Originally Posted by
Koan
The overbook situation resulted from an operational necessity to board Dead Head crew scheduled to operate a live flight. Nothing to do with giving a buddy a free ride, free flights for non rev staff, or any other such rubbish as I have endured on my FB feed today.
"Give my buddies a ride" was my (admittedly flippant) way of pointing out that the airline wanted those four seats for its own financial convenience and not due to any exigent operational necessity. There was absolutely zero operational necessity to reposition those crew on that specific flight. Chicago is a major hub for United, the claim that there was no other way to get those folks to Louisville is ludicrous on its face.