

They gave me $200 in vouchers, which I wasn't expecting and I thought that was cool.

A year later, I realize they're about to expire, so I decide to use them to go to Vegas. This page was apparently carefully designed to prevent you from doing this: if you hit 'enter' on any part of the form instead of clicking, it sends you back to the home page and dumps your session so you lose the flight you chose. It also wouldn't let you correct and re-submit if the form failed to validate the first time you clicked 'submit'. It just froze the fields. A cynic would conclude that they intentionally told a web developer to "make it impossible to redeem vouchers, but make it look like an accident".

There's a field called 'Authorizing Employee' or something, which apparently wanted a last name, so I entered the name of the customer service rep I emailed, of the executive who emailed me about the vouchers, every name I could find on any of my correspondence.

Finally, I was enraged enough to call a phone number I found hidden in the fine print and get some guy who sounds like he's eating entire sleeves of Oreos in a janitor's closet. I explain what's going on. He looks up the vouchers and says "it's YOUR last name, you have to enter YOUR OWN last name".

Alright, so I do that, and it works. "Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that when it asks for an employee's name, it wants my name. Thanks."

The guy just goes "HAHAHAHAH" and hangs up.

The level of service at the majors is really great.

Post: #164

American airlines have poor service and procedures relative to other airlines, who often have similar legal rights to bump passengers.

I believe United could have avoided this...

BUT...

I am absolutely sick of people refusing to comply, going limp and getting themselves injured.

He was NOT being taken to an abattoir to be slaughtered or being mugged and stabbed. He was being taken off a plane according to what appear to be valid terms and conditions.

Meanwhile, some guy mowed down by a car, who had no choice in the matter, will probably get a tenth of the settlement this guy does.

Post: #165

What's up with the guy escaping from the police and running back onto the plane? What did he think that would accomplish? Because he did that, United had to deplane everyone from the flight and delayed everyone by like three hours. If I had been on that flight, all my sympathy for the Asian dude would have completely evaporated at that point.

Post: #166

http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/11/united-air...drugs-sex/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.3043210

The passenger who was savagely removed from United flight 3411 is a medical doctor with a sordid history.

Dr. David Dao was charged in 2005 with 98 felony drug counts for illegally prescribing and trafficking painkillers. Prosecutors claimed Dao fraudulently filled prescriptions for hydocodone, Oxycontin and Percocet.

Dr. Dao was also convicted on 6 felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud and deceit and in 2005 was given 5 years probation.

Dao was also convicted for writing prescriptions and checks to a patient in exchange for sex.
In medical board documents ... Dao denied paying for sex, but indicated he accepted sexual favors from an associate in exchange for reducing a debt that associate owed him.

In February, 2005, Dr. Dao surrendered his license to practice medicine in Kentucky. In 2015 the medical board lifted the suspension and allowed him to practice medicine with some restrictions. Last year, the medical board imposed even more restrictions -- now he can only practice internal medicine in an outpatient facility one day a week.

Interestingly, and relevant to the United incident, one doctor assessing Dao's case said he had interpersonal problems, noting "... he would unilaterally choose to do his own thing."

Post: #167

^Couldn't have happen to a nicer guy.

Post: #168

(04-11-2017 10:30 AM)JayMillz Wrote:  The passenger who was savagely removed from United flight 3411 is a medical doctor with a sordid history.

I'm shocked.

I assumed he was lying about being a doctor.

Post: #169

I wonder if the airport police gave him a drug test after his arrest? If so, I think the results are going to let United off the hook on this one.

Post: #170

Quote:Last year, the medical board imposed even more restrictions -- now he can only practice internal medicine in an outpatient facility one day a week.

Now it's clear why it was so important that he get to the clinic the next morning.

Post: #171

So:

-Get high and go on a plane
-Make a bad situation even worse
-Go limp and get yourself injured
-????
-Profit

Post: #172

BREAKING: United Airlines stock plunges by over %4 and is S&P 500's worst performer today.

Post: #173

(04-11-2017 10:23 AM)david.garrett84 Wrote:  I am absolutely sick of people refusing to comply, going limp and getting themselves injured.

Surely the great problem of our age. Let's forget about the major airlines treating people like cattle.

Neither party comes out well from this. But maybe it will stimulate the filthy-pig airlines to change their practices.

Post: #174

Ha, so this guy now gets his retirement payday. Good for him!

Aromaticmike's law firm:

Post: #175

(04-11-2017 10:30 AM)JayMillz Wrote:  http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/11/united-air...drugs-sex/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.3043210

The passenger who was savagely removed from United flight 3411 is a medical doctor with a sordid history.

Dr. David Dao was charged in 2005 with 98 felony drug counts for illegally prescribing and trafficking painkillers. Prosecutors claimed Dao fraudulently filled prescriptions for hydocodone, Oxycontin and Percocet.

Dr. Dao was also convicted on 6 felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud and deceit and in 2005 was given 5 years probation.

Dao was also convicted for writing prescriptions and checks to a patient in exchange for sex.
In medical board documents ... Dao denied paying for sex, but indicated he accepted sexual favors from an associate in exchange for reducing a debt that associate owed him.

In February, 2005, Dr. Dao surrendered his license to practice medicine in Kentucky. In 2015 the medical board lifted the suspension and allowed him to practice medicine with some restrictions. Last year, the medical board imposed even more restrictions -- now he can only practice internal medicine in an outpatient facility one day a week.

Interestingly, and relevant to the United incident, one doctor assessing Dao's case said he had interpersonal problems, noting "... he would unilaterally choose to do his own thing."

While all that may be true, none of those acts are an affirmative defense that United can use if he chooses to sue.