Written to both the United Airlines to ask is this your policy, is this how you handle things, how might you have handled things differently and lso to Chicago Department of aviation which controls the airport, but more importantly officers who removed the person from the flight n. Addition, House Democrats on the Transportation Committee led by ofer difazio and rick Larson Washington have asked secretary transportation chow for the results of her investigation to say, is his the way things ought to work . Should the department of transportation perhaps take realm. Ory nation this host part of the statement, we recognize importance of having comply with lawful crew instructions, it is hard to believe better planning, raining, communication or additional incentives would not ave mitigated this incident or avoided it altogether. What do you expect the response from members of congress to be united . Guest well, first they want to get the response from the and everyone involved this point, united called it r munoz horrific incident. He says he stood behind the workers and they followed policy. He says perhaps they needed more raining or done things differently. They want to first establish on is unites position this, depending on what kind of esults they get, senator Chris Van Hollon proposed legislation tends to introduce legislation to prevent airlines paid passengers once they are on the plane ecause of overbooking or because of crew members needing dealing with o this incident plans to propose weville federal Aviation Administration authorization bill this year. An airline to have debate this year and so he hopes to have that piece of in the mix. Host here is tweet from united, apology, bart jansen is joining us to talk about including s, passenger rights, 2027488000 for those in the eastern and zone. Al time 2027488001 if you live in mountain and pacific time zone. Phone, uestions on the tweet us at cspan wj. Wisen lleague, elizabeth talks about the idea of bumping. It is and lain what how it works . Guest yes, airlines routinely tickets than seats on their planes because of plan, ations, changes of trying to fly planes as full as they le and so occasionally have more passengers show up for a flight seats available. Last year they actually bumped passengers the least they have bumped them since they started statistics k of the in 1995. Nevertheless, they bumped oluntarily, that is the policy you might hear that in the gate, they say, wed like to offer you night in a hotel room if you are willing to take a voluntary next day, 434,000 people d agreed to those kinds of terms, a later flight. The involuntary bumping, when you are going to get on the flight, the flight is oversold and you dont want to and have to be there as was the passenger in case. There was Something Like 40,000 of those incidents last year the industry, united had those incidents. 43 that was Something Like passengers for every 10,000 they carry, so it is a very small of the of the total passengers, but if you are the person getting bumped, you get upset about it. Host the list, though, how is the list compiled, what factors go into it . Guest they said they chose the passengers for bumping randomly passengers aboard, concerns such as not wanting to separate a family so you wouldnt bump an adult and leave a child onboard. Airline has not detailed are bumping they policy chose those passengers, one thing at will be revealed as congress and the department of transportation take a look at this. As making the list, is that done by the person at the gate, when you get your boarding pass or determined elsewhere . Says, no, as beth weiss its generated by computer, almost automatically as the collected. Fest is it is not chosen at the last minute, but the last minute is results are reveald and they start dealing with the passengers to see how many they offers to to get them off the plane or off the flight and how many they might to deny boarding involuntarily to. Host lets go to the first call is john, washington, d. C. , youre on with our guest bart jansen. Hi. Guys, how are you today . A comment on had congress sending notes. Seems to me like they need to be looking more at the culture rather than just if this one incident. Mean by that . You caller well, for instance, i ust got back from texas on a united flight and, you know, the i can as dirty, i mean, guarantee you there is no american that would say flying good experience. Uest well, and actually the Market Forces is how the airlines, the industry says choose among uld the Different Airlines they fly. There was just a call yesterday coincidentally by Delta Airlines talking about en First Quarter earnings. He was asked about this bumping said, erbooking and he well, we do not need legislation r regulation in this realm because this should be one of use actors that passengers to choose which airline they are going to fly. O that is why the Transportation Department collects these statistics, so that you can see hawaiian airline, Delta Airlines have the bumpings. Oweluntary united middle of the pack at fifth and other Airlines Fare well. S delta c. E. O. Was saying we only. 1, one in every 100 as many s, one fourth as united. The other thing, you want to gate e disputes at the loaded n. Plane is this case on sunday, the plane was loaded, people were in their seats and that perhaps made comfortable, less willing to get off at that point, they thought they were on their way. How does the of airline handle it and how many airline ave, but the industry would say, that is something that the market should decide, passengers should choose which airline they want based on decisions like that. Eastern 7488000 for and central time zone. 2027488001 for the mountain and pacific time zone. Twitter says, wasnt this a case to get the crew cheaply as possible . Guest well, crews crew routinely fly at no cost called nonrev passengers. Basicallynely commute from city to city by plane because of the distances involved. This case, there were four crew members that needed to from the flight leaving chicago, it was landing louisville. They may have been headed louisville, yond they were traveling no cost to themselves, it was important for he airline to have the crew members relocated so they could serve their next flights the next day. Here is jar ed from virginia. , caller good morning, you kind of touched on this talking