Earlier this year United Airlines came under fire for the widely publicised dragging of a passenger off of an overbooked flight. Now the airline is set to launch a new policy whereby travellers can bid on how much compensation they’re willing to take to miss their flight.
As an initial response to the David Dao situation, the carrier gave managers permission to offer up to $10,000 for customers to give up their seats.
In a statement, United said it would begin testing on the new programme in October in selected markets, but did not give further details on how the system would work. “We plan to test an automated system that will offer customers an opportunity to voluntarily bid for a desired compensation amount in exchange for potentially changing travel plans if faced with an overbooked flight,” it commented.
The system was introduced by Delta back in 2011, where passengers could submit bids via text message. Delta chooses the lowest bid until every affected customer has been compensated.
united.com