Nearly every way the United incident could have ended differently—in one flowchart

Nearly every way the United incident could have ended differently—in one flowchart
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United Airlines sure has gotten itself into a mess. Two days after the incident, the public is still outraged by the treatment of a United passenger forcibly removed from his flight after staff decided to give his seat to an out-of-position airline crew member.

Airline operations are incredibly complex and interdependent on a multitude of factors, some within the airline’s control and some outside of it. Let’s take a look at all the ways an airline with an overbooked flight might resolve the situation.

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The flow chart has been updated to allow selecting alternate passengers to bump.