about forces regulating overbooking. Has there been, i didnt catch push for ere been a legislation to not allow that process . Smells of fraud if you know offering and taking money for more seats than you have available. Guest yes. Basically there arent a lot of governing les consumer regulation from the department of transportation, because the airlines, in 1978, congress deregulated the industry and just said, have at it, compete with each other and what that has boasts that ustry ares when ranked against inflation are much lower than they used to be, theoretically more choices, although they have narrowed into specific hubs and routes. Many choices ought to be based on the market. Youre right that the Department Transportation still has the authority to approve consumer on unfair and ed deceptive practices in selling tickets. Of the regulations they did dopt in recent years was to potentially Fine Airlines if passengers are left on planes thea long period of time on tarmac without being able to get some e plane because of unforeseen delay. If you stay on the tarmac for hours for domestic flight or four hours for international flight, the airline could fined for that problem. The open question here is, might transportation of do anything about overbooking at lawmakers, some of the are starting to talk in that direction, in addition, at the new jersey governor christie, noted 70 of traffic goes through Newark Airport in northern new jersey he urged democrat of transportation, elaine chow to to prevent tion overbooking and he just thinks that it ought to stop, hes how things might be handled with united handling city, y flights in his removal of the passenger was generally, but states arent allowed to pass many own airlines, rning Airline Policy tends to be set at federal level, it is probably matter for congress or the department of transportation to regulate. Says agewer on twitter of computers, how can airlines not know how many tickets were sold . Guest they know how many were sold, what they dont know, how many people are firmly going to up that day at ohare to and 20 minute flight to louisville, they need and fly to arrive somewhere else later that night. They do not want delays, they want everything to move smoothly, get the passengers on to the plane, there are checkin requirement, security requirement, you might recall, very long lines at chicago ohare last summer because of problems in processing checkpoints, so maybeare business members change plans late before flights because their plans have changed. Of reasons number so the ns might change passengers dont get two flights or decide not to ride on a flight. In order to get closer to the ullest planes, planes fly average about 86 or 87 full. So seven out of eight seats are average on every plane. You dont tend to see every anymore, you pty dont many flights go off full, off full,flight going might have 2 out of 8, isnt any middle seats left open to squeeze on to at the last minute. Airlines are trying to get all the full, that is part of debate over whether you should prevent overbooking. Point that delta c. E. O. Ed bastien mentioned yesterday, there are airlines that advertise they do not overbook, he didnt name the but jet blue airways overbook. Ng it doesnt nevertheless, jet blues nvoluntary bumping statistics were higher than delta, they. 92 d Something Like assengers for every 10,000, so almost 10 times more the other way involuntary bump category is because a plane might have mechanical problem if you plane large plane, that has mechanical problem, cant take off, switch to smaller get as many passengers on the smaller plane as possible, there you have what is described as overbooking and you need to make other accommodations for those extra passengers and that is how you overbooking, which isnt technically an oversell, intentionally it and you have to find a way to get passengers to their destination. Raul from massachusetts, hi. Caller thank you for taking my call. A question ment and for mr. Bart jansen. Unitedrequent flyer with and i noticed in the last few has made a united concerted effort to improve is omer service, so this surprising to me. For mr. Bart on jansen is what i had not noticed that they were ually asking passengers to once they are on the plane, this is really unusual. The last six e in months or so, so that is unusual. Treated this passenger, i dont think it is ustified at all and i could i think the press should be talking more about this. Thank you. Can assure you usa today has been writing lots of stories about this to ect and we will continue cover it, whatever resolutions re made, both whether united changes its policy, whether the department of transportation regulation or whether congress decides to debate, airlines. Laws on the i will be covering that. What i can say in addition about airlines, they are definitely trying to improve their Public Relations and how passengers,ith their reputation roubled in the years after their merger in 2010 with continental they are still of that. N aspects within the last couple of years, c. E. O. , oscar w munoz, very well respected and liked by the staff at united, he trying to lead them to care more about their product to do a etter job serving their customers and this is a black called him and he has this a truly horrific incidence nd says the customer was mistreated. He says it should never happen again and he says the Airline Police to ger ask forcibly remove people from an overbooked flight. Involves several aspects we already talked about, ike to resolve overbookings at the gate before you go on the plane, but it was also the manner in which the man was pulled out e plane, of his seat, dragged up the Police Officers and mr. Munez says they will not have Police Remove people who are the plane for this sort of situation, if there were were concern here about terrorism, that would be a different situation. Usa bart jansen with today, next call is eddie from michigan. Doing . How you my comment is to mr. Jansen. Ask you, i want to okay that, passenger, even plane or got on the before the passengers even got the plane, couldnt procedure then versus to when . Assengers get on the plane because i have before many ime where that before i even ot on the plane, one of the attendants at the boarding gate want to do anybody ive up the seating, so this procedure, is this a law that give up your