Originally Posted by
neilki
Manning Planning.... Not likely a cockup. Deadheading happens all the time. I do at least one every 4 day.
Yes, deadheading happens all the time. The cock-up here was that the aircraft was boarded with the right number of paying passengers without taking into account at an earlier stage that 4 seats were needed for other crew. The re-allocation should have been done long before it got to this stage so yes, a manning-planning cock-up.
At what point did UA know it needed to get 4 from A to B? 5-mins before flight, 5 hours before flight? When was this requirement communicated to those that really ought to know?