A common overbooking problem on a United Airlines flight on Sunday ended with a man being bloodied and dragged from his seat and an already troubled airline earning more bad press. How did it all go so wrong?
Overbooking on flights happens all the time. Empty seats cost airlines money, so they offset(抵消) the number of passengers who miss flights by selling too many tickets. In this case, the problem arose because United decided at the last minute to fly four members of staff to a connection point and needed to bump four passengers to make way for them.
When there’s an overbooking issue the first step is to offer an inducement to the passengers to take a later flight. On Sunday passengers were offered $400, a hotel room for the night, and a flight the following afternoon. When no-one took the offer, the amount was upped to $800. Still no-one bit, so a manager boarded the flight and informed passengers that four people would be selected to leave the flight.
That selection is based on several factors, but frequent fliers and higher fare-paying passengers are given priority to stay aboard, a spokeswoman for United confirmed.
A couple who were selected agreed to leave the plane voluntarily. A third passenger, reportedly the wife of the man who was forcibly removed, also agreed. The man, who said he was a doctor and had to see patients in the morning, refused. An airline manager told him that security would be called if he did not obey. their conversation ended with the man being yanked from his seat onto the floor and dragged off, blood visible on his face.
United Airlines CEO said the airline would review the event and reach out to the passenger, but the spokeswoman could not confirm whether United was in touch with him yet.
1. Why does overbooking on flights always occur?
A. United bumped four passengers to spare seats for its staff.
B. Airlines expect to earn as much money as possible.
C. Airlines want to make up for a loss of empty seats.
D. It happens by accident.
2. What can we inferred about the selection mentioned in the text?
A. People are selected at random by the computer.
B. Frequent fliers will never be asked to leave.
C. The selected doctor may be the low fare-paying passengers or not a frequent flier.
D. The selected passengers will be offered no money.
3. Which of the following statements about four passengers is true?
A. Four people were directly selected to leave at first.
B. The couple of the doctor agreed to leave voluntarily.
C. The doctor was dragged off without any hurt.
D. The doctor refused to leave because he had to see his patient next morning.
4. What does the underlined part “reach out to” in Paragraph 6 refers to?
A. Get in contact with B. Make up for C. Apologize to D. Team up with
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A. Profits enlarging B. Technology developing C. Education investing D. Benefits transferring E. Dominance disappearing F. A nation rising |
The following is an imaginary diary entry written by US president. This diary is part of Global Trends 2025, which was written by the US National Intelligence Council
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The
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The
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Global wealth and economic power will shift from West to East.
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The transition from old fuels to new will be slow, as will the development of new technologies that present feasible alternatives to fossil fuels or help eliminate food and water problems. All current technologies are inadequate, and new ones will probably not be commercially possible by 2025