seat . Or what . Guest yes, you are right they efinitely, the airlines generally all the airlines try to resolve overbooking ituations before people get on the plane. They want to do it at the gate, make offers, see how many takers have and go from there. So typically what they would do this an announcement, in case, well, in this case it all happened after people were on the plane. Members apparently walked up late or after the plane was boarded and this is a situation in this case. Typically, yes, they make offer this case, the first offer was 400, plus a hotel room to take what would a next day flight, to at fer was raised least 800 per passenger. Regulation in this area, from the department of transportation, if you are involunta involuntarily denied boarding, hich he was already on the plane tis still called denied boarding, the plane has not yet that you deserve four times the price of your ticket, 1350. At so i checked this morning, the ticket on that flight is about 180, so you would get times that amount, if you denied, but rily many people, as we said, when you are on the plane, you are where you want to go and in this case, the passenger was a doctor, he said he had appointments the next and was reluctant to leave. Here is regulation governing your compensation for it, but many cases, passengers dont take that choice. Host another paper highlights ontracts written by individual airlines when it comes to tickets. Delta,s for contract for 46 for united, 21 for american. The length aside, what does that deal with, passenger rights and could we see changes if Congress Gets involved . I dont think those depends how congress would change the law and perhaps force the airlines to do something they dont do now. Right now those are called contracts of carriage and every ime you buy a ticket, you are agreeing to that contract and i dont know what program they put in when i put united contract into word, i got and the visin irt of 37,000 words in the contract. Agreeing to er is every time they buy a ticket. Ithin that contract, there are dozens of reasons why they might deny boarding aside from overbooking situation. For can deny boarding united on the list is women in their ninth month of pregnancy doctors note. People who appear intoxicated. Abusive. Eing with bare feet. There are conditions you might not realize you are agreeing to buy the ticket. If Congress Approved a law or department of transportation regulation that said you are no longer airlines allowed to deny boarding when a plane is overbooked with passengers already onboard. To find another safety valve, that would be something that the that potentially d impose on airlines, we will see how that shakes out. York, hi. Ald in new caller good morning. Id like to tell you an had, where i at i it to get off a plane and was a flight from chicago to new a problem i had, i was bathroom s to use the was e plane and the plane delayed and it was stuck waiting takeoff for extremely long eriod of time and during the time i got more and more uncomfortable and finally i said stewardess, im going to anyway, the off and airline they were helpful for me, helpful to me, they took the plane back, back to the boarding area to let me off and they took my baggage, they got my baggage wound plane and i uptaking a later flight to new woman at the gate said, you were inconvenienced a people. I said, im really sorry, i have this problem and i had to get the plane. Guest yes, and that gets more the problem i of mentioned earlier with lengthy tarmac delays, regulations stand, they dont want you sitting on the tarmac for longer than three hours, it problem for airlines. Sometimes there is weather, back can other flights that lead to problems beyond this pecific airlines control and trying to get you off the ground. They want their flight in the air, they want to get where they needs to that plane get somewhere else to take passengers and crews scatter in so its nice ns, that that airline pulled back to you, so that you could get off, especially being able to retrieve your luggage, fairly nds like a unusual circumstance, usually wouldnt pull back a flight for one person like that, case of again, the illne illness, sometimes these medical emergencies do require, okay, we have to get back to the gate, called, e might be further delay, leading to problems where the staff can run out of the time of their shift entire flight can be cancelled. It is all a matter of many passengers, security, airlines, crews, airplanes, all coming together that group of people from where they are to where they want to go. Draws a plicated and lot of coordination. Host this is the last call from ohio, george. Caller hello. Good morning to you all. Morning. Caller yes. I dont know, but from my think thisng, i just is an example of some more fake news. And you nderstanding can comment on this, this flight overbooked until united decided to send their employees kentucky. Do you have a comment on that . Guest its true. The initial reports, the initial tatements out of even United Airlines was the flight was overbooked, they were looking or customers to get off in favor of other customers. So in fact, this was for crew members, the flight was sold out, so the plane was full. Trying to get four crew members from ohare to they were seeking paying customers to give up their seats in exchange for workers. I guess i would dispute the notion this is fake news because still think that there is great Public Interest in how the whether you ate, can count on having a seat and to ing flown where you want go when you buy a tick sxet part f what this incident has allowed is this discussion of how these contracts of carriage work, how Airline Policies work, how you can judge through department of Transportation Airlines do a ch better job or worse job and i necessarily ot legislation, not necessarily regulation, so it is not action iny government this case, but there is still tremendous Public Interest in this public conveyance provided by a private corporation operates. Bart jansen with usa today talking about passenger rights and the airline industry, today. Ou for your time guest thank you for having me. Phones, 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. Independents, 2027488002. Washington journal will be right back. Check out cspan classroom website at cspan. 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