Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
That's a good summing up.
It's reasonable and predictable that there is disagreement among the legal community about the relative weights of Conditions of Carriage, on one hand, and the absolute right (if it exists) of a company to kick an individual off its property (made more complicated by the fact that the crew of an aircraft have wide-ranging powers).
That disagreement is only going to be resolved in a courtroom, and it's probably in United's interest - though not necessarily that of the travelling public - that it never get that far.
I expect the following outcomes:
a) Dr Dao will reluctantly forego his day in court, on the advice of his lawyers, but will become a very rich man
b) the legal situation will remain as muddy as before
c) the industry will pay lip service to the lessons learned, but until those at the top wake up to the fact that they are running a customer-focused business, nothing will really change
Dave,
You may well be correct but, do you not think that the awareness of pax rights has been highlighted by this so much that maybe the industry will now want this resolved?
Of course costs will be borne by the consumer but I would suggest this is a small price to pay for (hopefully) an improvement in the typical abysmal service that most US and EU so called full service carriers have lowered themselves to.