Physician removed forcibly from United flight after overbooking--UPDATED

[regnaD kciN]

440. "Terms and conditions matter"...?

Well, then, you obviously need to be familiar with them. Which, in this case, you're not.

United's "Contract of Carriage" covers IDB (involuntarily denied boarding - "bumping&quot passengers in Rule 25. It ONLY applies before passengers have been boarded (in other words, while waiting at the gate). Once a passenger has been granted boarding, Rule 25 no longer applies. The only grounds for "refusal to transport" from that point on are given in Rule 21, and do NOT cover bumping passengers, either due to oversale or need to accommodate deadheading crew. In fact, the specific circumstances that would allow Rule 21 to be invoked were absent in this case. So it's the airline, not the passenger, that's "out of luck" this time -- as I suspect they will be when his attorney is done with them.