FROM ANOTHER ARTICLE:
In a letter to employees, United Airlines’ parent company chief executive Oscar Munoz revealed the company had been trying to make room for four employees of a partner airline, which resulted in four passengers being told to get off the flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville.
After the plane was fully boarded, the company’s “gate agents were approached by crew members that were told they needed to board the flight”, the message leaked to ABC said.
“We sought volunteers and then followed our involuntary denial of boarding process (including offering up to $1,000 in compensation) and when we approached one of these passengers to explain apologetically that he was being denied boarding, he raised his voice and refused to comply with crew member instructions,” Mr Munoz said.
Being denied boarding? He already boarded. It will cost the airline much more than upping the offer to thousands of dollars for volunteers to get off the plane. For 5 grand, I suspect they’d have plenty of takers.
I'm no expert, but I believe the airlines have very clear policies that they don't have to let you on their plane. But once they let you on, I think their policies get very much less clear. Dragging the guy off AFTER they allowed him on? The airline is standing on ground which is (at least) not rock solid.