United to let passengers on overbooked flights bid on price to give up seats

In response to the notorious dragging of a seated passenger in April, United is set to launch a program that lets passengers on overbooked flights make a bid on how much compensation they will take to give up their seats. The bidding program would be new to United, but a similar program was pioneered among major carriers by Delta several years ago. Delta takes bids from passengers via text and chooses the lowest bid until the carrier has accommodated every passenger. “As part of our commitment to further improve our customers’ travel experience with us, we plan to test an automated system that will offer customers an opportunity to voluntarily bid for a desired compensation amount in exchange for potentially changing travel plans if faced with an overbooked flight,” United said. Testing for the program will begin next month in select markets, but the airline declined to offer more details. The program is one of several changes the carrier is making since David Dao, a passenger on a fully booked United flight in April, was dragged off the plane by airport police when he refused to give up his seat to make room for airline crew members.<br/>