It is possible that a car is not a permitted method of positioning as per the crew’s contract. Plus rest time regulations come into play.

Losing $1b in market value does not represent an actualized loss of funds.

Fair point. A van for the passengers would have worked.

You’re going to inconvenience someone. It’s the nature of having thousands of flights a day that things don’t always go to plan.

Wild guess but maybe van transfer is not in the crew’s contract as a permitted method of positioning.

Pretty much the only time employees board at a higher priority is for positioning crew. It is worth noting that if this crew wasn’t positioning, that probably meant a canceled flight, impacting a bunch of other customers.

Airlines can’t predict when a plane goes tech unexpectedly, when people will call in sick or when weather will hit. That’s why airlines keep crew on standby.

Unfortunately it is not that simple. Crew contracts details things like what means of transportation can be used for positioning down to the smallest nitpicking detail. Legal minimum rest times and flight time limitations add another wrinkle.

Eventually you learn to tread softly and avoid the rocks. A bit of a painful learning process. ;)

Fair point.

Fair points.

Right, but remember the end doesn’t justify the means.

Plain English is not compatible with aviation regulations. ;)

I’m with you. I have Ethernet cables for the home theater PC, desktop, NAS etc... Way better. WiFi is for phones, iPad, laptops...

Oh so that makes it OK to have a system where random people have to be dragged off planes sometimes. Sometimes United has to make last minute changes to customers’ schedules in a way that makes their face bleed and knocks them semi-unconscious. No way to avoid that situation!

I live in a house with reinforced concrete walls. Five powerful routers and I still have dead spots.

Fair dinkum.

“Denied boarding” bits, though I will admit that on further reading (I can’t believe I’m reading this dreck) there seems to be some space for interpretation.

Fair point, but the contract of carriage doesn’t seem to define “denied boarding”. The verbiage is more in this vein:

I have little doubt that United has an iron clad contract of service. They can probably afford some pretty good representation.